Getting a new or redesigned small business website up and running can be a bit daunting. There are a lot of options and costs can vary wildly. Luckily there are a few tips you can use to get more traffic, generate more leads and have fewer problems with your small business website.
Small Business Website Success Tips
- Develop priorities for your small business website
- First steps to get traffic to your small business website
- Ask what your web designer needs from you early on
- Use a common website platform
- Ensure your small business website is fast
- Ensure your small business website is easy for Google to index
- Use a reliable website host with good customer service
- Keep your small business website design clean and simple
- Make your website mobile responsive
- Avoid Flash technology on your website
- Capture your visitors’ email addresses
- Maintain brand consistency on your website
- Give visitors what they want
- Keep your website current and relevant
You’re certainly not alone if you’re getting a new small business website built because you simply have to have one these days. However, having specific prioritised goals in mind will really help focus your website to achieve these goals. Do you want to: educate prospects, generate phone inquiries, generate sales through e-commerce, capture leads for email marketing, etc.
Unless your website is just there to provide information to you existing customers, you must know how you will get visitors. Website traffic does not just appear by itself. Some options to consider are: online or traditional display advertising, business directories, Social Media, PPC (Pay-Per-Click e.g. Google AdWords) advertising, SEO (Search-Engine-Optimisation) etc.
To avoid delays, give your website designer everything they ask for accurately and early on. Delays building your website will cost you in lost opportunities.
Choosing a common platform means you have many more options to get help if you need to. One danger with a proprietary website platform is if the company that built it closes its doors. Getting support, upgrades or changes made for your small business website may become very difficult. Common Content Management Systems (CMS) that are easy to update yourself include: WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.
Many tests have shown websites which load slowly really turn people off. Too slow and visitors just leave. Google doesn’t like it either. Don’t give people another excuse to leave your website and try the competition. Make it clear to your website designer that speed is important to you.
Search engines like certain elements in websites. Things like: A clear structure, sitemaps, meaningful URLs, relevant keywords in titles, etc. Your website should be built with at least basic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in mind. Choosing an SEO friendly CMS like WordPress is a great place to start.
You should satisfy yourself that your hosting company is reliable, and your data is safe. Performance (speed) should also be a consideration. Even if your Web Designer is suggesting a host for your small business website it’s worthwhile finding out about them.
A cluttered website design with poor navigation is a great way to get people to leave your website as quickly as possible. Your small business will best be served by a simple, easy to navigate and clean website design.
This means that your site will rearrange itself when read on small screens. It makes your website more readable and usable on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. A huge amount of people use mobile devices now, so don’t ignore this.
Flash in not compatible with most smartphones and tablets. Visitors to your website may be met by an error message or blank screen if you use Flash. This doers not leave a good first impression.
Every small business should be capturing visitors’ email addresses for email marketing. Many visitors to your website will be doing research; they may not be ready to purchase immediately. Capturing their email addresses allows you to keep in touch for when they are ready.
Assuming you already have branding design elements like: Logo, colours, fonts etc. these should be maintained on your new small business website. The design of your website should complement any existing marketing material you have.
Most of your visitors will have some expectations about what information they will find on your website. Certain pages like an about page and contact page are more or less mandatory. It’s important your visitors find what they expect to find; quickly and easily.
A stale and out of date website won’t win you any fans. Ensure you website uses a modern design and is kept up to date with useful and current information. At a minimum, you should check your website periodically to make sure all information is still current. Things like offers that have expired need to be removed when they expire. A regularly updated blog is a great reason for people to keep coming back.
One last tip, just remember that your small business website is not there just to look pretty, entertain (unless that’s your business) or to give you a web presence. Your small business website there to make money. To achieve this it should help people find you, grab and hold your visitors’ attention, and finally convince them to take action.
http://www.resultseasy.com/resources/15-tips-for-a-successful-new-small-business-website/
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