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Your website should support your marketing, not undermine it.

In this episode, I sit down with web designer and SEO strategist, Elizabeth Quintal, to talk about one of the biggest gaps many service providers overlook: the connection between their marketing and their website. We discuss why great content alone isn’t enough, how a confusing website can cost you potential clients, and what business owners need to know about SEO as search continues to evolve through AI.

If you’re spending time creating content, sending people to your website, and wondering why they’re not taking action, this conversation is for you.

 

In this episode we chat about:

• Why your website and marketing need to tell the same story
• The biggest mistakes service providers make on their websites
• How SEO is changing with Google and AI search
• Why your About page matters more than you think
• How storytelling helps build trust on your website

 

Grab your free resource from Elizabeth:

How to Optimize Your Website for AI Search

https://www.eqcreativewebdesigns.com/how-to-optimize-for-ai-search 

 

About the Guest:

Elizabeth is a web designer and SEO strategist who helps purpose-driven business owners build websites that are as powerful as they are beautiful. She began her career in the nonprofit world, launched her first business after becoming a mom, and built her current design studio after moving abroad with her family. With a blend of strategy, creativity, and lived experience, she creates websites that connect, convert, and reflect the heart of the business behind them. 

 

Connect with Elizabeth:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/cheekydays/

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethquintal/

 

As a marketing strategist, one of the things I spend a lot of time doing is helping clients build trust through their marketing. We’re creating content, sharing stories, nurturing relationships, and helping potential clients get to know the person behind the business. But there is one thing I’ve noticed over the years that can completely undermine those efforts: a website that doesn’t support the marketing bringing people there.

Recently on the Simplified Marketing podcast, I sat down with web designer and SEO strategist Elizabeth Quintal to talk about websites, SEO, storytelling, and the role a website plays in the overall customer journey. What started as a conversation about SEO quickly became a much bigger discussion about how websites can either support your marketing or quietly work against it.

 

How Elizabeth Went From Business Owner to Web Designer

 

Before we talked about websites and SEO, I wanted to hear Elizabeth’s story because I always believe there is value in understanding how someone got to where they are today.

Elizabeth shared that when she moved to Madrid with her family in 2017, she was running a product-based business in the United States. For a while she tried to keep the business going from Spain, but eventually realized it wasn’t sustainable. The business wasn’t large enough to outsource the pieces that needed to be outsourced, and managing everything from another country became increasingly difficult. Making the decision to close it was hard, especially because it was a business she had built with a lot of passion and heart behind it.

What happened next wasn’t part of some grand business plan. She had built her own website, designed her husband’s website, and learned a lot through running her own business. People in her network started asking for help with websites and graphics, and word began to spread. One referral led to another. Over time she taught herself coding because she wanted more flexibility in what she could create, and eventually she added SEO to her skill set because she realized that a beautiful website wasn’t enough. Clients needed websites that could actually be found.

That journey became the perfect foundation for our conversation because it highlighted something many business owners overlook. A website isn’t just about design. It’s about visibility, strategy, messaging, and helping the right people find you.

 

When Your Website Stops Matching Your Marketing

 

One of the biggest reasons I wanted Elizabeth on the podcast was because of conversations I’ve been having with clients lately. As a marketing strategist, my job isn’t simply posting content. It’s helping clients build trust, stay visible, and create a marketing ecosystem where everything works together.

Naturally, when we’re creating content, we’re sending people somewhere. Maybe it’s to a lead magnet. Maybe it’s to a service page. Maybe it’s simply to learn more. In most cases, that destination is a website.

The challenge is that many business owners have evolved their businesses while their websites have stayed the same. Their content is speaking to one audience, but their website is speaking to another. Their services have changed, but their website still reflects old offers. Their messaging has become clearer, but their website hasn’t caught up.

Elizabeth explained that this is one of the biggest signs a website is outdated. If your social media, email marketing, and website aren’t communicating the same message, people become confused. And when people become confused, they leave.

That really stood out to me because trust doesn’t stop when someone clicks the link in your bio. In many ways, that’s where trust is tested. If someone has spent weeks following your content and then arrives at a website that feels disconnected from everything you’ve been saying online, the experience feels inconsistent. Your website should feel like a continuation of the conversation, not an entirely different one.

 

The IKEA Test for Better Website Design

 

One of my favorite moments in the episode was when Elizabeth compared a well-designed website to IKEA.

When you walk through IKEA, you’re guided through an experience. There is a path. There is structure. You know where you’re supposed to go next. Whether you’re shopping for a sofa or a lamp, the experience feels intentional.

She compared that to a garage sale where you’re left searching for things on your own. You might find something valuable, but you’re doing all the work. You’re digging through items, trying to figure out what’s available, and hoping you stumble across what you came for.

Many websites unintentionally create that garage sale experience.

Visitors arrive and immediately have to start working. They have to figure out what the business owner does, where services are located, how to get information, and what action they’re supposed to take next. Instead of being guided, they’re left piecing everything together on their own.

As she was sharing that analogy, it reminded me of a recent trip to Lisbon. I walked into a store that looked beautiful from the outside, but once I got inside, it felt overwhelming. There was a little bit of everything everywhere. I didn’t know where to look, so I left.

Right next door was a pottery shop. The owner immediately engaged with visitors, explained the products, and guided the experience. I ended up walking out with multiple gifts because the experience felt simple and intentional.

The lesson applies directly to websites. People don’t want to work hard to find information. They want to understand who you help, what you do, and what step to take next.

 

The Website Mistakes Most Service Providers Make

 

As our conversation continued, Elizabeth shared some of the most common mistakes she sees on service provider websites.

One of the biggest is the lack of clear calls-to-action. She mentioned that many small business websites either don’t have calls-to-action at all or only include them in one location. The problem is that people make decisions at different points in their journey. Someone might be ready to book a call halfway down a page, while someone else may need more information first.

Your website should make it easy for both types of visitors. When someone is ready to take action, they shouldn’t have to hunt around for the button they saw ten minutes ago.

Another mistake she frequently sees is what she referred to as “thin content.” Many business owners want a clean and minimal website, but sometimes they take that too far. A page with only a few sentences might look beautiful, but it doesn’t provide enough information for visitors or search engines to understand what the page is about.

One example she shared was auditing a website where the About page contained roughly one hundred words and a photo. While it looked simple and polished, it wasn’t giving potential clients enough information to connect with the business owner or understand what made them different.

Simple and clear are not the same thing. Your website can be clean without being empty.

 

Why SEO Is More Than a Checklist

 

Eventually our conversation turned toward SEO, which is often one of the most intimidating topics for business owners.

What I appreciated most about Elizabeth’s perspective is that she doesn’t view SEO as a checklist. Instead, she approaches it as a strategy.

Many people think SEO is simply filling in metadata, adding keywords, and checking off a few technical tasks. While those things matter, Elizabeth explained that they’re only one part of the equation. The bigger question is what you actually want to be found for.

Every page on your website should have a purpose. Every page should support a specific topic, service, or search intent. Instead of creating pages simply because every website needs them, you should be thinking about what role each page plays in helping potential clients find you.

One of my favorite examples came when Elizabeth gently called out my own website. At the time, one of my headlines was “Marketing That’s Uniquely You.” I loved it because it felt aligned with my brand. Her response made me laugh because she pointed out that while it sounded great, nobody is searching for that phrase.

That doesn’t mean personality should disappear from your website. It means there needs to be a balance between personality and discoverability. Your website should sound like you while still helping people find you.

 

What AI Search Means for Business Owners

 

One of the reasons SEO has become such a hot topic lately is because search behavior is changing.

While many people still rely on Google, more people are turning to AI tools to find information and recommendations. Elizabeth explained that SEO and AI search are closely connected. The same factors that help search engines understand your website often help AI tools understand your business as well.

What I found interesting was her explanation that AI isn’t just looking at your website. It’s looking at reviews, backlinks, podcast appearances, directories, and other places where your business appears online.

For business owners, that means visibility is becoming bigger than a single platform. Your website still matters, but so does your broader online presence. The businesses that consistently show up across multiple channels are creating more opportunities to be found.

 

Your About Page Isn’t Really About You

 

Toward the end of the conversation, we talked about “About” pages and storytelling, which is a topic that naturally overlaps with the work I do.

Elizabeth shared that one of the most visited pages on a website is often the About page. Yet many business owners immediately make it all about themselves. They lead with their story, their credentials, and their background without first addressing the person reading the page.

Her perspective was that visitors are still asking one important question: “How can you help me?”

That doesn’t mean your story doesn’t matter. It absolutely does. In fact, one of the changes I recently made to my own website was adding more of my personal story. I included details about being a veteran, a military spouse, living in Spain, and my love of coffee and travel because those things help people connect with me as a person.

But the key is balance.

People want to know who you are, but they also want to know how you help. The strongest About pages combine both. They help visitors understand the person behind the business while also making it clear why that person is qualified to help them.

 

Building a Business Around Your Life

 

As we wrapped up the conversation, we moved away from websites and into something that I think resonates with many service providers: building a business that supports your life.

Elizabeth talked about working from home, raising a teenager, and the importance of creating boundaries. We laughed about the reality of entrepreneurship and how easy it can be for work to spill into every part of life if you’re not careful.

At the same time, we also talked about the freedom that comes with owning a business. The ability to work from different places. The ability to travel. The ability to build a schedule that fits your life instead of forcing your life into someone else’s schedule.

For me, it was the perfect way to end the episode because it brought everything full circle. Websites, SEO, content, and marketing all serve a larger purpose. They’re tools that help us build businesses we enjoy running. And ultimately, those businesses should support the life we’re trying to create.

That’s why this conversation wasn’t really about websites or SEO alone. It was about creating a business where every piece works together. When your website supports your marketing, your marketing supports your business, and your business supports your life, everything becomes a little easier to sustain.

 

Need help with your website and/or SEO. Reach out to Elizabeth here.