Build Me A Fab Website » small business

Running A Small Business Website

Abigail Andrews — Sun, 17 May 2009 14:42:30 +0000

Is your small business website working for you?

Do you run a small business? Do you have a small business website? If you do you will know how it’s performing then? You will know approximately how many hits you get? You will know how people find your website? You will know if it was worth the cost? If you don’t then why don’t you?

The biggest mistake small business owners make is to get a website designed then think it will run itself and so forget about it! If you are going to do that then don’t bother getting a website! Websites take time and effort to run. Your websites should be part of your weekly business routine. You should be looking after your website at least once a week. Thinking of new ways to promote it and drive more traffic to it.

If a website isn’t maintained, monitored or updated then the owner has no idea if the website is benefiting the business and more so the website probably isn’t benefiting the business at all!

A website is a promotional and a communication tool. You can use it to attract new customers, and to engage with existing ones. In order to do this you need devote some time and effort to promote, update, monitor and maintain your website.

Promoting your Small Business Website

Once your website is live you need to include it in all your existing promotional methods where possible, and look to new promotional methods which take advantage of your new site. It’s up to you how successful you online promotions are. Your new website is just the start, you need to make it work!

As a website owner many new methods of cheaply and effectively promoting your businesses will become available; but remember these are in addition to the existing offline methods.

It is important that you become familiar with the main website promotion methods such as SEO, PPC and email marketing), as well as including your website in your offline efforts by including your web and email address on your stationary and other promotions, vehicles, etc. Read our article on website promotion tips for more advice and take a look at our small business advertising section for some great sites and ways to advertise your website and drive traffic.

Keeping your website up to date!

Now many small businesses opt for a static site. I often tell clients that the best website to choose is a website you can update yourself. Why? Not because that is a more expensive package BUT because it is important that your site looks fresh and so you should ensure that you update the home page from time to time. Not only that but search engines LOVE frequently updated sites. If a site has not been changed for months, search engines can mark it down as old and not as important! OK getting a static site may get your online presence off the ground BUT after a year or so you should start thinking about upgrading your site to include content management (a way to update your site yourself).

The easiest way of keeping your site fresh and up to date is to include news/Blog headlines on the home page. You could also write useful articles for your potential clients (just as I am doing now!) Search engines will love these extra pages, and in very simple terms the more useful pages you have out there indexed by google the more likely one of them will be found by your potential customers.

Because you will need to update your site it is important that you know how, or employ someone who does. This is why I always advocate that you become familiar with basic web site technologies as it makes running your site much easier.

Maintain Your website

Make sure your site:

Is online
Contains no broken links
No missing images
That the site map is up to date.
That it displays correctly in various browsers.

Monitor your website

This is perhaps the most important part, and the one than very few website owners do. How is your site performing?

Is your traffic increasing or decreasing?
Where is your traffic coming from?
What keywords are your visitors using?
How is your traffic converting to customers?
How profitable is your site?
And last and most importantly, HOW can you make your website work better for your business!!!

At FABI Designs we set up all our sites with access to google analytics. This gives you access to some great statistics about your website, such as, how many hits, how many unique hits, how users found you, where they are in the world, what sites are refering you etc etc.

The essence of this article is to point out how important it is for you to take interest in your website once it has been built. A website does not run itself, yes a static site may not need much involvement, but you need to take interest in how it is performing so that you can consider ways to improve it and get it noticed by potential customers.You may also like to read:

Running A Small Business Website is a post from: Build Me A Fab Website

Do I need a small business website?

Abigail Andrews — Sun, 17 May 2009 13:59:39 +0000

“I need a website”. This usually crosses the mind of the small business owner weekly, so why have so many businesses done nothing about it, and do small businesses really need a website?

If your business does not have a web site you are missing out on sales and potential profits. Whats-more, if you have a web site that is not professionally designed, you run the risk of losing customers that do look at your site. If your competitors have a web site and you don’t, you WILL lose sales as more and more of your customers look to the web to do research on their buying decisions.

As far as web-literate consumers are concerned, internet search engines generally offer the best way to track down a local tradesmen or find out where the nearest supermarket is. With this in mind it is a shock to know that many small business still do not have a website! Of those that do many have a terribly designed one that will send potential customers running for the hills!

At the end of the day, the invention of the internet brought a new audience to the small business. Not only were small businesses able to communicate and advertise to their local area, but suddenly a whole new world of customers came within reach. As a business, big or small, if you are not already marketing your business on the internet, you are missing out on hundreds of new potential customers!

With all this in mind it staggers me that so many small business, especially in these hard times, are not taking advantage of such a fantastic marketing medium. It is becoming obvious in these tough times that many small businesses will face the ultimate scenario, keep up, or lose out!

Small Businesses need to make the most of their website

On the other hand, if you are going to begin promoting your business on the internet you have to make the effort to get the most out of your website. A website is not a miracle solution to falling sales and slowing business. A website is an addition to all your other marketing methods, it should compliment all your other business processes and advertising. Most importantly it will not work unless you put time and effort into running and promoting the site. Read our great articles on promoting your website and free advertising for the small business to help you make the most of your website in your marketing campaigns.

Small businesses do one thing well, and that is failing to maximise the potential of their website. Do not blame your web designer if your website is not generating business for you, it most probably is not your web designers fault, it is probably yours. If you are not actively promoting your website then your site will not be found and it will never find you a new customer!

Getting a Website

So you now realise what you are missing out on if you have not got a website, it’s time to decide what you want from your site, find a designer and get your business online.

As a novice you will make many mistakes on your internet mission. Unless you possess online marketing skills you will make a lot of poor decisions. You might want certain elements on your website just because you like the way they look, are convinced you have to have a certain pages just because every other site does and demand a certain colour because you think it “looks professional”. STOP now, take the time to think what your potential customer would want to see and read. Do you really need to list your services? Do you really need an about us page? Would you really get value for money from an online booking system – would your customers use it?

You may argue that your web designer should help you establish a successful online presence. That’s what you hired him/her for right? Unfortunately most web designers are not online marketers, but they will be very good technically and creatively. They may even know a lot more about the internet and online marketing than you, but that does NOT make them an expert, it makes them a help, but you should be the one who looks into your market and thinks about how you promote your website.

Research your Competitors Websites

Research your competitors websites, see what they have on their site. See what you like and what you don’t like, but DON’T copy. Why? Because most small businesses have not got a clue what they are doing with their website. They don’t know what they should have on their site, so copying them is probably not the best start. The best thing you can do is make your own decisions. Think about what will be useful for your customers, think about what your customers would want to see and read.

Of course some of your competitors will have great sites BUT don’t just copy, do your research. Copying other websites rarely works effectively. Most other small business website owners don’t know how to market online so you will repeat what doesn’t work.

Make a sale with your website

A website can convert prospects for you without you personally selling at all. When your potential customer finally contacts you they are pre-sold, you don’t have to do anything but take their money and provide your services or products. How can you get your website to work like this? By understanding online marketing! I will be writing some articles on this in the future so please browse my site for more information.

In conclusion, do small businesses need a website, hell yes, if they don’t want to be left behind their competition. It does not have to be a fancy all singing and dancing website, it can be simple with only a few pages so it can be added to business cards, BUT it need to look proffessional and contain information that your customers will want to see.

Contact us for a FREE web design consultation on 0113 2797731 or 07818 058158. You can also request a free web design quote using our online website quote form.You may also like to read:

Do I need a small business website? is a post from: Build Me A Fab Website