In our introduction to this Online Marketing Toolkit, we noted that many people are going online in search of small-business information. If you want to make it easier for potential customers to learn about your business online, the logical first step may be to set up a website.
Here are three key considerations in building a website for your business:
- What is your desired response? An effective website has a clear “call to action” on its home page. For example, many websites display a prominent graphic with a phone number, so visitors immediately have contact information. Other websites feature a form that lets visitors submit preliminary information for a price quote. For online stores, your home page should highlight and promote specials by featuring specific products or categories.
- What makes your business stand out? Your website should differentiate your business from the competition in a way that attracts customers. Astrid Gaiser, owner of Astrid Gaiser Garden Design, emphasizes her company’s unique strengths online. “Having a good website has really helped my business grow, because I can show how I’m different,” she explains. “For example, unlike most designers, I work with tropical plants. Clients couldn’t know this without seeing one of my gardens or checking my website.”
- How much time, money, and expertise can you dedicate to launching and maintaining an online presence? Think of your website as an additional marketing channel for your business — and budget accordingly. There are plenty of options for hiring web designers to develop and update your site, but if you have time to invest in your website, you can save money with a do-it-yourself solution. A template-based DIY system can help you design your site easily without a lot of artistic or technical knowledge.
Category : Web Design &Websites
So, what are keywords and how do they help to increase traffic to your website? Keywords are words that depict for the search engine what your website is all about, this will then cause search engine to rank you so that surfers can find what they are looking for. Truthfully speaking, I am a good example for improperly choosing keywords in the past, I’ve setup sites with keywords that I thought were good and relevant to my website and the thing is, they were. The question is though, does the users associate this keyword with the niche of your products and services.
Do your research! Properly choosing the right keywords for your website can be very helpful in increasing your websites ranking in the search engine. Well, a lot of companies have an idea about what keywords are relevant for their products or services for their company, but these keywords may not be what users are searching for in the search engines. Doing your homework, and research to find what your potential clients associate with you products and services can be very helpful in increasing traffic to your site.
If your website is optimized for the keywords or keyword phrases that people are actually using to find solutions that your company offer, you will increase traffic to your site and in turn lead to increasing sales.
Here you can find out more about choosing keywords and search engine optimization.
If you have questions or comments, don’t hesitate to post them below. I will do my best in responding and answering them.
Category : Advertising &Blog &Internet &SEO &Websites
Make sure that you visit Google and check out the Local Business Center. Especially, If you are a business trying to attract customers in your local area. Google allow you to add your business to their directory which includes optional information like images and videos to help your listing stand out. As you may already know you can add information like opening hours, payment acceptance types, and additional details to help users refine their search in order to find your listing.
Google gives you the options to list your business website as your homepage, along with your business name, physical address, and phone numbers.
New features have been recently added to your Local Business Center, showing you analytics. You can now see detailed useful information about your search terms, your business location and what drove them to your site. Very similar to Google Analytics.
While your setting this up don’t forget to take a look at the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide to learn how to help Google crawl and index your site for higher search engine ranking.
Category : Advertising &Blog &Branding &Marketing &Websites
Web Design can be more than just the look and feel of your website. A great website has updated available content, great functionality, and search friendly URL’s (pretty URL’s).
Knowing Your Audience
Always putting your brand first and foremost, making every aspect of your site or downloadable portion of your site, obviously and traceable back to you. Know your key audience and some statistics about them.
- Other sites frequented
- Cross browser platform (make sure your website looks good in several browsers)
Continuity is Key
Every page of your site or derivative of your site must be anticipated by your viewing audience. Keep navigation and common links in repetitious locations. Any advertising or marketing should avoid blindness, but not obstruct regular viewing of primary content.
The trap many site owners find themselves walking into is trying to do too much with their site design, too fast. With so many web design software applications available almost anyone can become a web site design specialist – by title only. Web page design however actually takes more than some pretty graphics and a place to put them. At least some understanding of how your pretty pictures will be combined into code and how to make them function properly, is required to make any web designer effective.
Category : Blog
