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!

Listen To The Podcast Here

Watch The Podcast Here

FREE Gift From This Episode!

Courtesy of Laundromat Resource Marketing, we have put together an absolutely FREE tutorial on how to create a mobile-first website for your laundromat! It is a step-by-step video and you can follow along to create a beautiful website to help you make a great first impression with your online customers!

Tools You'll Need:

Download the FREE template here!– Right click on the text and click “Save as” to download the template

Click here for Bluehost Hosting

Today's Sponsor

Laundromat Resource Marketing If you need help building or managing a website for your laundromats, let the experts at Laundromat Resource Marketing help you design and build a custom, professional website for you! As experts in the laundromat industry AND in web design and online marketing, we at Laundromat Resource Marketing are able to provide you with a professional website at an affordable price. We’re always transparent so there are no hidden fees. What we quote you is what you pay. Satisfaction and performance guaranteed! With no contracts to sign and guarantees like that, why not let us take care of your online presence while you focus on welcoming all of your new laundry customers? Click the logo or link above to find out more information. 

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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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