A Chat with Launch Happy
Week of the Website founder and lead developer Kelsey Gilbert-Kreiling sits down with Launch Happy founder David Iskander to talk SEO, web design and dynamic duos.
Week of the Website recently launched a partnership with Launch Happy to integrate their SEO expertise into all of our clients’ new Squarespace websites, free of charge. “I want the launch of a WOTW site to be the beginning of a site’s usefulness,” says Founder Kelsey Gilbert-Kreiling. “If we’re partnering with someone who offers SEO digital services, and then if they have questions about how they can take that further, there is a direct place to point them. We never want websites to just end with us, we don’t want SEO to either.”
Kelsey recently chatted with Launch Happy Founder David Iskander to discuss why the new partnership is a veritable Dream Team, the joys and challenges of working in the Squarespace site design space, and other tech-y topics.
Kelsey Gilbert-Kreiling: So first off, I know you guys have been transitioning from Spacebar Agency to Launch Happy. Tell me about that change.
David Iskander: The simple answer is that it’s the vision we have. We’re a service provider, but we wanted to be seen for our digital products, our YouTube channel, our content, our courses, our digital downloads. It’s a small tweak, and if anything it’s more for us than our users, but it helps us understand what we do. We’ll always do services, but we also want to make sure the digital downloads, that side is the forefront. There’s an actual back and forth to it, but we don’t want people to think of an agency. We try to use the website as much as possible. We call it digital services so the cost ends up being cheaper for the end user. It allows less back and forth and clients are also getting a premium service because what they’re getting at the price point is unheard of at an agency.
I was talking to a few people at Circle Day and they were like, how do you charge $600-$700, it should be $1200-$1500. And that’s because it’s a digital service and we’re not doing intro calls, we have a clear process, it really streamlines it.
“We always want clients to take their websites further than where they end with us. Like, I want the launch of a WOTW site to be the beginning of a site’s usefulness. ”
KGK: I feel like this is a great segue into why Launch Happy and WOTW work together. The process is the thing that unites us. We’re both big efficiency nerds, and want to figure out how to make it as streamlined as possible. For us, we always want clients to take their websites further than where they end with us. Like, I want the launch of a WOTW site to be the beginning of a site’s usefulness [and that includes SEO].
DI: I believe in that too. In a partnership, we need to know where your head is. If you say, I want to do SEO that’s like saying I want to take a trip. When you start searching on Airbnb, you have to figure out where you’re going, because that’s the only way you’re going to get there is to start to figure that out.
So the tools we offer streamline that. Why are you writing a blog? Because you can really do a cool strategy — and that’s what Google wants. They want the query to match your result to the closest Nth of a degree. So getting people up and running, but then giving them a clear direction forward. What was the word you used — usefulness? It's the start of their usefulness. I love that.
KGK: I’m really interested in seeing what comes next for our clients. If we have a client who went through the WOTW process, they’ve completed their Launch Happy digital tools — what’s the thing that comes next?
DI: I recommend blogging. They get the blogging starter kit as part of [the WOTW/Launch Happy partnership], and that’s the first thing I recommend they look into. There’s a video that helps you understand the strategy when you write or create or anything. And that helps determine what the next step is in growth. You can do other types of growth — paid ads, that sort of thing. But that’s the next organic step: the site is up and running, initial blog posts are optimized. Now, we need to learn how to grow your site’s exposure and provide useful content.
This is a deeper conversation, but what we put into the world is not guaranteed to work. I can think it looks great, but the world can say it’s not clear. So to grow the site, develop the content further and think about blogging from a strategic standpoint.
KGK: I also think helping clients understand these are not solid, staid things. It’s not a binary yes or no website. It’s a process. I’m so curious — how do you approach clients who get SEO-based recommendations or guidance after a website has been built and say, ‘you should change XYZ,’ even if the designer did what the client wanted. Is there an approach you have landed on for when you give change feedback that emphasizes that this is an evolution of the site, these are updates; it’s not that the person who set this up did it wrong. Because I think that’s something we’re navigating now.
DI: It depends on the position in the market. If they’re the most reputable, if they have thousands of people visiting the site and it’s working and they’re generally happy, no complaints, if it’s working for you — great. If they’re launching a website and have never done it before, it’s almost like a fear factor. It’s a perfectionist thing, because that’s what will win. That’s designable.
If I see something that’s an issue, we deal with it. But if it’s a bunch of things, you know, choose your battles. I navigate the things that are going to be really helpful. I understand you’re learning, and I understand you’re in a growth process or just launched or spent the last four months trying to get this up and running and are exhausted. But you have to assume people on your site aren’t going to know that, or they’re on their phone, or they’re on the go. The long answer, we just try to navigate these four things for every client and we try to make recommendations. Like, I could have 18 recommendations but I’ll only give maybe eight at the most because it’s a lot. Every client is in a different phase and we try to understand where they are.
The coolest part with what we get to do is that there’s such a high level of execution from the start, that the recommendations I give are the most valuable and most customized, because it’s not the little things — it’s not like, get the photo set up. Those things are handled. So by the time I go in there with recommendations, it’s really high-value deliverables.
“The site is built with an SEO-first strategy. It’s not implemented later and you have to redo it, you have an SEO-first strategy, then your site goes to a more granular process of valuable information and insights on how to really scale a product.”
KGK: That’s such a good point. By working with a designer and development company, you’re already taking care of a bunch of those things that most people don’t even think about but are core to how we build anyway. Because when your website is done and it goes to Launch Happy, you’re getting access to a higher level of conversation because so many of those entry-level things are already taken care of.
DI: Yes, right. So the site is built with an SEO-first strategy. It’s not implemented later and you have to redo it, you have an SEO-first strategy, then your site goes to a more granular process of valuable information and insights on how to really scale a product.
KGK: I think that’s a great approach. You’re getting a 1-2 punch when it comes to that kind of thing. What is something people think is really important but doesn’t matter as much?
DI: Keywords. It’s kind of a back-and-forth. People come to me and say, ‘you need to put these keywords in the back of my site.’ And I’m like, no. Keyword stuffing doesn’t work. You want the page to relate to a keyword to the Nth degree, as close as you can get. If someone searches Squarespace website designer, your page should be about Squarespace website designer. It shouldn’t be about other random stuff. That page specifically should be for the search query. So in one way just putting these keywords in the back, that’s not it. The other side of it is, they are really important when you think of a page being for a keyword, marrying that.
KGK: What is something people think isn’t important to SEO but is actually very important?
DI: Blogging! It’s such a simple answer. Google indexes your home page, but they don’t care about your home page. If I search Squarespace website designers, your home page will only show up if that is what the page is talking about. It’s not who we are, we’ve done this many projects — that’s cool, but it needs to be so explicit in the copy that we’re Squarespace website designers. So blog posts are actually more relevant, if you think about every single one.
Actually, what I would say is the most important is your actual blog URL. Because the URL should be the keyword you’re trying to target to the best of your ability.
KKG: People overlook it, but it’s crucial blogging.
OK, here are a few rapid-fire fun questions. What is the search engine from days past that you miss? I’m thinking Ask Jeeves, Dogpile, Alta Vista. What’s the other one that just got retired? Bing!
DI: Did it just get retired? Ha! I don’t even remember if it was a search engine, but AOL, just logging in to the internet. And I miss the I’m Feeling Lucky — I don’t use it now, it makes no sense, but that was such an experience of the internet at one point.
KGK: David, I feel like there’s a bit here where you make a YouTube video — maybe an April Fool’s thing — where it’s like the new service from Launch Happy, optimize for I’m Feeling Lucky.
DI: That’s amazing. We’re missing out on a lot of opportunity here!
KGK: Are you feeling lucky in 2022? I love it.
OK, favorite flavor combos?
DI: Favorite go-to ice cream combo is Mint Chip and Cookies & Cream. It started when I was a little kid going to Rite-Aid. Those two — gold, always. If they got ‘em, two scoops.
KGK: I think this is basic, but I was thinking a lot about ketchup and mustard this weekend. I think those two really balance each other nicely. We were watching the Formula 1 race and Ferrari’s new outfits are mustard yellow and their cars a very red, and they looked like a moving McDonald’s advertisement. Bring tater tots into the mix? Yes.
How about dynamic duos? We’ve been talking about Rocky & Bullwinkle lately, because [my son] Jasper has a moose toy and a squirrel toy and those two have been hanging out.
DI: Kobe and Shaq. I grew up on that. I just watched ‘The Last Dance’ three times in two weeks, because I loved it.
KGK: It was so good.
DI: Yeah, and just thinking about their relationship. Even Rodman, I know that’s not a duo, it’s a trio, but he threw a level of spice into the mix that was just so useful. The team knew how to embrace him.
