Before starting that great new website for your small business, consider your expectations carefully. Most entrepreneurs with their first website lack the experience to know what is truly required to be successful online. Website failure may be defined as anything from total catastrophe to simply results less than expectations. Each can occur even if you have a gorgeous well-designed site.
Don't expect search engine success with high traffic and added revenue instantly. It is rare.
Here's the short list of what you need if your goal is website traffic and new customers. These facts have been overlooked or misunderstood by many of my small business clients, and in most cases the errors of omission are due to inexperience.
1. You need a trusted site with name, address and phone number, not just a PO Box.
2. You need to be online 6-12 months or longer to achieve search engine ranking.
3. You need a large site with 10-20 or more pages of quality content for credibility.
Discuss your needs with your site designer. It should not be a cousin, uncle, or friend who happens to have software to make websites. A truly successful site takes more... much more. Professional help may be more cost effective than you realize. Some service providers will try to take advantage just because you are in business. I regularly save clients more than they pay me for designs by helping them shop for economical service providers for their domain and hosting.
Realistic expectations up front will help you avoid disappointment. Be prepared with an ongoing annual budget to add fresh content and features to your site. A smaller site is okay to get started. If you cannot meet the goals in the above list, your traffic and new customers must be pointed to your site with direct marketing efforts. If presenting your company online achieves a positive first impression that may be enough to begin. As your budget increases you can revise expectations as you continue to grow your online presence.
To compete online, compare your plan to what your competition is already doing. If they have full disclosure of their physical address, phone number, and contact names you need to do the same. A prospective customer comparing one site to another with trusted information will usually rule out the one with a PO Box number, or less than adequate contact information. Real and complete details provide better ranking with search engines, also. Listing your city, state or province, and country will allow search engines to localize search results.
Bonus Tip: If you work from home and offer a product or service sold without a showroom, there are options to avoid strangers disrupting your family life. Some clients get box numbers from service companies, and use that company's address as theirs except instead of box number, they call it unit number. In the USA, you cannot use a US Post Office street address and box number for your return address, even if it is revised to unit number. You will need a private company, however, the peace of mind and the benefits in credibility may be worth the modest cost.
Aging of your site is likewise important. Too many sites are here today, and gone within a year. To maintain credibility the search engines need to serve up relevant results. Until you prove to them your long term intent they will select older and more established sites for page one. Quality content added often can expedite the waiting period.
Do you renew your domain every year? Stop. Register your website for 2-5 years to prove you are there to stay.
Finally, you need to create an authority site that adds value to the internet community. Establishing your expertise begins with valuable advice and content for your visitors. The size of your website will grow as you continue adding content. This improves the customer experience and provides a reason for them to return, or buy. Quality content added often will bring the search engines back more often, also.
Success online is more than just having a website. Realistic expectations require knowledge of how the internet and search engines work. Some people have contacted me after buying a turnkey site thinking money would roll in, and years later the website made zero revenue. You must be unique, so looking like 1000 other sites with identical content is not a solution.
In conclusion, what I have described for your ideal website is similar to what you might look for in a consultant. People are usually more comfortable when they take advice from an older and trusted authority. Provide that slant in the design of your online home, and visitors can sense you have dependable solutions. Define your niche. Set your new website goals. Get help or advice and avoid joining the long list of small business website failures.
A Small Business Website
Website optimization is the best form of valuable advertisement; in fact search engine optimization is the most cost-effective, results-oriented marketing vehicle around. Internet marketing is about working the Internet as another channel to market one's business or organization. Website optimization is essential to your online presence. Without website optimization your website will do almost nothing for you.
More and more small business owners are becoming increasingly aware of how powerful their website can be when optimized properly. Regardless of what type of business, your website can be a very strong marketing tool. Small business websites are most effective when all of the crucial factors are considered before the website is built. When planning a website for your small business, you'll need to decide on a design, who your target market is, what kind of content you want to include, how the information will be organized, what kind of navigation you'll have, and what message you want to get across to consumers.
Online promotion is the practice of using all available avenues of internet marketing/advertising to generate response from your target market. Online promotion ties together both the creative and technical facets of the internet to develop a campaign for getting your site seen by your target market.
Online promotion is a crucial component of any marketing plan and should not discounted as unnecessary. An attractive, well-optimized website can be a valuable lead generation and sales tool for your small business. Online promotion is all about name exposure - getting your name all over the internet. Not only does the content on your site need to be optimized, but you also must generate online exposure all over the internet in order to generate traffic and improve your search engine rankings.
Search Engine Optimization has been shown to deliver the best website ROI out of all the forms of marketing and advertising small business owners have available to them. Search engines play a large part in online promotion but there are many traditional methods that can be combined to target potential customers. Be sure to display your business website address in articles, advertisements, business cards, and company literature to most effectively target potential customers who already have a direct interest in your business or products. Search engine optimization is the most effective method used to help in online promotion of your small business website. A qualified website optimization firm can help in providing the best strategy for a small business owner to have an effective online promotion campaign.
Both Jim Degerstrom & Rajeev Patnia are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jim Degerstrom has sinced written about articles on various topics from Small Business, About Branding and Computers and The Internet. Jim Degerstrom offers small business advice based on 30 years in management, sales, and marketing, including President or General Manager of small companies in 5 states. He is proficient in website and graphic art design, and runs his online. Jim Degerstrom's top article generates over 33100 views. Bookmark Jim Degerstrom to your Favourites.