Do you have a website for your small business? If you do have a website you are ahead of many other small businesses in your area.
How much control do you have over your website? What type of website is it? A static e-commerce website, one on which the content rarely changes? Do you have the ability to make changes and updates regularly, or do you have to wait for your webmaster? The answers to these questions determine if you will attract visitors with a user-friendly website design.
Your Website is an Extension of Your Business Online
Regardless of the type of business you're in, if your business is at a physical location, you know the value of creating an atmosphere that makes your customers and clients, as well as potential customers and clients, feel welcome. It may the actual setting of your establishment, or it may simply be the warm, welcoming smile that they are greeted with.
The same is true for your online portal - the door that opens to your business online. Your small business online marketing strategy requires that your online portal or website attracts visitors and encourages them to stay on your site, and later return.
Create a User-Friendly Website that Attracts Visitors
Your website must be designed to attract visitors and make it easy for them to navigate from one page to the next so that they will enjoy the experience and want to return time and again. Furthermore, your website should reflect your brand, the brand you want people to remember after they've moved away from your site.
Here are some basic points to attract visitors with a user-friendly website design:
1) If you have a logo for your offline business, it would be wise to have that logo on your website for continuity. Your visitors will more readily make the connection between your offline and online businesses.
2) Your brand may be just reflected in a photograph with a warm smile or perhaps the lettering of your website's name, which would likely be the same or very similar to the name of your business.
3) Your concern should be about your customer's or visitor's experience when they visit your online portal. It should be a pleasant one, and one of the things that will help is to organize your tabs in a clear and consistent manner so that your visitor needs only the minimum number of clicks to get to a page or retrieve the information they're looking for.
4) Keep your overall design simple and uncomplicated.
5) Make it easy for your visitors to contact you. This may mean the difference between a one-stop visitor and one who becomes one of your best clients or customers in your local business. Although you are marketing online, your business is offline, therefore make sure that the physical location of your business is also listed on your website.
Domain Name - The Importance of a Keyword Rich Domain Name
1) Every website must have a domain name, and by selecting a domain name that reflects, to some extent, what you do or what you offer to your target market, you will be setting the stage to attract visitors to your website.
2) Another point to note is that your keyword-rich domain name may not necessarily be the same as the name of your business. For example, the name of your business may be "Tim, Your Friendly Handyman."
Your prospect will be searching in Google or one of the other search engines using keywords, and in order for your business to be found your domain name will need to reflect that. Also, because your business should be found in local searches, the name of your town or closest city should be included. In this case if you were in my town your domain could be simply handymanservicesportstlucie dot com or handymanportstlucie dot com. It's always better to use a dot com. For one thing dot coms reportedly rank higher in the search engines, and secondly, that's the most commonly used extension. You could lose business if yours ends with.info or.biz and people are typing in.com.
More and more local small businesses are recognizing the importance of having an online marketing strategy to increase their visibility and attract customers and clients. The first place to start is with a website, which will be the door to your online activities. There are many other aspects of online marketing that can have a positive effect on your local business.
