Dog trainer business owner Leila Martin overs sage advice for busy small business site owners on the consequences of outsourcing so much of the site’s function and maintenance without being educated on the process first. She also shares what was revealed in her site audit, including how much she was overpaying in hosting due to high bot traffic. We also cover the positive results she has seen since the audit and site cleanup, and what’s still left to do on the site.
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Catch Leila online:
- Website: Petiquette Dog
- Google+: +Leila Martin
Timestamp of Our Chat
Below you’ll find a handy timestamp of our discussion, full of takeaways and links that will help you run a successful site too.
00:50 Leila gives her background as a small business owner trying to manage a site since 2006.
01:40 What prompted Leila to get a site audit.
02:30 What we found in the site audit.
02:50 The outrageous amount Leila was paying for hosting due to extreme bot traffic.
04:30 How to vet the folks working on your site.
05:20 How Leila found me via +David Kutcher
07:10 How hard it is to find folks who know the whole site business, not just a specialty.
07:50 How long the cleanup took and why.
08:45 Sorting out the plugin mess.
09:10 The cost of not knowing what’s being used on your site.
10:45 Why to stay involved with what’s going on with your site, even if you don’t do the work.
12:00 Hiring specialists – in this case for HOA integration
13:40 Working on the SEO
14:25 How un-optimized images affect performance and how to optimize them properly. See this post by +Mary Iannotti on Image Optimization – an Easy Way to Improve Website Load Speed
15:45 Improvements and benefits already seen after the audit and cleanup.
16:15 Sage advice for all site owners to get your site squared away sooner rather than later and why that costs less in both time and money.
16:50 Now able to vet the proper folks to outsource maintenance to and choosing a proper host for your needs.
17:45 Different types of managed hosting providers and what you need to still keep an eye on for yourself.
18:30 How often to get an audit.
19:45 How confident Leila is now to continue branching out and growing your site and online business, including a new member site.
21:40 Leila’s advice for new site owners to help avoid expensive pitfalls.
