Want to create a REMARKABLE customer experience before, during & after the purchase?
The audience-driven copywriter turned customer experience strategist for online business owners like you ready to attract, delight and retain your dream customers.
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In this episode, we’re answering a common (and slightly painful) question:
“Why isn’t my beautiful website converting?”
I chat with Showit web designer and marketing strategist Madelyn Furlong to explore why a stunning design isn’t enough, and what you can do to make your website start pulling its weight.
Whether you’re in the middle of a new website launch, a website refresh, or just wondering why your site visitors aren’t turning into clients, this conversation is packed with practical fixes and real-world examples to help you get results.
The Real Job of Your Website – Why your website is more than a digital business card and how it fits into your broader customer journey.
The “Pretty But Pointless” Trap – How good-looking websites often fail without the right strategy and messaging to back them up.
Top Red Flags That Kill Conversions – From vague headlines to confusing navigation and too many call-to-actions, here’s what to audit first.
3 Low-Lift, High-Impact Tweaks – Quick updates like strategic CTAs, above-the-fold messaging, and scroll-stopping testimonials that instantly improve conversions.
The Power of Heatmaps & Data – Why tools like Hotjar can help you see what users are really doing on your site—and where they’re dropping off.
A Hot Take on Testimonials – Why testimonials are more than just “nice to have,” and how to turn them into powerful conversion tools.
Madelyn: “Most websites treat testimonials like the icing on the cake whereas in reality it’s actually an ingredient for a cake. When it’s done right, testimonials are one of the strongest tools on your website. The key is to make it about the transformation, not just say, Madelyn is great, she’s awesome. We’re gonna use the headline to draw visitors in the middle of the story. From a design perspective, it’s so important because, when people are scanning a website and they’re looking at that overall design, a lot of times they’re not gonna read the testimonial, but they’re gonna see the headline.”
Madelyn: “Your marketing and your website go hand in hand. And I love that I get to do both of these things so I can see the bigger picture. Your marketing, whether it’s social media or word of mouth or referrals, your podcast, whatever gets people to your website, if your website isn’t strategic, and it doesn’t get people to take that next step, then it just falls flat. Your website should clearly communicate who you serve and the transformation you offer.”
Having a standout marketing strategy doesn’t mean you have to share a new post every day that end in -y!
That’s where Madelyn comes in. She helps small businesses create ShowIt websites and engaging social media content so they can turn their leads into sales.
Madelyn uses her knowledge and experiences to help clients transform their customers into cheerleaders and take their business to the next level. She lives in small-town Wetumpka, Alabama where she enjoys hiking, reading, and spending time with family.
Website: https://madelynvictoriaco.com
The FREE Website Checklist: madelynvictoriaco.com/website-checklist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madelynvictoriaco/
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Nadine Nethery (00:00)
Hello, hello and welcome back to the show. Today I have a super awesome question that we’re going to answer because it’s touching on one of my favorite topics as a copywriter turned customer experience strategist. I have played in this space a lot over the past eight odd years that I’ve been in business. So
Today’s question that we’re going to dive into in great detail is “What would you do if your website looked good, looked the part, but wasn’t actually bringing in any leads, any sales, any discovery calls, and it was crickets?” And to answer this question for me today, I have invited website and marketing strategist, Madelyn Furlong, and we are going to explore what to audit.
If your website is simply not doing its job, what mistakes to look out for and how to bridge the gap between a website that looks amazing, that feels really VIP top level amazing, but doesn’t get you actual results. So welcome to the show, Madelyn.
Madelyn Victoria (01:10)
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here and to dive into all the super actionable steps that we can take to make your website convert better or make the listeners website convert better.
Nadine Nethery (01:19)
Awesome. Before we get stuck into all the nitty gritty, why don’t you introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about potentially your journey to where you are today, who you love working with and how you support people.
Madelyn Victoria (01:35)
Yeah, so I, like you mentioned, am a marketing strategist and Showit website designer. So I work mostly with service providers and help them grow their business through marketing and high converting websites without the stress and the overwhelm. So it’s funny, I always tell people that I sort of started as an accidental entrepreneur. So I never set out to have my own business or to work in this type of space, but
Several years ago when I was in college I had like a social media management business on the side as a way to make some extra money and then I thought I really you know enjoy doing this let me see what I can do with it so ended up you know staying with social media for a little bit but then expanded into like marketing and
those website services because I was already doing both of those things just like on the side a little bit. And somebody actually asked me, they’re like, well, why don’t you make this like a formal service? So it kind of just all like spiraled from there. So that’s the like super abbreviated version of how I got started and everything. But, you know, it went from being kind of like an accidental thing, but now it’s something that I love and I’m just so excited and thankful that I get to do it every day.
Nadine Nethery (02:42)
It’s funny how many people I talk to, whether it’s, people on my podcast like you or my clients where everything starts accidentally on the side. And then while you’re doing it, you find out that it’s actually something you’re really good at and something you enjoy doing. Love that you fell into this type of thing full time. Let’s start with
Madelyn Victoria (02:51)
Yeah.
Nadine Nethery (03:04)
a very topical, important question as part of the context of this podcast. If we look at a business website, what role or roles potentially does your website play within the broader customer journey?
Madelyn Victoria (03:21)
Yeah, definitely. So it plays a huge role. And I think a lot of people don’t realize just how important it is. But this is another reason to why I say like your marketing and your website go hand in hand. And I love that, you know, I get to do both of these things so I can kind of see the bigger picture. But you know, your marketing, whether it’s social media or word of mouth or referrals, your podcast, whatever that gets people to your website. So you have to drive the traffic there. But if your website isn’t strategic,
and it doesn’t get people to take that next step, then it just falls flat. And so a website is oftentimes like people’s, know, first impression of you, you have about three seconds to capture attention. So, you know, your website should clearly communicate who you serve.
and the transformation that you offer.
Nadine Nethery (04:04)
Yeah, three seconds, right? When you look at it from a copywriting perspective again, and same for you as a web designer, like you put all this effort into every single detail of the website. And it’s that first impression that can make or break it, which is insane. It just shows again that you have to look at your website ⁓ in great detail, right? You can’t just
Madelyn Victoria (04:14)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
So
true.
Nadine Nethery (04:26)
consider it as individual pages, it all really needs to flow together. So looking at the visuals and the design, obviously you as a web designer, that’s your expertise, making things look pretty, supporting the reader on the page. But does it really just come down to the design?
Madelyn Victoria (04:31)
Absolutely.
Nadine Nethery (04:44)
or hire you, for example, to build me this amazing piece of online real estate? Is that my job done? Or are there more moving pieces that are important on part of that journey?
Madelyn Victoria (04:55)
Yeah, definitely. So I’m really glad that you brought this up because I think a lot of times, yeah, people think that if your website looks great, then that’s that. Like they’re just gonna bring in the sales and bring in the leads and everything’s gonna be great. But one thing that I tell people, one thing that I like to talk about is you have to have beautiful and strategic websites. So you have to have both really to convert. So.
I’ve seen websites that look amazing, they have the beautiful colors and the great pictures, but visitors bounce immediately and it’s because if visitors land there and they can’t figure out what you do or how you help them or if it’s not set up strategically, then they’re gonna leave. And so sometimes this means maybe the headlines and the call to action buttons are vague Other times, maybe it’s because the website talks.
all about them and their business and who they were and they didn’t talk about how they helped their ideal client get from point A to the transformation and the outcome that they were looking for. So I’ve also worked on websites too that have beautiful pictures. I mean, you can tell they put a lot of time and effort and attention to their pictures, but the pictures did nothing for their brand. It was almost out of pocket and didn’t belong there and it
wasn’t like building trust and clarity. So overall, like all that to say, when people visit your website, they’re always asking, okay, what’s in it for me? So it’s super important to have like both the visual component, but also like the strategic customer journey component as well.
Nadine Nethery (06:17)
Yeah, I’m so glad you’re here on the same page. I’m sure you’ve experienced this as well where it’s so common that people book a web designer and then have you in their diary. They know when you’re designing and then it comes to actually handing over the goods, like the photos and all the things and they go, you need copy from me, you need words. ⁓ That’s where so often, unfortunately, websites are treated like this beautiful thing
Madelyn Victoria (06:36)
you
Mm-hmm.
Nadine Nethery (06:43)
that just ticks a box aesthetically. And I think really for the listeners here, taking a step back before you start the process is super important. Looking at the team that you want to have work on your website. So who you use as your designer, the copywriter, if you decide to outsource, but also the bigger picture. So really making sure you’re aligned on your offers
before you go out there because I’ve unfortunately seen far too many times where clients come to me and they’ve booked the designer, they’ve booked me and they don’t even know how they’re serving clients. So they’re still lining up their ducks, getting them in a row and actually still trying to work out who they like to serve, how they prefer to serve customers. To get the most out of your website.
I would absolutely tick all the boxes first. So be super crystal clear on your audience, your offer, also your branding. Knowing how you need to show up to speak to that audience is super important. Again, websites need to definitely look the part. They need to flow well because otherwise the copy can be amazing and not convert. So it’s that, connection between.
the puzzle pieces to actually turn it into a conversion driving brand asset. So I’m sure you don’t just work with people who are starting out. So people come to you often, I assume with existing websites that aren’t doing their job, which is why they’re coming to you. So when you’re auditing
Madelyn Victoria (07:54)
Absolutely.
Thank
Nadine Nethery (08:09)
website that clearly has issues because it’s not bringing in discovery calls, it’s not making sales. Where do you start? What are the components you consider in your audit? And are there some red flags, if you want to call it that way, that stand out to you right away when you’re auditing those websites?
Madelyn Victoria (08:26)
Yeah, so whenever I’m auditing a website, and this is going to sound super obvious, but bear with me, like I’ll talk through it, but I always start with the top of the homepage. So the above the fold content. Again, this seems super obvious and it seems, you know, like, okay, duh, but you’d be so surprised how many headers like I, you know, go in and fix. It’s, you know, that first glance should clearly tell your visitors who you serve and how you help. Like I mentioned earlier,
And so red flags for me, you know, with this are like confusing headlines or a vague help statement or generic like calls to actions or calls to actions that don’t even stand out. Or having way too many options on the header or menu bar like that’ll lead to fatigue and straight up like frustration too. And so I would say all of those are red flags. And then also something that I see quite a bit is
there being like tons of different fonts and font sizes. And so these all seem like super obvious things, you know, when you like slow down and think about it. But again, like almost every website like that I look at, you know, to audit or to go in and redesign, like they have, you know, one or more of these things. So it’s just good to keep these things in mind because again, confused and frustrated visitors don’t convert.
Nadine Nethery (09:38)
It’s coming back to that three second opportunity that you have, right? If above the fold, so that initially visible section is super confusing, tells you nothing about what they do, who they do it for. It’s an instant click away, right? What I often find as well, again, working with a lot of people who already have existing websites that they’re rebranding is that often
Madelyn Victoria (09:41)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Nadine Nethery (10:00)
the pages seem to be designed as standalone, pages they’re not connecting to anywhere. So I always recommend to my clients to step away from those dead ends, I like to call them where you come to the bottom of this never ending scrolling service page and people work out, I might be looking at other options, what can I do? So why don’t you at the bottom of this page, for example, present people with
If you’re not ready to work with me one-on-one, that’s fine, but you can join my membership, for example, where you get group support, or you can check out my templates. So it’s really helping people connect the dots and going on this beautiful journey through your website where it just flows. That’s where experience comes into the picture as well. Obviously people who build their own websites often don’t go into business to build their own websites.
Madelyn Victoria (10:40)
Alright.
you
Right.
Nadine Nethery (10:50)
⁓
It is complex and that’s why it often really is the best starting point to consult someone who knows websites, who knows what works. And what I find, that objective perspective of hiring a web designer or copywriter is ⁓ so valuable because they’re coming at your business and your audience as well from a totally removed perspective. ⁓ And it often opens the eyes, you know, have you considered this? If I were…
Madelyn Victoria (11:04)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Nadine Nethery (11:15)
in their position, like this would confuse me, so why don’t we shuffle these things around? Yeah, I’m a huge fan of getting someone else’s perspective just to open my eyes to things that I’ve potentially been completely ignoring for, no fault of my own. So I know we talked about, how you…
detect what’s wrong on websites, but do you have some low-lift but really highly impactful tweaks that listeners can make to their website, to have an instant conversion boost and support the reader on their website?
Madelyn Victoria (11:39)
you
Yes, definitely. And I love like giving actionable steps too. So this makes me super excited. But I would say the first thing is have clear and compelling like call to action buttons, right? So people don’t just click buttons because they exist. Like we want to give them a reason to. And so, you know, if your button blends in with the rest of the page or if it says something vague, like, you know, submit or even learn more, your visitor just might scroll past that. So
A few things that we can do to optimize those call to action buttons is making it a bright color that stands out using specific wording like book your free call or get a marketing makeover or get instant access. Make your buttons show up often. So this is another thing that I see a lot is people have to look for how to work with you or how to buy your course or whatever that is. So we want to make it as easy as possible.
We don’t want them having to scroll all the way back up to the top or really having to look for that button. So I like to say after every big section or even after every two scrolls include like a call to action button. Just again, we’re making it so easy for the customer. We want to, again, just really emphasize that customer journey and put them first and seems really simple, but it does make a difference.
And then also just like making the button like visible before someone even scrolls especially on like mobile so like have that on the header even and just making that like super available and super like ready to access so that’s number one. And then number two is like having important elements above the fold so on the header.
I’m gonna keep repeating myself, but visitors should immediately know like what you do, who you help and like, you know what to do next. So if your homepage says, welcome to my website, like we need to fix that right now. And I’m sure you know this and I know you’ve worked with people who have, you know, similar things like this on their website, but you know, having a super good help statement is important. A picture if you know that’s appropriate in the header and also like an uncluttered like navigation.
So I would definitely say, know, workshopping that help statement or just whatever, you know, wording you have in the header. So it’s like clear and concise is super important and working with copywriters to like is so, so valuable as well, especially like in this, in this vein. So that’s number two. And then number three is all about testimonials.
Most websites treat testimonials like the icing on the cake whereas in reality it’s actually an ingredient for a cake. So that’s a super dumb example, but I wanna show like how important, you know, that is and usually like when I explain it that way people, you know, kind of get it a little bit more, but when it’s done right, testimonials are one of the strongest tools on your website. So the key is to make it about the transformation, not just say, you know, quote,
Madelyn is great, she’s awesome, you know, whatever. We’re gonna use the headline to draw visitors in the middle of the story. And so I know some of this too overlaps with copywriting for sure. Like a lot of copywriters have sort of like the same mindset, but I think from a design perspective, it’s so important because, you know, when people are scanning a website and you know, they’re looking at that overall design, a lot of times they’re not gonna read the testimonial, but they’re gonna see, you know, the headline.
A lot of people have client review as the headline at the top. So instead of having that, we could say for a website designer, like how she booked three dream clients after launching her new website, or I doubled my inquiries after my redesign and have the testimonial below. So you really see the difference between just like client love or client appreciation and then these like actual, just amazing things.
And again, even if people don’t read the whole testimonial, they’ll still see that headline. So even though that might technically fall under like the copywriting umbrella, like I still think it’s super important for design and just like setting up the page strategically for sure.
Nadine Nethery (15:42)
Mm, so clever. I see it far too often and so clever to use segments of the testimonial to really stop that scroll. I have another one, that might take a step back.
before you start making tweaks if you know something’s not working look at installing heat map tools on your website as well for a little while, just to monitor where people are dropping off. There’s various tools out there, but Hotjar for example, is one you just add a bit of code to your website and it basically records how people are interacting.
Madelyn Victoria (16:00)
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Nadine Nethery (16:14)
with various pages on your website. So you can see where they’re potentially, rage clicking, where clearly there’s something wrong with the link. how far on this page they’re usually scrolling before they drop off. So potentially they never get to the juicy bits that sell your product. So it might tell you how you need to shuffle things around. it’s super valuable to gather some data as well before you go in and
Madelyn Victoria (16:27)
Mm-hmm.
Nadine Nethery (16:37)
make those changes. Often you don’t have to start from scratch. It literally is a matter of, again, just taking an objective perspective. ⁓ Look at your website, hopefully have some data from heat maps and have a look how you can tighten your messaging, maximise to the design and take the reader on that journey. So I’m always curious about
Madelyn Victoria (16:44)
you
Absolutely.
Nadine Nethery (16:57)
client success stories. So I’m sure you had some awesome client projects that you’ve worked on where someone came to you with a seemingly perfect site, but a site that just wasn’t selling. Can you take us behind the scenes and talk us through, what changes you made and what impact that had on the results?
Madelyn Victoria (17:15)
Yes, definitely. So there’s one client who comes to mind actually, and she is a physician and she had a pretty website. You know, she had good colors, you pictures, even visuals, but people were not taking, you know, that next step. And so the client had wanted a new website anyway, because their business had changed and evolved and you know, they wanted a website to reflect, you know, all those changes. But she also wanted me to come in and see what was going on, like why people weren’t converting.
So literally as soon as the website page loaded, I knew what was probably throwing people off. There were way too many options to choose from. my goodness, it was super overwhelming for me and I knew what she did. So I could only imagine how it felt for potential patients. Like there were literally like two menus at the top of the website with different options. And so it looked really cluttered visually and there was no like sort of strategy also. Like people didn’t know where to start.
Nadine Nethery (18:02)
you
Madelyn Victoria (18:10)
You know in their mind they wanted to give people the most options but because they their mindset was okay Well, like we want to make sure they have like everything available to them But in reality it just made you know website visitors super confused So I ended up, know cleaning it up and then we combined like a few options for the menu like at the top and then move some stuff to the footer as well, but that
when you were asking that question, like that’s the first thing that popped into my head because again, it seemed like she had, you know, a lot of the pieces already in play, but it was just so many options for people and they just like had no idea what to do with all that information. So we made it a little bit more strategic.
Nadine Nethery (18:49)
Yeah, it’s, it’s funny how with websites, often less is more. I feel like it’s this temptation to give browsers everything they need, to make up their mind about you, every possible offer, every possible inclusion, talk about it in great detail. Sometimes just giving people enough to connect with you as the business owner, based on your values, on your approach, on your way of working and then giving them a taste test of
Madelyn Victoria (18:53)
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Nadine Nethery (19:13)
what’s possible can totally be enough because ultimately as a service provider, especially that goal is to get on a call with them, build that deeper connection on a one-on-one level and actually find out how you can best support them. yeah, easy to fall into that trap and really scaling back often, as you said, is key to actually make your website work and convert those browsers into leads.
So before we wrap up, I know you’ve been listening to the podcast, so you probably know, I ask all my guests one question. If you could get anyone, either myself or a guest expert to answer your burning customer experience question, what would that be?
Madelyn Victoria (19:37)
Absolutely.
Yes, okay, so I was thinking about this earlier today and I think my question would be like, I’ve always wondered what a out of the box like strategy or way like, you AI is all the rage now, which I have thoughts about that. But I’ve always wondered like what an out of the box kind of strategy like in way you can use AI as like your marketing assistant or assistant in general and like what’s the line between it being helpful.
and it like overstepping when it comes to like AI tools for content and like your overall business because we want to save time but also we don’t want to interfere with the customer journey. So yeah, I would be really curious about that. And even again, some ways that people haven’t necessarily like thought about,
Nadine Nethery (20:31)
Mmm.
I can already think of someone I am going to ask to come onto the show. Yeah, she’s awesome. She’s a guru at smart ways and strategic ways to integrate AI. So I’ll let you know once that’s all lined up. Awesome. Well, Madelyn, thank you so much for coming onto the show, sharing your strategic lens on web design.
Madelyn Victoria (20:42)
Ooh, cool.
Yes, that sounds awesome.
Nadine Nethery (21:00)
If people want to check you out, connect with you and reach out to you, where can they find you online?
Madelyn Victoria (21:06)
Yeah, so I am on Instagram at Madelyn Victoria Co. And then my website is madelinevictoriaco.com.
Nadine Nethery (21:13)
So before we wrap up, you know, the drill listeners, if you have a question that you want me or an expert guest to answer in a future episode, you can hit up the link in the show notes and submit your question.
either anonymously or leave your details and you get a little shout out on the episode. And if you enjoyed today’s episode, I would love, love, love you to share it with anyone who, might benefit from all the juicy website tips we shared today. Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you next week.
Madelyn Victoria (21:45)
Thank you so much for having me.
Nadine Nethery (21:46)
As it happens, Madelyn and I were so deep in conversation that we completely forgot to explore the free gift that she has for my listeners. So if you want to tune, fine tune your website without a complete overhaul, she has a free checklist for you that walks you through the five essential updates that will make your website more effective, more engaging, and more profitable. And the best part, you can start making these simple tweaks today.
Grab the checklist to see what five things your website must have to make more sales via the link in the show notes today.
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@candocontent
The audience-driven copywriter turned customer experience & retention strategist to help you replace dead ends with strategic sales assets and empathy-driven copy to nurture genuine connections.
Over the past 8+ years I've supported hundreds of industry-disrupting online businesses globally via my signature LEAN Customer Method and the CX strategies to nurture genuine connections, drive sales and celebrate loyalty.
I live and work on the breathtaking Darug land of the Darug people. I pay my respects to the Darug Elders, past and present, and the Aboriginal Elders of other communities who may be here today.
Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.