What makes a great small business website?
In the past, small businesses were limited by physical space. Small businesses could only access the customers that came to their shop. Now, the internet has given small businesses a great platform for accessing potential customers from around the world.
Building a great small business website can be a huge boost to your business. A great website can help you target a specific audience in your niche, convert potential customers into purchasing customers, and build awareness of your quality brand around your city, state, country, and the world.
Small businesses, however, confront several obstacles that their bigger corporate counterparts may not. Limited internal resources and a relatively small budget to use on developing your web presence are two of those obstacles. So, here are a few tips to help you maintain a successful website for your small business.
A Clearly Defined Target Audience
Just like your ninth grade English composition teacher told you, you always have to keep your target audience in mind. Every aspect of your website should add to your overall goal of selling your product to your specific consumer base.
Your target audience dictates what kind of content you publish, the appearance of your website, and how you organize the information for your target audience to see.
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Search Engine Optimization
To design a great small business website, you need to understand how search engines work. Search engines like Google are the means by which your audience will find your website. Consider what happens when you use Google, for example. You want to find some kind of information. You enter that information into the search function and Google brings you a list of websites that possess information relevant to your search term. You want your small business website to appear as high as possible on the list Google brings so that more people will visit your website.
Search engine optimization is the term web designers use to describe the process for ensuring that your website appears higher on the indexes of relevant web pages. Each search engine uses certain algorithms to return search results. Studying those algorithms tells you how to place your website higher on the list.
Content is King
When search engines comb through the internet looking for information relevant to browsers’ search terms they are searching through content. The more content you have the more information a search engine has to work with. But, quantity is not enough. You want to fill your website with the best, most original, most relevant content to the kind of information your target audience will be looking for.
As a small business owner, you probably do not have time to manage your business and produce content for your website. Fortunately, there is a growing number of skilled – and relatively cheap – content writers you can hire to help you maintain a great small business website. You can contact us with your content marketing needs.
Go Mobile
One of the clearest trends in online marketing is the demand for mobile websites. Everyone has a smart phone and everyone is browsing the internet on their phones. If your website is not compatible with mobile devices, you are missing great opportunities to display your business. On top of this, some search engine algorithms are including mobile compatibility as one of their requirements for high ranking websites.
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photo credit: next10, Day2, 12.05.2010
photo credit: Crown