An online presence for businesses today is imperative.
Whether you are the chairman of a giant multinational corporation or a small family-owned restaurant owner, you must build a digital identity for your business to survive and thrive in this ever-competitive world. A great place to start is by developing an effective website for your business.
Building a Website for Your Small Business
Business giants have teams of professionals at their beck and call to take care of web development and other crucial work. However, for small business owners, it is often not a viable solution to dedicate money and resources in the same way.
Fortunately, there’s not that much that goes into building a decent website. With a little effort, you can even take on the entire project by yourself. Here are four tips to get you started on developing an effective website for your small business.
- Learn the Basics of Web Design
If you plan to design the website on your own, it’s a good idea to start by learning the basics of web design. Luckily, you can access a plethora of information on the internet from anywhere.
With a bit of research, you can find various credible resources to learn web design for free, including how-to guides, video tutorials, and online boot camps. The best part is that most of these resources are targeted toward beginners, so you can start from scratch without prior training and still learn how to create a website that looks good and runs relatively well.
- Pick the Right Domain Name
The domain name is the make-it-or-break-it factor for any website. While the right domain name can do wonders to grow your online presence, a complicated one will do the opposite. Two factors go into selecting a domain name for a business:
- The Domain Name
The first thing you need to decide on is the actual domain name you want for your website. This is the text that comes between the “www.” and the top-level domain (TLD). While picking a domain name, you must ensure that the name is easy to spell and remember and doesn’t include extra characters such as hyphens.
- The Top-Level Domain (TLD)
The TLD is the extension at the end of a website address, such as “.com” or “.net.” The most effective and easily memorizable is “.com,” making it the ideal choice for your website. However, different TLDs sometimes work better. For instance, “.edu” is better suited for a school or college’s website.
Once you find the perfect domain name and TLD, you may be keen to close the purchase, but remember to consider the price factor. A good domain name can cost considerably high, and such an expense may not be in the best interest of your small business. Therefore, make sure you consider all factors before making the final decision.
- Keep It Simple
One of the biggest mistakes amateur web designers make is stuffing content on web pages. A cluttered web page is instantly unattractive and can drive away customers immediately. Keep your website simple and easy to navigate to avoid such a scenario.
Make a clear and coherent site map that is easily accessible to visitors and which allows them to find what they are looking for without having to jump through multiple hoops of webpages. Use a mix of text and images to hold the visitors’ attention and leave plenty of blank space to help them focus on the content.
Everything you place on your website must bring value. Try to gauge the impression your website will have on visitors and go through every piece of information to assess whether or not it is useful. Unless the content is helping the visitor understand your business or improving the user experience (UX), you might want to consider removing it. Always remember, a little goes a long way.
- Use Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important tools that contribute to the success of any website. SEO is the use of a combination of writing techniques that tailors content in a manner that helps it rank higher on a search engine results page (SERP) when users carry out a related search on Google or Bing, etc. The most commonly used SEO strategies include:
- Frequent use of targeted keywords
- Developing catchy and appropriate metadata
- Acquiring organic backlinks
Using SEO strategies to create content can drive more traffic to your website and boost sales. With SEO, users can find your website when looking to buy a product or service that you provide. Thus, SEO is one of the best tools for increasing sales through the digital channel. In addition, as more users visit your website, there will be an increased awareness regarding your brand, which will help you have a fantastic edge over your competitors.
While SEO is a seemingly simple strategy, there is much more than meets the eye. Anyone can write content that checks all the SEO boxes. However, it takes great skill to create content that, besides the SEO checks, is interesting to read and appeals to users. So unless you think you’re up to the task, consider hiring a freelance SEO writer to help you develop content for your website.
Final Thoughts
Building a website for your small business is a great way to dive into a new channel for business development. With the tips above, you can create an effective website that will draw potential customers to your door – or in this case, inbox. However, you must remember that a website is not a one-time project and requires regular attention. Therefore, regularly update your website with new content to maintain the visitors’ interest.
Today’s business world is more competitive than ever, and it is a challenge to remain in the race and prove yourself a worthy contender. Creating an effective website for your small business will not only help you stay in the running but may just be what you need to come o
