Websites Made Simple: How to have a successful website design business

If a client has ever asked you "When will my website be found on Google?" — and you didn’t quite know how to answer — this episode is for you.
Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It's a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and "is it just me?" moments.
Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.
In this episode, I’m talking about where your role as a web designer ends and where an SEO specialist’s begins — and why knowing that difference could genuinely change the quality of the websites you deliver and the reputation you build.

We get into:
The difference between building an SEO-friendly website and delivering SEO services
What you ARE responsible for in every build (and where the line is)
How to find an SEO specialist you actually like working with
Why you should bring them in before the build starts, not after
What an SEO specialist actually produces and how to show clients the value
How to handle clients who don’t want to pay for SEO support
Whether to build the SEO cost into your website price
Why the relationship goes both ways — and how SEO specialists can become a referral source for you

If you’ve ever felt unsure about where SEO fits in your process, this will help you get clear, get confident, and start building better websites with the right people around you.
Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]
And here’s the link if you want to learn more about Neal and Podknows: https://podknows.co.uk/

Skip to the good bits:

01:15 “When will my website be found on Google?”
01:41 What web designers ARE responsible for in SEO
02:34 SEO-friendly ≠ SEO services
02:57 Nikki Pilkington
03:44 Find an SEO specialist you vibe with
04:44 Bring them in before the build starts
05:03 What your SEO specialist will actually produce
06:14 When the client won’t pay for SEO
07:03 Build the SEO cost into your website price
08:24 It goes both ways: the referral relationship
Mentioned in this episode:
Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!
Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass
Blogging masterclass

If you’ve been tempted to move to a £99 a month website model — or you’ve been quietly cutting your prices just to get work through the door — this episode is a direct intervention.
Psst! Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It’s a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and “is it just me?” moments.
Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode, I’m talking about why the £99 website model isn’t the sustainable business move it might look like on paper — and what to do instead when the market feels slow.

We get into:
How the maths of volume pricing simply don’t add up
The burnout that comes with trying the model
Why ongoing payment plans are bad news
The hidden costs that slowly erode client trust
What to do instead

If you’re a web designer wondering whether dropping your prices is the answer, this episode will give you the confidence to hold firm.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]

Skip to the good bits:
00:00 Why the £99 website model doesn’t work
00:35 Meet Holly: Websites Made Simple
00:46 Who this episode applies to
01:45 The volume problem: you’d need 30 clients for £3,000
04:14 Burnout is baked into this model
04:38 Scope creep and the ongoing payment trap
06:32 Hidden costs and eroding client trust
08:34 Email hosting, DNS, and the chaos that follows
11:19 Content collection in a low-cost model
12:26 Hold your nerve: panic pricing makes it worse
Mentioned in this episode:
Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!
Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass
Blogging masterclass

AI is everywhere — and so is everyone telling you to use it for everything. But when it comes to your website, your plugins, and the work you ship for clients, the wrong AI shortcut can quietly become a serious liability.
Check out my Sparks Group Training for anyone and everyone involved in the publishing of websites, from copywriters to SEOs: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It’s a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and “is it just me?” moments.
Welcome to a special bonus episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie. (Quick note — my podcast mic was misbehaving for this one, so the audio is not quite up to our usual standard. My producer Neal at Podknows has worked his magic to clean it up, so please do stick with it. The conversation is genuinely worth your time.)
I am joined by senior developer Rob Fisher to talk about where AI actually helps in web design, where it absolutely does not, and the security and stability risks nobody is being loud enough about.

We get into:
Why vibe coding is not a shortcut, it is a stack of technical debt waiting to break
How LLMs really work, and why they hallucinate when you let them
Why your prompt boundaries matter as much as your prompt
The chatbot that gave a customer 85 percent off a 10,000 dollar order
What the October 2025 AWS outage tells us about AI first dev cultures
Why AI tools are junior developers, not senior ones, and what that means for your business
Why vibe coded WordPress plugins are a house of cards
How a “safe” plugin can become a Trojan horse with one auto update
What is actually changing in WordPress 7

If you are a designer or developer trying to work out where AI fits into your business without putting your clients at risk, this one is for you.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]

Skip to the good bits:
00:00 Bonus episode intro and audio note
01:18 Where AI fits in running a web business
02:34 Vibe coding and why it is a shortcut too far
05:12 The flip side, vibe coding as a learning tool
06:48 Tech debt: your vibe coded site is a liability waiting to break
07:45 What AI cannot do for user journeys and design psychology
09:20 How LLMs actually work, probability engines not brains
11:30 Hallucinations and the suspiciously short prompt
13:05 Prompt boundaries and staying on topic
15:10 What system prompts at OpenAI and Anthropic actually look like
17:00 The chatbot that gave away an 85 percent discount on a 10,000 dollar order
19:40 AI first dev houses and the October 2025 AWS outage
22:15 Microsoft layoffs and the AI replacement myth
24:30 Why generative AI is a junior developer, not a senior one
26:20 Vibe coded plugins, the house of cards problem
28:50 The WordPress plugin ecosystem and what it lets in
31:00 How a safe plugin becomes a Trojan horse overnight
33:15 WP Rocket, All in One Migration and the malicious update problem
34:50 WordPress 7 and the new AI APIs, and why it will not feel revolutionary
37:00 Block editor improvements and the abstraction layer problem
38:40 Final thoughts and how to get in touch
Mentioned in this episode:
Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!
Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass
Blogging masterclass

Imposter syndrome doesn’t care how good you are. It shows up anyway — making you hesitate before you send a contract, stumble over your words on a call, or scroll past someone else’s work and quietly wonder if you’re good enough.
In this episode of Websites Made Simple, Holly Christie gets honest about imposter syndrome in web design. Why it hits so hard in a self-taught industry. Why tech shaming on LinkedIn makes it worse. And what you can actually do to push through it, level up, and stop letting self-doubt quietly run your business.
We talk about:
Why imposter syndrome affects experienced and award-winning designers too
The problem with tech shaming (and why the tool you use doesn’t define your worth)
Why there’s a seat at the table for every web designer
How to stay in your lane and focus on your own growth
What to do when your processes feel messy or your designs feel stale
How to push outside your comfort zone and keep developing
Why you’re probably doing much better than you think

Chapters:
00:00 Imposter syndrome — it comes for all of us
04:28 When LinkedIn chips away at your confidence
07:35 Stay in your lane and look forward
08:20 Tighten up your processes and onboarding
09:30 What to do when your designs feel stale
10:45 Pushing outside your comfort zone
12:05 You’re doing better than you think

💡 Want Holly’s Sparks Group Mentoring? Find out more here: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/
🌐 Website: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk
📧 Email: [email protected]
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollycchristie/
Mentioned in this episode:
Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!
Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass
Blogging masterclass

If you keep finding yourself building features your clients ask for that quietly make their websites worse, this one's for you.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode, I'm talking about popups — why they're usually doing the opposite of what your clients think they're doing, what to say when a client is dead set on having one, and what to do instead to keep conversions high without frustrating visitors straight off the page.

We get into:
Why popups interrupt the user experience in the worst possible way
How popup design often looks spammy and quietly damages trust
The SEO problem that popup plugins don't tell you about (hint: it's your H1)
Why exit intent popups feel like surveillance — and why that's a problem
How caching plugins can break popups entirely anyway
What slide-ins are and how to use them without being annoying
Floating buttons — how to use them properly (and what not to do on mobile)
Dedicated signup sections that convert without the disruption
How to push back when a client is dead set on having a popup

Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/
It's a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and "is it just me?" moments.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]

Skip to the good bits:
00:00 Why popups might be hurting your clients' websites
01:11 Welcome and intro
01:39 Why popups interrupt the user experience
03:26 Popups block content and the SEO problem
06:01 Exit intent, popup frequency and the surveillance feeling
08:11 Slide-ins as a smarter alternative
10:30 Floating buttons done right
12:00 Dedicated signup sections that convert without disruption
14:23 How to push back when clients ask for popups
15:28 Wrap-up and how to get in touch
Mentioned in this episode:
Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!
Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass
Blogging masterclass
Join my Sparks Group Mentoring Programme