Laundromat Resource Marketing’s C.O.O. drops in on the podcast this week to give you a ton of tips on how to have the best online presence for your business! This episode is full of practical tips to help you improve your website, get found on Google, and convert website visitors into paying customers!
Jon also comes bearing gifts! Stay with until the end to get a free gift that may transform your business, courtesy of Laundromat Resource Marketing!
Jon has been building websites for small businesses, non-profits, and churches for over 8 years and lends you some of his experience to help your business make a great first impression! Customers often experience your laundromat for the first time online. Jon wants to make sure that you’re doing everything you can to make a great first impression!
In this episode we talk about:
- Streamlining your customers’ experience on your website
- Why websites are important for a laundromat
- What the goal of your website should be
- How to rank on page 1 of Google
- Google My Business
- An incredible secret sauce tip!
- A free gift just for you!
And so much more! Don’t miss this one! You might just be leaving money on the table if you do!
Watch The Podcast Here
TODAY'S SPONSORS
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Episode Transcript
what’s up guys it’s jordan with the
laundromat resource
podcast this is show number 32 and i’m
pumped that you’re here today because
today
is a very special day i’m bringing my
brother
john on the show to talk about web
presence your online presence we want to
help you get
more customers through your online
presence a lot of people
experience our businesses for the very
first time
online and so we want to make sure that
you have the
best uh online presence that you
possibly can so we’re giving out
tons of tips and make sure you stay
tuned to
to the end because there’s uh we we made
something special that we want to give
to you
so make sure you stay tuned for that so
uh all right
before we jump into it i wanted to run
through a couple of
quick things number one i wanted to give
a little success tip
something to help you maybe move your
business forward maybe move your
self forward just a little tip and it’s
this
on youtube if you go to youtube.com
laundromat resource we have segments on
the show called secret sauce which is
tips for owners to succeed
and we have pro tips which is tips for
newbies
and we have recommended resources that
the podcast guests recommend and we have
playlists for all of those
short little clips so if you ever want
to go and just run through
all of the secret sauces from the
podcast guests uh go check out that
playlist on youtube
it’s pretty awesome resource i listen to
them
uh periodically also so that’s just a
little success tip
for you and since we’re talking about
podcast guests hey we’re always looking
for more podcast guests
so make sure you check out laundromat
resource dot com
slash podcast guest if you are
interested in coming on the show
uh real quick i wanted to uh just
welcome
jason dodge who joined the forum
introduced himself on the introduction
forums
this past week and uh dude he hit the
ground
running he is giving out all kinds of
awesome awesome
information on the forum there he’s
answering a lot of
posts he’s an author check him out on
the forums
uh he’s got a laundromat book out there
so make sure you go check him out check
his book out
and go interact with him online again
every week
get in there in those forums and meet
each other introduce yourself
go welcome somebody ask a question
answer a question
again that’s just going to be a huge
tool in your tool about in your arsenal
to help you succeed in your business and
in just in life
and it’s nice to just know other owners
so make sure you’re getting to know
people in there
i want to highlight one
question that came up on the forum um
tai
i had a question about financing in the
financing forms he needs some emergency
help
and he needs people to kind of help him
uh think through
and navigate through a tough financing
question that he has so head over to the
financing forums
lot of my resource dot com slash forums
click on the financing form
and go help ty out he really does need
some emergency help financing wise so
ty we’re with you hopefully uh we’ll get
this situated for you
and get you back on track
all right well i don’t want to take too
much more time because i’m super pumped
to have my brother on
and i know that he’s bringing a ton of
cool stuff
for you so get excited
i just wanted to point out that all the
links that we’re talking about today
are going to be at laundromat
resource.com
show 32 laundromat resource.com show 32
so make sure you check that out
all right hey john what’s up my brother
literally
hey thanks for coming on the show man
hey you’re welcome
thanks for having me ah dude was scared
to be on
laundromat resource podcaster
i mean it was probably the pinnacle of
your life i would say
i have officially made it
uh oh dude well hey man i’ve been
looking forward to this for a really
long time
i’m super pumped i cannot wait to
chat about online presence and
websites and stuff and just help all of
us
improve our business that’s why you’re
here get us more customers
for our businesses that is the goal yes
all right well hey before we jump into
some of that stuff
why don’t you tell us a little bit about
who you are and how you got
into this business of
marketing website development that kind
of thing
sure thing um my name is john i’m that
guy
who uh you see on jordan’s t-shirt from
time to time on the podcast
game looks a little bit like this right
here um
but yeah i got into marketing i don’t
know the exact
date but uh probably eight or nine years
ago
um and i got into it by accident or out
of
maybe not by accident but out of
necessity um so i was
a youth pastor at the time and we had
our our church had a an awful website
like not functioning at all
and i’m in charge of all these high
schoolers
and trying to interact with them and i’m
like hey they’re
always online this is like
prime opportunity to engage with you
know we’ll call them
for sake of clarity like my customer at
that point
um my customers are online these kids
are online um
and so i like begged and begged to get a
budget
to revamp the website and do some
branding and things like that
but as it goes often there was not
not a cent for me for any kind of budget
for
website or logos or branding or anything
like that
um so i did what every
great entrepreneur does um and i jumped
on youtube
and i said how the heck do i do this
myself
so i troubleshot and i started creating
websites and
i i started creating uh logos and i
realized hey like i have
i kind of have a propensity for this
like i got a little creative eye
and people are liking what i’m creating
and i kind of started falling in love
with
it um and it it honestly became like
a hobby of mine that i did to relax
i was like man let me go make a new logo
let me go
my brand something you know let me and
and i got into it
kind of that way out of necessity um
fast forward a couple years and i had a
guy
approach me said i don’t
i’ve seen someone he saw i i’ve
essentially mentored his child for maybe
the last four years
um and so he saw all my web work my logo
work i’d
send this kid home all the time with a
new t-shirt with a new brand thing we
made
or something like that um and he owned
his own construction business
and he said hey like i don’t know what i
need you to do but i need you
in my business seed and i was just like
whoa
like sweet like that’s intense i don’t
know what to tell you
um he’s like i need to get online um i
need some logos i need to brand this i
need to do all that
and and i was just very upfront and
honest with him like
i said hey mike like i would love to
help you
you know close with your family um i
love your kids i love your family
i want your business to succeed um but
let me just be honest with you
i figured out how to do this
with youtube um i’m not a professional
um you’re getting what you’re getting uh
like i’ll be honest with you and i’ll
tell you like hey if i don’t know or
if i have to figure stuff out and he
said hey whatever i want you on payroll
and i will pay you to learn how to do
this for me
and i was just like hey sweet like if
you’re sure
let’s do it so uh i worked for him for
about a year and
he essentially paid me to take a bunch
of courses and troubleshoot and and
really refine
my knowledge of websites and
you know seo and and running ads
um and creating logos and i’ve gotten
clients from him
he referred me to people too from there
and kind of just built a little
business out of it um and i’m
super stoked and happy to report um
that i actually figured out how to do it
this year the year 2020 the year of
chaos
um mike and i landed our first
huge deal three quarters of a million
dollar deal
based on all this work that we had been
doing together to
make uh present his company um with
with excellence and uh and it took some
time you know like
like marketing does and web development
does it took time
to get traction and but when the time
was right and people were looking for
that professional
um edge um we had the foundation laid
down
and we got our first three quarter of a
million dollar contract and
and a couple weeks later we are in
negotiations for another one
same amount of same ish ballpark amount
of pr money so
amazing but yeah i’m grateful for how i
got to learn
yeah man that’s an awesome story and i
pretty much expect you to do
that and more for me so what’s coming
the bar’s been set man don’t let me down
honey tsunami is
uh all right well in the meantime let’s
uh let’s give a bunch of stuff away for
free
today on this podcast let’s talk web
presence
uh websites and one of the reasons i
really wanted to have you on is because
i think that this is a topic that
is uh i mean i just think that
as an industry we’re getting better but
it’s something that we really lack in if
you go around and start googling
laundromats and looking at their
websites
you know some of us have embarrassing
websites and some
some have great websites and so i wanted
to try to help
out everybody and maybe throw some tips
their way and uh you know just just kind
of pack it out and help people
you know improve their web presence
because for a lot of laundromats
and businesses in general uh their
website
is the customer’s first experience with
them as a business right and so that
makes it a very very important
tool and a very very important uh
presence
to have uh so it’s important to to do it
well
yeah absolutely yeah so okay well let’s
talk
uh let’s start with just talking about
websites uh
tell me do laundromats need a website or
can you get away without a website or
how necessary is this
well yeah yes
uh well i think that is uh
i think i think like most things it’s a
complicated question um
do you have to have a website to have a
successful laundromat
maybe not but are you giving yourself
every
advantage to gain trusted loyal
customers
um by not having a website i think
you’re missing out on a huge
potential market um and just for a quick
a quick example of that um is
just think about moving into a new
neighborhood and you don’t have
a washing machine and dryer in your
house what’s the first thing you’re
gonna do
you’re not when you need to do laundry
you’re not going to go drive around town
looking for a laundromat
you’re going to pull out your phone and
you’re going to say hey hey siri
because people are too lazy to type
these days
mm-hmm and that’s the key that that’s
actually the key point people
want the easiest possible solution
to answers and they’ll say hey siri what
where’s the nearest laundromat and
google will pop up and i’ll say bam bam
bam bam
here are the laundromats in your
neighborhood
and if you
are not dialed in with your online
presence guess what you’re gonna be on
page four
and i don’t know about you guys but for
me if i’m googling for an answer
i rarely get past the first page and
when i do
i am rarely past the second page
because the answers are there and
they’re presented and
and our world is geared
to find our information off of google so
if you’re a laundromat
and um your web presence is not dialed
in you’re just
you’re just inviting a disadvantage to
your business is the way i see it
um because your chances are your your
competition
um is going to get that dialed in and
customers that could be going to your
laundromat
will find there probably basic
website and they’ll go there
yeah i think that’s a huge huge point
and
i mean you make such a great point about
being on the first page of google too
because it
you know like you said especially when
you’re looking for a laundry mat you’re
going to find
you know 10 laundromats on that first
page why are you going to pass the 10
first laundromats on the page to get to
page 2 or page 3
so you know having uh having a
your laundromat be on the first page of
google is huge
um but the good news is is that
it’s not all that hard to do to get on
the first page it might take a little
bit of time but it’s not all that hard
to do
and part of the reason for that is
because our industry is so bad
at having a good solid online presence
and a web presence
yeah especially since i’ve been since
we’ve been working together with
laundromat resource slash get online
[Music]
and i’ve been doing laundry websites for
people
i have noticed that the the beauty
the beauty of this industry is
so many other industries are so far
ahead
in getting online and getting that
online presence
you know like just go ahead and try to
google a clothing store
near you a mom and pop shop will not be
anywhere near the top it’s going to be
paid ads for target walmart everything
in the mall
everything before they get to you but
it’s not that way in the laundromat
industry so it really takes
a lot less effort at the moment i don’t
know if that’s forever
but it takes a lot less effort right now
to rank um
on the front page of google um and
that’s amazing because the internet is
saturated
on most markets right now you know
yeah i mean i think that’s a huge point
uh
and so well let’s talk about
what what well first i want to go back
to
um i mean you mentioned
the ease of use for customers you know
to find so you said
you know you’re kind of using it in the
context of you know ease of finding you
on google but i think also just the ease
of use and kind of clarity of your
website when
people do click on it if they’re having
trouble finding
you know how to get directions to your
laundromat or what size your machines
you have or what services you offer
you know they might skip on to the next
one right so
what what about a website can help
make the customer experience a little
easier simpler
cleaner better yeah i think
um when when making a website
um and i i kind of
started thinking about the internet this
way in the last year so
um your goal is is to essentially
answer the questions your customers are
going to be asking
you know the customers are going to be
asking um
what are the laundromats near me so we
need to be clear
on where your laundromat is how to get
there how to contact you
and then they’re going to want to know
what is what does your laundromat have
to offer
um so like you said like machine
sizes um pricing um
vending um things to do near your
laundromat
while they’re waiting for their laundry
to be done um
and and so on and so forth um so i think
it’s
we we go into these builds really just
thinking what questions do we need to
answer
um so like like jordan like say you’re
looking for a laundromat what question
are you gonna be
looking to answer uh probably laundromat
near me
is what i’m gonna google um or
or best laundromat near me or best
laundromat
in whatever city i’m looking for
best best laundromat in la which is mine
by the way
i’m just kidding um but uh
yeah something like that is what i’m
good lux laundry is off my period
hey that’s ross dodds uh laundromat we
we built his website it’s awesome uh
stiff competition stiff competition
can’t compete with ross
uh yeah so that’s what i’m searching for
um okay well i mean i love that i think
i loved what you said like framing the
question of what is your customer going
to be asking and how can you use your
website
to answer that question and that’s what
google is really all about now
right it used to be you had to you know
you didn’t want to type in full
questions into google because it wasn’t
sophisticated enough to answer those
questions but now people are
typing or like you said speaking uh full
questions to google to siri to these
search engines
and and they’re sophisticated enough to
know what you’re asking and to give you
what it thinks is the best answer
to that question and so you want to use
your website
to give the best answer to the questions
your customers are
asking right yeah and i really think
about website building
and it’s essentially how do we complete
the internet
the laundromat industry near you um
because that’s what we’re that’s what
we’re seeking to do
and as you do that on our website that’s
also what’s going to
shoot you up the rankings because people
are going to be asking the specific
questions
and you are going to be giving them
because
the precise answers and google
is crazy smart or any search engines
algorithms are so intense these days
that they’re gonna be like oh man these
guys have that dialed in
boom this is the best laundromat
in your area because look at all this
look at what all they got going on
and then what does that do that that
that gives you that much more exposure
to that much
that much more i don’t know i’m losing
my training yeah
man that much more people that’s not the
right way to say that
well the traffic right the traffic
that’s coming to your website
all your potential customers right and
so
to i mean when you when you have a
website when you’re building a website
you have to have
two things in mind number one you have
to be able to get in front of customers
and that’s called
search engine optimization seo maybe
you’ve heard that before
um so that’s that’s just the process of
getting you
you in front of potential customers and
getting them to click on your website
once they’re on your website the second
thing that you’re doing
is you need to get convert them from
your website
to your brick and mortar laundromat
right
um or to whatever service you have you
have pick up and delivery
or drop off whatever once they’re on
your site
that’s where you need to focus on
converting those
uh looky loos into paying customers
right and those are two different things
all right i was thinking looky loos also
where are you
i don’t know if i’ve ever said that word
i don’t know that i have either
it’s a brother connection i love that i
don’t know if i said that though this is
this is my brother dude and this one i’m
so pumped that you’re on
oh gosh so excited
uh yeah so question i’ll be honest with
you
what’s that i don’t even remember if i
answered your specific question
uh that’s right i just started rambling
and you know
we love you guys thanks for watching
like normal okay
well okay so let’s talk a little bit
about
how how to kind of creep up on google on
the search engine
page it’s called a serp search engine
results page
serp how do you creep up to that front
page
and you know obviously the higher up you
are on that front page the better so how
do you how do you creep up what are some
things that we can do
um for that yeah i think the
uh so primarily there’s there are so
many search engines
but primarily when i build websites i’m
focusing
mostly on google that is by far the
largest and most widely used search
engine
so i focus there and google offers
the probably easiest most convenient way
to up your rankings um and i recommend
this to
i recommend this to any brick and mortar
store
that um that i ever have contact with
and and it’s simply this it’s called
google my business
if you want to be higher ranking on
google
you log into google my business and you
claim
your business it has it basically has
all the businesses that pop up on google
maps um there
and and you can find your laundromat
and you say hey i own this and when you
say
you own this they’ll give you control
over that on the map
and so you can dial it in with your
your location your business hours uh
your amenities
um and uh i’m missing it what’s the
other thing
i’m missing it go brain fog your website
address yes yes your your uh
your web address and uh and so
and and you could upload photos of your
laundromat
and so people can get a really good idea
off of that when uh uh what you have to
offer
and uh and if you google laundromats
near me
what’s gonna pop up is the map and in
order to get on that map
and to rank high on that map you need to
claim your business on google my
business
um and you need to update it with all
your relevant information
like like especially now say like your
hours change
because of covid or something like that
like it responds to you
being active on that page um and so i
encourage
business owners go claim that go fill in
all the relevant information
plug in your website um
and upload photos upload photos of
you can upload photos of your machines
you can upload photos of your
excuse me of your vending you can upload
photos of like your storefront if you
have a storefront um
and your staff yeah your staff
and really give people a great idea
of what you have to offer and so that
what people will typically do
is the map pops up first on google
and they’ll be like okay oh that one has
pictures
and they’ll click on that one um or
it’ll
pop up and and it’ll say oh that one has
an actual website
um and that’s what i’ve noticed people
look at a lot more is like
oh they have a website that means
they’re on top of things and they
probably have attention to detail
and um they’re on google there’s reviews
on google my business too um and you can
uh
you know tell your customers like who
like become
like friends and family at laundromats i
feel like you can say hey like if you
really want to help me out
leave me a review and tell people how
much you love this place if you really
do you know
um that word of caution that is a
double-edged sword though
[Music]
we we know yourself up for reviews
you kind of have to up all your customer
service and you’re still
you’re still going to get people who
just want to be angry on the internet
and that’s okay but that when it comes
to search engine optimization or seo
that is probably the most practical and
easy
thing you can do as a laundromat owner
to
boost your rankings to uh to grow your
exposure
and to look more professional that’s
what i would say
yeah i mean that yeah that’s huge and
google my business is huge you can
download an app for android or
apple for your phone and you can manage
it all from there and
what you said about keeping it up to
date is key
because google does like to see you
active on there keeping your hours up to
date holiday hours cove it out
all that stuff and i would say too
you know upload pictures regularly
because google loves that people love
that
i have i mean by far
the most exposure my laundromats get is
from
pictures on my google my business and
and i will also say that it’s not just
the pictures
that i upload because customers who
review
your store can upload pictures and those
show up there too
right so i believe
there’s administrative control over that
if there’s questionable photos right
i mean it’s tough i don’t know how much
control they give you
not a lot they don’t give you a lot
because they don’t want you censoring
out
bad reviews bad reviews bad stuff
you know i’ve had you know picture
pictures of uh you know dryer sheets on
the ground in the corner that somebody
took and posted and i’m like whoa
dude come on yeah but
you know you’re gonna get that stuff but
you know if
if you’re uploading your pictures
regularly those are gonna start showing
up
too and you know it’s just google’s
gonna like that
so keep all your info up to date keep
you know
pictures come in pictures of happy
customers pictures of happy employees
pictures of your machines pictures of
your services
your signage all that stuff love that
yeah and even if you have
a website i honestly am not sure if it’s
possible to outrank google maps
and google my business i really think
that’s the first thing that pops up
regardless
so even if you don’t have a website or
aren’t planning on getting a website
you do yourself a favor and take
advantage
of that opportunity to put yourself in
front of more and more customers
i would say yeah and we should mention
it’s all free
so if you haven’t done it yet yeah
so they also google also offers
something
and i think it’s called marketing kit um
where they can they’ll give you some
tools and some
like printable signs and things that you
can like direct your customers
to your google my business page kind of
encourage them to review
and things like that too if you’re
interested in that sort of thing
i believe it’s called marketing kit uh
you could probably google
google marketing kit and i bet it pop up
man they’re so clever look at that how
they’re all searching they’re answering
your questions and that’s how you oh
seo yeah that’s huge and and i will say
too that um
a lot of people are gonna search for a
laundromat near them
in the actual maps app google maps or
apple maps
and so having your uh your google my
business
up to date is going to make you pop up
on those maps which is where a lot of
people are going to find you and just
get directions straight from the map app
um so you got to do it man if you don’t
have a google my business
for your laundromat you got to do it
immediately a must
it is not that difficult and it has huge
upside to it and and very
little downside unless you just like
punch people at your laundromat and they
put a bunch of negative reviews like
which some i understand that’s necessary
sometimes
sometimes you just gotta punch somebody
i don’t know but still
it is the way to go um if you want to do
the bear
punching somebody or google my business
which one is the way to go
yes yeah okay i’m just kidding don’t
punch
anybody we don’t advocate that don’t do
it
unless you deserve it
uh yeah so that’s a hundred percent
what you you need to do today
if you haven’t done that you after this
after
what is after this podcast i’m on zoom
so i thought it was a zoom call
after this podcast you need to go do
that you take 30 minutes
and get it dialed in and the next step
from there
is get yourself online in a form of a
website
because as other as other businesses
have google my businesses
also the next way to
elevate what you’re doing above theirs
is to have a quality web presence
because there’ll be a there’ll be a
button right on your google my business
for website
then click right to it yeah absolutely
and
you know similar with the google my
business keep your website up to date
you know as google
is it’s called crawling your website
which is
i mean that’s kind of creepy dude google
google’s a creeper
uh but as google is crawling your
website basically reading what’s on each
page of your website they’re looking for
certain things particular
particularly for brick and mortar
businesses like a laundromat
you know they want to see an address on
there they want to see an about us
on there they want to see a contact page
on there they want to see a phone number
on there they want to see images on
there
and and by seeing those things it’s
going to bump you up
you know in the search rankings by
having those things and having them
updated
having your hours online um all that
you know just basic stuff online
agreed yeah okay well the other thing
too i mean we see this all the time
uh when we’re looking at you know
laundromat websites or when somebody
you know comes and wants to upgrade
their website is there just so many
dated websites how i mean
this is kind of a softball question but
how important is it to have
an updated website
it’s very important jordan
can you tell me a little bit more about
that why might it be important
again uh well multiple reasons you know
a lot of people with
outdated websites excuse me super ahead
of the game when they built those
websites
um and now google’s gonna see those
websites
and as as they crawl them and they
continue to check them
they’re gonna be like man these people
just made this
and they left it and they’re not a part
of it anymore
they’re not updating their and and all
that does is trickle you down and down
and down and down on these searches
um because you’re not you’re not
presenting um
updated relevant information and you
know as
technology changes um websites
run slower and slower with time and
one of the big metrics google uses in
ranking
is how efficient is your website and
loading up
is it fast is it slow and a lot of these
old sites
um are kind of like dinosaurs and they
take a while to load
and once they load they’re not visually
stimulating
um they’re not they’re not keeping
people
you know on like google also can
recognize
um how long people spend on pages
so say you click on this website and
it’s terrible and you spend four seconds
on it and you click off of it
google’s gonna be like oh okay so that
website’s not
answering or isn’t what they’re looking
for when they’re asking this question
um and so all of that just continues to
bury you
um in the in the algorithm and so
just i guess from a technical standpoint
that’s a huge reason to keep your
website updated
and from a consumer standpoint just
think of websites you’ve been on
and you can you can absolutely tell when
you’re on a website that’s not very
functional
um that’s not uh easy and user friendly
like i said before
with technology people want things
easier and
easier and the more they have to work
for it
you know it’s a page with like 10 links
on it that just says words
and things people aren’t going to want
to be on it
because they can get the information
faster at the next website probably
and so i think it’s incredibly important
to keep your
website updated for kind of both of
those reasons there’s a technical reason
because you want to be able to be found
engines that was intense noise what was
that
sorry i i accidentally punched the desk
sorry about that
it was like one of those uh timbales or
something like the orchestral drums
[Music]
uh yeah so there’s a technical reason of
wanting to be discoverable
on google and google wanting to present
people who are using their services with
the absolute
best possible solution to what they’re
looking for
and then there’s just that consumer
thing people expect
excellence essentially these days you
know
just just google any major brand and
look at that is what people are
expecting
kind of when they look at a website um
and if they don’t see that
a lot of times they just bounce out
because odds are
competition has something better and if
they do then i’m gonna assume
might not even be true but i’m going to
assume their laundromats nicer
now it might be a way worse laundromat
terrible but if they’ve presented
themselves nice online
they’re going to get customers you know
i mean they might not stick and last for
a while they’ll go there and
you know they’re like oh
like man they had a good web designer
i need to plug them up with my uh
contractor maybe
yeah a sweet
website but your store is terrible let
me know
i got a great contractor for you
oh man he’s hustling today i love it um
yeah i think
i think those are both those are the
reasons i was looking for
you know for you to say is you know
there’s technical reasons and there’s
also customer
related reasons um you know and and
sticking with that kind of customer
ease of use kind of thing one thing that
you know i
i just a tip i just thought of is hey
ask yourself the question what do i want
a customer who’s coming to my website to
do
and make that very very clear early
on in your on your home page of your
website
you know so if it’s you know maybe you
have a pickup and delivery service and
you want people to order pick up a
delivery
put a button right towards the top that
said says
you know order you know place a pickup
and delivery order now or
or something like that or if you just
want people to get directions
to your laundromat put a button right
there towards the top that just says get
directions
and have them click that and have that
take them to
you know google map that will give them
directions from where they’re at to your
laundromat
right now right um so ask yourself what
do you want them to do
and make it super clear on there
what it is you want them to do because
if if you’re not clear
they’re not going to be clear so
right yeah and a lot of times as
business owners
we we know we need a website
but we don’t why because everyone’s
saying i need to get a web like us right
now we’re telling you you need to get a
website you need to get a website
um and a website for website’s sake
is not always very beneficial so you
know you kind of have to do the hard
work
of figuring out like okay i need a
website
why why do i need a website and like
jordan said what
what do i want people to do or what am i
trying to
get customers to do via my website um
and then
like the the beauty of websites and the
internet is
we can you can tailor a website
specifically to that
to exactly like to exacting
specifications of what you’re trying to
accomplish
and it’s beautiful the hard part is just
figuring out how you want to direct them
um once you have them viewing your pages
yeah huge huge huge huge
so all right i i mean i love
you know i love all of this i love
building websites and i love
helping people have awesome web presence
um and
i think you’re great at it so that’s why
i had you on uh
we have a little section on the podcast
that i want you to participate in
it’s called secret sauce listen up it’s
the secret sauce
uh you may have heard of it because you
are the voice
of the secret sauce uh
which yeah yeah exactly uh the voice of
it so um
but you know normally i’m asking other
owners
you know what something that they’re
doing that’s working that
other owners can you know implement but
can you give us like a a tip or two of
you know for those of us who have a
website for our laundromat
already what’s one or two things maybe
that we can do
to really just up our game
and maybe bump us up a little bit on the
on the search engine page
or just have a better customer
experience
give me some give me some some secret
sauce
secret sauce um
yeah um so with my
well i mean there’s so many variables i
guess
and it really depends um but i guess
in in general your secret sauce for
my secret sauce for
you told me a good one right before we
started all right
did i say i forgot it like a super good
one
give me a clue what was it all right
first word
no i’m just kidding sounds like no just
kidding uh well
we were talking about um who’s using
you know our websites and you were
saying how the most people
who are gonna be searching our
businesses are are doing it on their
phone
i remember that now okay we didn’t talk
about anything
i’m talking about uh i’m losing it i’m
tracking with you now yes that is uh
that’s i think that’s one of those
things that
i don’t think is a secret sauce because
it’s like
kind of ingrained that that’s what you
have to do but i think that’s why it’s a
secret sauce
because it’s not obvious to everyone so
the secret sauce if you have a website
is simply this you might have heard
um that you need to make your website
mobile friendly
you need to make it so that when people
search for you like we talked about
this whole times you know we used to
have to go and
go on map quests to figure out how to
get places right so we’d be
we’d be on our computer uh typing in
how do i where is a laundromat and pop
up make directions to launch rant and
you print it
and then you like drive with it like
reading it and it’s
totally dangerous but now people just
use their phone
um and and so there has been a standard
there had been a standard for a while
like okay you have a great website you
need to make it
um mobile friend yeah responsive right
this would be responsive it needs to
look
look decent on your phone um but that
over the years has shifted
um to the the most important thing
you need to do with your website is to
design it mobile first and that means
you design it
to look spectacular and to respond
spectacularly
uh mobily because that is what people
are doing that’s how they are googling
and the desktop version or the computer
version of
your website is completely secondary and
now that doesn’t mean you make it
terrible looking on the desktop you can
make it look fantastic in both
but i think it needs to be intentionally
designed
mobily first um for sure that is the
if you can if if you need to make a
change with your existing website that
is a change you need to make you haven’t
done it
for sure yeah i mean that’s huge secret
sauce
my genius you are a genius
yeah well but i mean i that’s that’s a
huge secret to us because
i think that shift from you know
primarily designing for desktop to
primarily designing for
mobile is a gigantic shift and
a lot of even a lot of companies that
are building websites right now still
aren’t
doing that even which is pretty
pretty crazy but especially
for a brick and mortar store that’s not
selling things
online uh like a laundromat
you really gotta design it mobile first
because the majority of people
will find you on their phone um either
through their map
app or and or through you know
searching on google for a laundromat
near them
on their phone while they’re in the car
or while they’re getting in the car with
a bunch of laundry in the back
right right so they got to experience
again this is this is their first
experience with you for a lot of these
customers so
you want to make that the best
experience possible and the best way to
do that is to design it mobile
first yeah and you know a lot of the um
a lot of the uh what are the the
companies that kind of uh
will market basically the internet knows
you own a laundromat
uh and they know you’re an entrepreneur
and so they’re probably been marketing
you
these plug-and-play websites designs
like build your own website plug and
play
and that’s fine those those work just
fine and you can make them great
a lot of times what those do is you
build it on your desktop
and then it will automatically make a
mobile version
of that desktop but it typically will
prioritize what you’ve built on the
computer
and so what you what you get mobily
will will look nice like color schemes
stuff will look nice
but a lot of the formatting gets kind of
crazy some of the buttons get kind of
weird and don’t work right or look right
and and that’s just because they’re
they’re
taking a desktop website and just sort
of smashing it into a mold
of a mobile website and so what we
really need to do
is is do the exact opposite we need to
get a mobile website
and we need to allow it we allow these
programs to expand it into a desktop
because the mobile is where the people
are everybody has a phone
pretty much and it’s with them at all
times yeah
always it’s always like just
here’s mine it’s always just like this
yeah you know exactly talking to them
and they’ll be like what oh never mind
it has to be mobile first yes you are
correct
yeah well and uh so i mean if you’re if
you’re planning on
you know building your own website or
um or updating your own website or going
with an obviously
inferior company to build your website
bigger than ours
no just kidding uh but just just make
sure that that website is being designed
mobile first uh okay cool
awesome secret sauce i mean i think
there’s a ton of
secret sauces that we could throw in
there i’ll just throw one real quick in
there
a lot of a lot of the hang-ups for a lot
of people is actually
in designing graphics or designing
uh you know um just like
uh like images for their website and
stuff
if you haven’t used it before canva
c-a-n-v-a
i’ll link to it in the show notes or in
the description below
uh but yeah what’s that did they pay you
for that
they didn’t pay me for that they should
though but it’s free
it’s free yeah edit it never mind uh no
but it’s free and uh it’s awesome it’s
powerful and there’s they have a ton of
templates so you can grab a template
change the color scheme change the you
know the background image
change the you know the
type whatever and and kind of make it
your own and use it for your website and
also for your social media which we
don’t not even touching
today but that’s another you know
another huge way that you can have a
great online presence
so okay we have another section we like
to call
pro tips
and pro tips is more for somebody who
well
in this context is going to be somebody
who maybe doesn’t have a website yet
or they have a website that needs to be
upgraded needs to be
redone you a you got a tip for
these guys do i have a tip for people
who need a website or need an updated
website
yeah yeah sure
well dude i mean now would be a great
time to drop
the uh little resource we created for
them
oh yeah yeah i’m so bad at these yeah
yeah you are terrible at this
i’m glad i don’t have to like there’s
not like a boxes of
people watching right now that i can see
it’ll be humiliating
yeah all right well tell them the pro
tip come on the pro tip
um yes so we are
taking it upon ourselves to
help you succeed essentially as what we
want to do that is why we exist that’s
why laundromat resource exists
that is why our marketing branch exists
and
uh we are we are happy to report that we
are
going to soon when when is this
happening now dude
it’s now it’s now it’s right now it’s
there
it’s that right now if you go
to yeah go ahead
no go you know what go to laundromat
resource dot com
slash show 32 for this
okay do that
what’s there tell them man come on spit
it out i’ve never seen that page in my
life
spit it out dude oh it’s the suspense
it’s building
okay i’m just gonna tell them here in a
second spit it out
uh we are we have made a course
a course for you that is how to build a
website
um for free
right it’s free right i think it’s free
bro we’re charging no i’m just kidding
it’s totally free
and by the end of it it’s actually uh uh
by the end of it you can follow along
with it and you’ll have a completed
nice looking mobile first website
that you can do uh on your own we’ll
just walk you through
exactly what to do how to do it and it
will be
easy peasy lemon squeezy were you
thinking that
nope oh i was never thinking that okay
but yeah it’s it’s step by step
um step by step remember
day by day yeah okay step by step
yourself um because if that’s what you
want to do
we want to help you do it and we want to
help you succeed at that
absolutely and and you can do i mean my
my story
proves that it can be done if you don’t
know what you’re doing
that’s how i learned um how to coop all
this stuff
is i youtubed how do i do this and then
how do i do this and then how do i do
this
and what we’ve done is we’ve compiled
all of those
millions of youtube videos that we had
to go through
into something much shorter and much
more succinct
to help you go from having no website to
having a website
or from having a hideous website that
doesn’t work
to having a functional mobile first
website that looks
beautiful yeah awesome
go go check that out uh again it’s free
we’re set out again
laundromat resource dot com slash show
32 yeah that’s where
that’s where the all the links from
today’s episode will be so make sure you
check that out
uh dude killer killer pro tip that
once you finally spit it out i’m telling
you we can have this all scripted out
and then you ask me questions like i’ve
never heard
in my life yeah
behind the computer um where i have
plenty of time
plenty of notes written all this written
out and i just create beautiful things
none of this this is my nightmare
all right well here’s what’s that i said
but i’m doing it for you laundromat
resources do your people
have a name no should make one laundry
masters
oh laundry mask yep laundry masters
work on a graphic i love that
we’ll make them all shirts all you guys
you get a shirt and you get a shirt
we can do that this is what happens when
marketing guys
get together uh speaking of which we
must be pretty terrible at this if
we build websites for people but we just
made a video
to tell people how to do it for
themselves for free horrible
we’re givers givers we are givers we’re
givers
and or terrible business people we’re
both
both yeah so much incredible free
laundromat value already at laundromat
resource.com
so we figured we would go the extra mile
and we would give you even more value
and we would take money out of our
pockets and place it back into yours
and it’s not quarters it’s a dollar
bills not even quarters
uh oh man all right enough of that
uh hey do you we i mean we have a
section called
recommended resources do you have
any resources you might recommend for
people
uh you know either web or online
presence
related oh man did we talk about this
already
yeah we of course we did dang it we
think we are
so many resources what
businessmarketingresource.com for
instance
yes incredible resource will be
will be
uh all right well i mean there’s a we
were talking about like a youtube
channel right
what was that guy’s name what is his
name
tyler steve steve and tyler
no that guy has a huge house it’s
amazing
he owns tyler.com yeah this guy so check
out tyler.com
i think it’s tyler moore let me check
real quick all right tyler moore but he
owns tyler dude the guy’s got to be a
big deal if he owns tyler.com
that’s a big deal but anyways he’s got
some good resources on how to build
websites and
uh so if that’s something that you’re
interested in doing on your own
uh make sure you do that we already
talked about canva as a way to create
um you know graphics and
yeah that make sure oh dude best
resource ever
our little you know tutorial course on
how to make your own website
dude you got to do that of course
um we use uh we didn’t really talk about
this but we use
i was just huh i was just thinking of
this go ahead
oh we use bluehost to host our websites
and and
and wordpress is the platform that we
use there’s a lot of different
you know there’s like wix and
other squarespace and you know other
other things that you can use too the
reason we use wordpress is
one it tends to be a little bit more
search engine friendly and two you have
a lot more flexibility
um and oh dude yep
you know what i’m talking about sp you
say it though i might be wrong
well you say what you got and then i’ll
say what i got oh man
i was gonna say it probably could go
under pro tips for people who
don’t have websites and they’re looking
to build a website
and are going to kind of go through our
course um to build a website
um and that is what platforms you use to
build your website like we’re kind of
talking about right now
um the the more the ones that are more
marketed to you directly are probably
going to be
wix and squarespace and they market that
as being
completely user friendly and easy to use
easy to learn easy to maintain uh which
they are
you know which they absolutely are um
but we don’t use that
and and we don’t use that for multiple
reasons
um but what we use jordan already said
we use wordpress
um and that is the
[Music]
it’s the premier website building
program
in the world um i can’t remember the
percentages but some
gigantic percentage of the internet is
made
in wordpress um it is a it’s an open
source
program so people are constantly adding
value
and adding um just new things to it
um and they’re called plug-ins and
there is a plug-in that essentially
makes
um wordpress which is the by far the
most powerful website builder there is
um in my opinion i guess maybe i should
have to research that
um um but with that power comes
complexity
um and you might look at it and be like
dude i don’t know how to code
i don’t know what any of this stuff mean
i’m just trying to make the words
white and i have to write all this code
to make them white um
because professionals can be very
precise with that program but there is a
plug-in called elementor
that essentially takes the power of
wordpress
and places it into the user-friendliness
of the these other plug and play kind of
website builders
so that you instead of having to write
all this code just to change the colors
of your fonts
or to add a picture you you click on it
and you drag the picture and you drop it
in where you want it or
you click on like i don’t even know what
i want my website to look like
you click on a button here says
templates and it’ll drop in a whole
website for you
and you can you can customize it
with your own images your own words and
and just click
and and you do that and it makes it
makes
the most powerful i think again i’m
saying it it makes this super powerful
programming complex program simple and
user friendly for those
of you who want to build your own
website and and the i think the best
part and most beneficial part of that
using it is
say you got your website to a place
where you can get it
and you want more and you want
professional help
at some point if you’re on wordpress and
you seek that professional help
they can do absolutely anything
and everything you want because you’re
on this professional platform
um and that and that just gives you
you’re just setting yourself up with the
ability to
uh expand to as to infinity
maybe and beyond yeah elementor plugin
awesome super powerful super user
friendly
definitely use that if you’re building
your own website cool
well dude this has been awesome
everything i
thought it would be having you on and
more it’s been
amazing but seriously i mean you had a
ton of awesome things to say
hopefully helping all of us improve our
web
presence thanks for doing that dude
seriously you’re kind of
uh my personal website guru
and that of some of the other listeners
and or podcast guests we’ve done some
websites for some podcast guests too so
uh
yeah dude you are incredible thank you
for coming on and sharing so much
awesome stuff got one more question for
you
if people have a website question for
you
yes how can they get hold of you
to ask you that question you got an
email address can it yes
i have an email address and it is john
j o n at laundromat resource.com
that is currently the best place to get
a hold of me
um and i am i am happy to uh help in any
way i can
um you know like like jordan uh we kind
of have that
entrepreneurial spirit and uh
we know the struggle and and what we’re
trying to do is
gather us all together and you know
what is the what is there’s a saying
there’s a saying insert saying here
something about ships lifting i don’t
know
oh yeah rising tide lifts all ships or
something like that
yeah we’re trying to organize the tide
to lift this all up and elevate
everything
i don’t know if it works uh but
basically it plays it plays you saw
what’s best for you
because we we live your struggle too um
and the more of us that are together and
on the same page and pulling in the same
direction
uh the the better better life can be for
all of us
essentially right right uh
and one more thing i mean so if
if somebody doesn’t want to build their
own website maybe they want
the laundromat website guru
john barry to build their website for
them what’s
where can they go and see more
information
about that good question where would you
go
i’d go to lawnmetresource.com get online
there you’ll find uh how much the our
pricing’s on there
and you know and more more information
for you so go check that out london
resource.com get online
and find out more information about that
john it’s been a pleasure
my brother always a pleasure thank you
for having me yeah thanks for coming on
we’ll have you back on again to talk
more
about some of these other things maybe
some email marketing maybe some social
media stuff
maybe some advertising i don’t know dude
we might just get crazy
and if if you’re watching this video and
there is the ability
to leave a comment or ask a question
like
please do um and if i don’t see it
jordan will let me know and we’ll try to
interact with you
um there even if we can for sure sweet
sweet man all right thanks for coming on
again dude love you bro
love you too man all right well i hope
that you
enjoyed that you might have had to speed
it up because we’re both slow talkers
there but i hope that you really enjoyed
that and i hope you got some good
information out of that too because
again
online our online presence is the first
experience a lot of people will have
with our business so make sure it’s a
good one make sure you have a solid
website
make sure that it is mobile first
make sure that you’re on google my
business
all that information is filled out
you’re up to date uh
doing these things will help your
business grow
so make sure you’re doing those i
encourage you as always
take one thing and put it into practice
maybe it’s something to do to update
your website
maybe it’s updating your google my
business account whatever it might be
pick one thing my one big takeaway is
uh when john was saying hey the goal of
your website
is to answer the questions that your
customers are asking
so i want to sit down and think through
what are the
what are the questions that my customers
are asking and how can i best
use my website to answer those questions
so that i show up on that first page of
google and get
organic free business from it so that’s
my big takeaway hopefully you have a big
takeaway too
and i will see you again next week with
another awesome episode of the
laundromat resource podcast
until then
[Music]
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