Small Business Websites

Small business websites open up significant possibilities for new customers to learn more about your business. Whether from seeing an advertisement, reading something on social media, or simply typing what they are looking for into Google. When customers can find your business online and order products, your company makes new customers in places you can’t reach because of distance or convenience.

Gaining new customers will help your business grow and thrive, helping it reach its goals. On social media, popularity is a big deal. Everyone wants to have as many friends as possible. They want to be popular. Businesses wish to do the same thing: have as many customers as possible. Having a website is an excellent start to making that a possibility.

Putting your website on your promotions and social media will gain your small business and new customers. It will also help inform your current customers of your products and promotions. Placing your website address on all of your promotional material will help you gain additional exposure and encourage the visitors to first check your site for the information they seek.

Advertising has various forms, like print, media, radio, and television. Advertising is costly. The advantage of having a website for your business is necessary, but it takes a lot of money. Having a website will make promoting your company less expensive.” Many versions of online advertising available on the Internet are sometimes free. For instance, Facebook posts cost virtually nothing. You can advertise sales and new products there. You can also send emails containing promotions to potential customers once you’ve set up the site.

The article 10 Benefits of a Website for a Small Business says, “One of the most significant benefits of having a website for a small business is that you can keep track of its performance in real-time through analytics.” Analytics is a way of studying data. It’s information you can learn from. The article says, “Analytics will provide valuable data on how your business has been moving within a period.” One critical analysis that the article talks about is the number of unique visitors visiting your website. This would allow you to gauge how many different people visit your site. This is important because you could get many views on your website, but with this information, you could tell whether it’s new or returning customers.

Another fundamental analysis the article pointed out is the term bounce rate. “Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your website without exploring past the page they landed on.” This is essential data for a website proprietor because it allows them to see what products customers care about or don’t care about. It will also help them know if they need to highlight specific products over others or change the website layout to make it more appealing to users.

Having all of this information at your fingertips is extremely valuable. Knowing your target market is the best thing you can do for your customers. The more you know and understand your customers, the better product you can serve them.

SEO, which is search engine optimization, is essential to all Small Business Websites. This determines where your business appears when a search engine looks upon something you sell or your business itself. A good SEO service provider can boost the ranking of your website, which quickly results in increased sales. This is an essential aspect of advertising. Suppose you aren’t one of the first options seen. You might not make a sale. You have a higher chance of making the sale if you are seen immediately because the buyer sees you first.

I found an interesting article called 20 Amazing Benefits of Having a Website for Your Small Business. It discusses the many benefits of having a website for your small business. It says, “Connect your website with Angie’s List, Google + page, Facebook Page, Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc.… to capture reviews, gain trust, and provide excellent customer service to drive more customers to your business and back again”… “it’s word-of-mouth marketing at its finest!”

Knowing which products are worth the consumer’s time and money is helpful in a world of different products. When customers leave well-thought-out reviews, your product has more reliability, credibility, and trustworthiness. If customers leave a negative review, knowing what issues you need to fix would also be helpful. Essentially, this would tell the business owner what people like and dislike about the product or service provided.

Knowing what your customers like is a unique tool. It allows you to be ahead of the curve and react to the market as a business owner. Knowing what your customers dislike about your products gives you vital insight. It allows a business to stop re-ordering or producing that product again, enabling you to save potential losses.

According to the 10 Benefits of a Website for a Small Business, “Before broadband technology became widespread in 2004, websites were used primarily for marketing and informational purposes. A website functioned more like a brochure; you put one up to stay ahead of the competition. But there wasn’t much thought and purpose behind the content.” Now, your website is your brand. You need to engage the customer to get them to want to return.

The article also points out the importance of aligning values with your brand. “According to Nobel Prize-winning psychiatrist Daniel Kahneman, consumers patronize brands with which they can align their values. A website is a great way to share your story; tell your audience why you started this business, your goals, and what you hope to accomplish with it.”

Business owners should be aware of some core areas when it comes to web design. If you own a website, this doesn’t mean you have to have a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a web development certificate. After all, many times, people looking to start a simple website can build it and put their ideas to work themselves. Yes, some learning is required at the start. As a business owner, It’s up to you to learn basic web skills. After all, this benefit will allow you to keep your site relevant and up to date. But, if you want the best website, the alternative is to hire a professional web design agency like ours.

Know basic HTML as a Business Owner.

First, a website owner should know HTML and CSS or understand how they work. This will enable you to make simple changes, such as correct typos or add text to your website. Remember, not updating text or correcting typos can deter people from revisiting your site. A community center or a nonprofit is a perfect example of why knowing HTML and CSS is essential. For example, events and notices of cancellations will ensure that the community is aware of sudden changes. The ability to manipulate text is a critical skill for controlling content. Is it blogging on a WordPress website or adding new content to an HTML web page? Basic knowledge will help you.

Business Owners should be able to create unique content and media.

You may have gathered that websites filled with text are much less appealing than those with perfect layouts, website color, photos, and videos. Hence, not controlling your media content can make your site stale. You must create unique media that appeals to your target audience. Returning to the community center website example, visitors will want to see media about the events on the site.

Any small business owner must know how to organize website content, including media content. Business owners want to create appealing media content but also need to change the content on their websites. They must also know how to update the media on their site to ensure that it is up-to-date and relevant to their audience.

Small Business Owners should remember to Present.

All websites should be presentable, and if you find too much content or do not have visually appealing web pages, Then you should know how to rearrange their website. Knowing how to tweak your site can make a world of difference. In fact, visually appealing and correctly laid out digital content will allow visitors to browse the website. Hence, knowing how to add, delete, and rearrange content will give you the added advantage of continually being able to change your website.

For example, a retail site where inventory must be updated regularly. Rather than updating the site and loading all the images onto one page, the retailer will want to organize the site so that visitors can see a certain amount of merchandise on each page. The benefits of being a business owner are that it will allow promotions and new products to be immediately available. Also, determining site layouts and pages helps engage visitors and attract potential customers.

All Business Owners should have a presence on Social Media.

Social media plays a massive role in attracting website visitors in today’s society. Hence, integrating social media into a website and being active is paramount. Being able to tweet or post a Facebook action immediately will get your small business awareness and more business. Imagine if you sell football, and your local team seems to be doing well in the league. Is it on the way to the championships? It would help if you emphasized this current trend and not later on after the event. After all, immediate social activity will drive more action to your website.

Along with owning a site, it is recommended that your site is connected to a social media site. Social media allows owners to give followers updates on the go without editing the site. It is often the most accessible component to attracting visitors, but managing social media can take a lot of thought and effort. Site owners must ensure that the content posted on social media aligns with their site. Another good example would be Nike; they utilize social media by posting videos of athletes to promote their website. You can attract visitors by raising their curiosity about products or simply showing your company’s values through videos and photos like Nike.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a discipline that helps with website ranking. Many resources can help you do some basic SEO. After all, the whole purpose of having a website is to be visible on key search engines. For example, understanding the traffic to your website and the bounce rate will give you more information to adapt to your business climate.

Web Security is a number one priority for all Business Owners

After finishing up and putting together a web page. It’s essential to secure your website. These are a few techniques a website owner should know to build a safer, more secure website for visitors.

Although it may be obvious, updating your software is essential for keeping your website secure. This applies to the server operating system and any software you may run on your website. Keeping your software up to date will limit the security holes that hackers may exploit. However, if you’re using a third-party hosting company, you don’t need to worry as much about applying security updates, as the hosting company should take care of this.

You should also know how much information you give in your error messages. For example, if you have a login form on your website? It would help to think about communicating “attempt-failure” when attempting logins. You should always use common messages like “Incorrect username or password.” For example, do not specify if a user got half of the query right. If a hacker tries to attack and an error message saying only one of the fields is correct, the attacker will pursue further. Hence making the website vulnerable.

Security and Strong Passwords

Everybody knows they should use the correct passwords to secure their login information. But this is not always the case. For example,  admin and server logins should have strong passwords so that hackers cannot try to access the website. Also, it is a good idea for your website users to follow good password practices. Although many users would not like it, enforcing essential password requirements is necessary. For example, including an uppercase letter and number will help protect their information in the long run.

Another dangerous security risk is letting users upload files to your website, even if it is simply to change their avatar. The upload could have malicious intent with a script that could open up your website. Hence, file sizes and file types should be in place to prevent your website from falling to hackers.

Testing Your Website

Once you have done everything, it’s time to test your website security. The most effective way of doing this is via some website security tools, often called penetration or pen testing. There are many free tools or commercial tools that you can use to test out your website. They generally focus on scripts hackers use on known exploits and attempt to compromise your site using advanced methods.

These are just a few methods to make your website more secure. As technology advances, users and creators can deploy more techniques and strategies to enforce what they accomplish. It is a good idea to keep up with technology, which will equip you with more tools. This might sound not easy, and it can sometimes be, but as long as a website owner has basic knowledge, they can get by.

Know the small details.

Owning a website, you don’t need to know all the small details. Knowing where to find the resources to get the correct answers is much more critical. Whether a website owner needs to add text or update media, sites like w3schools.com can be a great resource to help get the desired result. Staying up to date with current trends in social media gives website owners an edge in promoting their sites and helps them understand what their visitors are into. It is also good to keep your skills up to date by practicing. Knowing the basics will save time, money, and frustration.

Hire a Professional Web Designer

Suppose you’re just too busy, which is excellent! And at the junction, does your small business website need professional help? You can always hire a professional web design and marketing company like Visualwebz. Is it a CPA, a dental practice wanting SEO, or an attorney needing a new website and online advertising? We can do it all. Call us at (425)-336-0069 or email us at info@visualwebz.com.