3 Steps To Your First Small Business Website

When planning your first small business website, there are three essential questions you should ask yourself:

1. Who is your target audience?


2. How will your target audience find you?


3. How will you convert your visitors into sales?

These questions sound obvious, but it's amazing how many people don't bother...and then moan that "our website doesn't bring us any business".

1) Who is your target audience?

Give a great deal of thought to your target market. Who do you want to attract to your website? Why? The answer to that is more than likely to sell them something - a product, a service, or an idea perhaps.

Claiming that your market is anyone and everyone is far too vague, and your website will lack focus, and fail to maximise its potential. Ideally you should be aiming to create a niche.

2) How will they find you?

Creating a niche will also help you with the search engines, and drive hot leads to your site.

Consider what keywords your target market might type into a search engine to find you. Actually do the searches yourself. Who comes up in the top 30? Because that's where you need to be. Are your competitors there? Look at their sites. Do they work? How can you improve on them? Identify something unique about your business that sets it apart from the rest.

Those keywords - or keyphrases to be more accurate - need to be incorporated into your pages of your site - in the page titles, in the headings, and in the internal links.
Be specific with your keyphrases. They will be less competitive than the more general single word searches, and will more accurately target your market. You may have to localise or specialise to get in that top 30 - and the top 30 is where you need to be to drive traffic to your site. As I am sure you are aware from your own experience, if you haven't found what you are looking for in the first 3 results pages, you look elsewhere.

The key to achieving high search engine rankings is building inbound links to your web pages - that is pages on external websites that link to pages on your site. Crucially this link acquisition should be a natural growth - where inbound link count increases at a gradual pace. The pages that link to yours should be relevant, on-topic and ideally contain the same keywords - especially in the linking text. Search engines rank pages based upon their reputation - your ranking will be determined by what other (preferably high ranking) pages say about your page.

3) How will you convert your visitors into sales?

Don't just tell them what you do or sell. Tell them why they want it (yes, want - not need). Offer incentives, freebies, discounts - anything to get that dialogue started.

Current research indicates that the human brain makes a judgment about a web page within a twentieth of a second! That doesn't leave you very long to make an impression. So, make sure that you have your Unique Selling Point (USP) clearly visible on your home page - and preferably prominent on every one of your other pages. After all, it's not a given that the home page will be the first page that the visitor sees, particularly if they have found you via a search engine.

Then make sure that you list your bullet-pointed guarantees. Visitors have to understand why you are different from the rest, and why they should deal with you and not your competitors. And as we've discovered, they have to understand this pretty much instantly.

Lastly, make sure that your site has a funnel-like structure. Identify your important pages - usually the "call to action" or purchase pages - and make sure all roads lead to those pages. Your internal links - like their external equivalents - should describe the target page. If you sell blue widgets, don't call your products page "Products", call it "blue widgets", and make sure that the links pointing at this page also say "blue widgets". This will not only help the search engines identify and rank the most important pages in your site, it will also lead your visitor to that all important conversion.

Small Business Ecommerce Web Design

Small Business Ecommerce Web Design

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Summary:

If your small business is venturing into ecommerce, you may be daunted by the technical wizardry you think is involved. But fear not: complete web store software packages will keep all the technical wizardry safely behind the screen, so you don't have to worry about it. All you have to do is choose a design, stock your store, and promote it. Here's how to do that.

Designing Your Online Store: Choosing a Template

When starting a brand-new online store for a small busin...

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online store builder

Article Body:

If your small business is venturing into ecommerce, you may be daunted by the technical wizardry you think is involved. But fear not: complete web store software packages will keep all the technical wizardry safely behind the screen, so you don't have to worry about it. All you have to do is choose a design, stock your store, and promote it. Here's how to do that.

Designing Your Online Store: Choosing a Template

When starting a brand-new online store for a small business, you're better off choosing a pre-existing design template rather than having a design done from scratch.

• Templates. If you’re not quite sure what kind of design you'd like, you can browse through the design templates included with most hosted online store programs.

• Themes. Some online store builders take the design template concept one step further, with "themes." Themes are essentially templates that include not only basic design elements but also text styles such as font faces and sizes. Themes also allow for slightly different pages across a website with a single unified design, without having to configure each page individually. For instance, a web store theme might include a product description page, a product category page, an "add to cart" page, and a checkout page. Just by choosing a single theme, you have all the pages in the shopping cart designed with a single, unified professional design, just like big, successful web stores.

• Theme builder. If you want to make changes to a theme–say a different font or a different color–some web store software packages make it easy with a "theme builder." With the theme builder, you can select values for features such as color and font. You can even choose to build a theme from scratch, though for most web stores this will be a case of re-inventing the wheel unnecessarily. You don't need to know anything about HTML; the interface is much like a word processing program.

• Professional design. Once you've created your store using templates or a theme builder, you can turn to a professional designer to make your site really special. Still, you may want to stick with the basic template or theme-builder site until you have a firm idea of how users are interacting with it and what elements are working. That way you'll have concrete requests to make of the designer.

Building Your Online Store: Inventory

The foundation of any online store is the products or services being sold. With most web store and shopping cart software packages, the functions for adding, removing, and pricing items are collectively called "inventory."

Even if you're selling intangibles such as downloadable software, you will use the inventory functions to specify how the items will be sold. There are options for setting the available quantity in stock to unlimited, or handling just about any kind of permutation of selling products or services online. Web store software makers have seen it all.

One of the great things about using a hosted web store software package is that if you do have trouble setting something up, you can get help quickly from customer service.

Adding New Web Pages to an Online Store

If you want to add new pages to your online store, the store creator software can help. If all you want is to add a new product, you only have to use the "add a product" feature, which is often listed under "inventory." However, if you want to add pages for sales copy, manuals, privacy policies, terms and conditions, the store creator interface is the way to do it. Most online store creators have a way of adding pages to a web store without having to use HTML; you simply type in your text in the form and upload any images.

Getting Your Store Found in Search Engines

In order for your online store to generate the most business possible, you’ll want to make sure that your store is easily searchable for Internet shoppers. Unfortunately, some web stores create pages using a dynamic script that search engines cannot index.

Often you can tell if a web store cannot be indexed by search engines by looking at the URL of an inside web page (the homepage, also called the index page or "front page," will usually be search-engine-index-able no matter what). If the URL is a long string of characters that is slightly different from one user to the next (say, when you open the page on your computer and someone else opens the page on another machine), that likely means the site is using "session IDs" which search engines have a notoriously difficult time interpreting. If the URL is something simpler, such as "domain.com/category-5/product-6.php", the page is much more likely to be search-engine friendly.

The best way to check whether a web store or shopping cart software produces "search-engine-friendly" pages is to check the documentation; software that's search-engine-friendly will usually say so.

Of course, as with any website, doing well in search engines still requires your site to have links pointing to it and some text on the pages. Just because search engines can index a page doesn't mean they'll return it for any searches.

Do's and Don'ts of Launching a Small Business Website

Launching a small business website can seem like an enormous task ,although it does require some research, if done right it might be just the marketing tool your business needs. The road to a website is filled with website designers, website developers and graphic designers. This in itself is very confusing. A website designer is someone who produces the design. A website developer is someone who creates more of the program side to your websites rather than the actual design. Nowadays most website designers are also developers. A graphic designer is the person who makes the images at the top of web pages, the buttons, and menus on a website. The whole process should not be so difficult and full of surprises. Therefore the 6 Do's and Don’ts should be a great start to help you launch your small business website.

Don't concentrate on images and how pretty your site will be. Remember that your sites' purpose is to answer your customers questions and inform your customers of what you have to offer, such as services and products. Don't use too many images because if your site is so "new age" a lot of people will not be able to navigate and find their way around it therefore they will get frustrated and not stay on your site and that would defeat the sites purpose.

Don't compare web designers by their price. Not all web designers are created equal. You must not only compare the price but the type of service you will require such as internet marketing and updates, will they continue to create the site until you are satisfied, and can they write the content. Some designers will create you a site and mail you a CD with the files and you will then have to figure it out on your own how to get it on the web. Others will help you choose a domain and a hosting company, upload your files to your site, and will write your content. Writing on the web is different from writing in print. A good content writer will know what to say to keep your visitors on your site. Keep these things in mind when choosing a web designer.


Don't hire a web designer until you are ready. Once you are finished shopping around for a web designer, do make sure you have purchased a domain name, hosting, have a general idea of what you would like your site to look like and written your content, if you will be doing this yourself. This is important! Web designers work virtually, that is directly on-line (through the Internet). You might not actually ever meet them. This style of work is very different from working face to face and have times set up as to when you will meet. It actually benefits you, the designer can get your website on-line faster. Therefore it is important for the web designer to have all your information. If they have to wait a week or so for you website content then you will be pushed to the back burner.



Do request a quote from a few web designers before you decide on one. Once you have looked at some websites find a few who you like and request a quote from them. Explain that you are interested in a website, explain a little bit about your business, how many pages would your site need and what are other services you would need from them. Ask them to send you a price detailing what would be included. Understand that this is a quote and if you are requesting any other additional services there will be an additional cost although designers will usually let you know beforehand.


Do plan on keeping your site up-to-date. Keeping your site updated keeps your customers coming back to either find out what's going on with your company or about new promotions or sales. It also gives your customers the impression that you care about keeping them informed and that you value their business. The benefit of having a website is it's easy to update and don't cost much. Usually a web design firm will have special packages for updates. Find a designer who also can provide updates and when your site is finished discuss an update schedule and what they can suggest to keep your site looking fresh.

Do find a designer who specializes in small business. Small design firms understand the needs of another small business and are more likely to be more personal with your questions. A big design firm might have 5 people working on your website and they might not all have gotten the e-mail that stated what you want. Whereas a small design firm would have one person working on your site with whom you communicate directly.

This guide to launching a small business website is just the tip of the iceberg. The best thing is always know what you are going to receive in return for your hard earned cash. Make sure that your website is like an investment and that you are actually going to receive a return on your investment. Also, don't be afraid to ask questions! Most designers will answer most of your questions, no problem.

Diy Web Builders? Are They Useful Tools For Small Businesses?

Many small businesses looking to establish a web presence wonder whether the use of a web builder is really worth investing in. DIY web builders are an incredibly useful tool for the small business. Not only does a DIY web builder make creating a website a simple process, it also provides a small business with a creatively designed website quickly. The benefit that a website provides a small business with makes a DIY web builder utterly indispensable. Plus, the diversity that a web builder provides makes it ideal for every business—no matter what kind of website a small trader wants to establish, there is a web layout that will easily suit everyone.

Hiring a professional web designer to create a website can be costly. In contrast, a web builder will allow a small trader to create a website without having to rely on the services of a professional web designer. A web builder offers hundreds of easy templates to choose from and a smaller trader can easily select whatever template that they like the most. The annual subscription for a web builder is far less than what one would have to pay for a web designer just to create a website. Plus, the smaller trader will have online tutorials at their disposal, making the act of creating a website trouble free.

Small traders need to realize that once they elect to hire a web designer, they are in for more than just initial website set up fees. Websites require continual updating and maintenance to remain proficient and the smaller trader will find that they are paying more and more fees as time goes on for web maintenance. As an alternative, it is far better to use a web builder to create a website and to take a few minutes to manage the website. A web builder makes navigation throughout the website’s layout simple and it only takes a few minutes to make the changes and updates that a website might require. Again, a web builder can save a small trader a lot of money, both in terms of creating a website and maintaining one.

A web builder provides a smaller trader with everything they will need in order to run their Internet business with proficiency. Using a web builder, the smaller trader can take advantages of counters to track incoming web traffic; can use easy shopping cart set up tools; can establish a website that allows them to accept payments online with safety; and can create a website that is attractive and appealing to a broad audience. In fact, a web builder will permit a small trader to create page upon page that shares product or service information and a website that is created with a web builder can even include a blog that allows the small trader to touch base with customers from all over the world.

Once a website has been created with a web builder, a small trader will find that a new world of communication is revealed to them. Through shared and reciprocal links, a small trader will be able to establish a relationship with other businesses with similar interests. In fact, even long lasting business relationships may be the result of creating a website. In the end, a DIY web builder is indeed worth the nominal investment. From ease of establishment to the ease of website management, from the diverse tools to the diverse to the ease in which every tool is used, a web builder is definitely useful for the small trader.

Small Business Website Design Strategies

For a small business a website can have a massive impact on whether that small business thrives or dies out. There are several very important differences between a website built for a large business and a website built for a small business. It’s important that a small business and the website design company who builds the website for that small business are aware of those differences so that the website has the greatest positive impact.

First of all don’t try to look and act like the big boys. If you are a small business please do not plaster your site with platitudes like “family owned since 1642” or “customer service is our specialty” blah blah. IBM and Coke can get away with having pretty sites that blather on and on using all kinds of corporate jargon but a small business cannot do that. Here’s why…

Big companies are already established brands. They can rest on their laurels now; at least they think they can. A small business website needs to grab the visitor by the throat with some hard hitting headlines and copy and get busy proving its case because before visiting that website it’s likely the visitor has never heard of that small business.

Think of it like a courtroom. The small business is on trial it’s products and services are suspect from the get go. That small business needs to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that it can provide the best value over its competitors. What’s worse is that you only have about 8 seconds from the time the visitor hits the homepage to the time they click the back button to hook them into your sales copy.

The number one difference here is the copy. A small business website needs to be a life support unit for its unique selling proposition or USP not a contestant in this year’s flashy foo foo web design award contest. Win customers not awards. Forget the animation and music and go easy on the images. What a small business needs is a lean, mean conversion machine.

Studies show the visitors don’t even consciously register images until after they have absorbed the copy on the page. Makes sense because what they came for was information not the old receptionist at the desk on the phone pictures that we have seen over and over again. They want to know who the heck you are and what you can do for them and make it snappy!

It’s brutal but that’s the way it works. A small business that knows this and applies this to their website has a huge advantage over those who don’t. So if you are a small business owner and need a website keep this article in mind or if you have an existing website take a look at it and reevaluate it’s effectiveness in light of this information. Small changes can have dramatic effects on sales conversion.