By sunset, I felt a familiar throb shooting up my neck – another migraine building while I tried to manually update my cheese shop's website, organize e-commerce orders, and respond to customer inquiries. I gave myself a triptan injection and tried to sleep it off IN MY CAR.
Hours later, I was in the ER, where they kept me for 2 days. Then: no recovery time. Right back at it. My business systems required so much constant manual work that I couldn't step away even when my body was breaking down.
That's when I learned the hard way: your website & marketing systems should work for you, not against you.
Most business advice assumes you have unlimited cognitive bandwidth and consistent energy levels. But if you're managing chronic illness, neurodivergence, or just the reality of being human with finite resources (hiiii it’s all me 👋), you need systems designed with your brain and body in mind.
Your website isn't just a business card – it's the command center of your entire online ecosystem.
When designed strategically, it works for you 24/7.
When it's not? Every manual process becomes another drain on your limited energy reserves.
Before you invest in new tools or platforms, ask yourself these four questions. They'll reveal whether your current website system is supporting your success or sabotaging it.
But first… who is this???
I’m Carolyn, your Website Evolution Expert. I did a career-180 in 2019 to help other business owners experiencing that same overwhelm you just read about.
I create websites that charm the pants off visitors and work their butts off behind the scenes. When it comes down to it, I design your online home to make life easier for everyone – delighting your clients while working overtime for you.
Are you ready to create or redo your website but keep putting it off?
Because, let's be real, even just starting the research can be overwhelming....
In 90 seconds you can stop struggling to figure out how to launch/refresh your site and actually do it.
This matchmaking quiz takes your skillset, business stage, interests, & budget and magically divines your perfect-fit Website Evolution Compass. No more guesswork about where to begin or set your path. (Plus, hello, quiz?? FUN!)
Question 1: Energy Cost vs. Energy Savings
Look beyond just "time saved" and consider the true energy cost of your current setup.
A well-designed website system should feel like having a brilliant assistant who anticipates what you and your clients need.
Take something as simple as your contact form. Instead of just collecting information, what if submitting that form redirected visitors to a strategic thank you page? That page could include what to expect next, a video welcome from you, and relevant blog posts about prepping for their type of project.
Suddenly, you're not fielding the same emails repeatedly. Your system is doing the educational work while you focus on qualified prospects who've already consumed your preparation content.
Red flags your system is working against you:
- You dread website updates because they always become multi-hour ordeals
- You're constantly explaining the same basic information to prospects
- Making one small change requires updating information in multiple places
Systems that actually give you energy back – like SEO-optimized content and strategic automations – compound their value over time instead of demanding daily feeding.
Question 2: Cognitive Load Assessment
Does your current system simplify decision-making or create more mental overhead? The best website systems eliminate decisions you don't need to make while preserving control over what matters.
This is where having a solid design system becomes crucial. If you've established your visual brand design – colors, fonts, patterns, images, and graphics you regularly use – creating new content becomes exponentially easier.
In Squarespace, for example, site styles let you set up different color panel combinations that you can switch between instantly. Your typography is controlled from one central location. When you need to create a new service page or sales page, you're not starting from scratch each time – you're working within a system that maintains consistency while eliminating decision fatigue.
The mental overhead test:
- Can you update your website without having to "remember how things work"?
- Are you making the same design decisions repeatedly instead of having systems in place?
- Does adding new content feel overwhelming or straightforward?
Your system should feel intuitive to use, not like you need a design degree to make basic updates.
Question 3: Maintenance Requirements & Integration Friction
Can your system actually run itself, or does it need constant tending? This question covers both daily maintenance and how smoothly your platforms work together.
Platform maintenance reality: Some systems demand more hands-on work than others. WordPress, for instance, requires regular manual updates to plugins and themes to stay secure – miss these updates and you're vulnerable to security breaches. Squarespace handles all updates automatically in the background, eliminating that cognitive load and maintenance anxiety.
Integration friction assessment: How much manual data transfer are you doing between platforms? Every manual handoff – from website inquiry to email follow-up to project management – creates opportunities for things to fall through the cracks.
The sustainability test: If you couldn't touch your website and marketing systems for two weeks, would your business keep running or would everything grind to a halt?
Smooth integration indicators:
- Information flows automatically from your website to your other business systems
- Updates in one place reflect everywhere else they need to be
- You're not constantly copying and pasting data between platforms
Question 4: Growth Scalability
Will your current system evolve with your business or become a constraint? This isn't about over-engineering – it's an honest assessment of whether your setup can support the growth you can actually see coming.
Consider your platform's capabilities: Does your CMS support your next business stage? Whether that's adding products, launching a membership, or creating online courses, you want systems that can expand without requiring a complete rebuild.
Built-in flexibility matters: In Squarespace, saved sections allow you to design custom layouts once, then reuse them across different pages and projects. You might create a "service breakdown" section or "testimonial showcase" section, save them, then easily drop them into new pages while switching to different color panels for consistency + variety.
This approach creates visual continuity (great for your brand) while giving you flexible building blocks for growth. Need a new sales page? You're not designing from scratch – you're assembling proven layouts with fresh content.
Future-proofing questions:
- Does adding a new service require rebuilding major parts of your website?
- Are you already hitting limits on storage, forms, or other features?
- Can your system accommodate team members if you decide to expand?
What’s Next?
Creating sustainable website systems isn't about finding the perfect platform or the cutest template.
It's about strategic thinking that puts your specific needs at the center of every decision.
Once you've evaluated what your website needs to do, you'll need an organizational backend to support it all. Sue-Jan covers exactly that in her companion post about choosing productivity tools that work with your brain and business.
If working through this framework reveals gaps in your current setup, the Website Evolution Compass Quiz helps you figure out your next best step based on your specific skills, capacity, and budget.
Your business deserves a website that works overtime – so you don't have to.
Want to map out your ideal website ecosystem? A Scouting Session is 90 minutes of strategic guidance to identify exactly which systems will give you the biggest energy return for your specific life + biz. Followed up with an actual roadmap to get you there 💪
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