There’s no denying the importance of maintaining a good website if you want your small business to get ahead. SEO is certainly critical for the success of your business, but what good is getting your website to the top of the search engine rankings if the traffic that lands on your website doesn’t find anything there worth sticking around for? Many people check out a company’s website before deciding to do business with the company, simply because the quality of a website can say a lot about the business itself. Is the website maintained well? Does it look professional? These are all key factors in determining whether your business is worth taking a second look at. Here are 5 keys to a great website.
1. Update. Whether or not you update your website sends a strong message to a potential customer about what kind of business you’re running. If your information is out of date, then the visitor isn’t going to find the relevant information he or she is looking for. If it uses old technology, then you run the risk of giving the impression that you’re not familiar with new technology that makes doing business more efficient. And leaving outdated information on your website simply makes you look indifferent to that aspect of your presentation. If you’re really concerned about your customer and about the general perception of your business, then you’ll update your content and your technology regularly.
2. SEO. You’re not going to do much business if your potential customers can’t find your website in the first place, so make sure that SEO is your primary focus from the beginning. If you’re not familiar with SEO, or if you simply don’t feel you have to time to dedicate to it, then contact an SEO professional to help you. It’s an investment in your business that can mean the different between success and failure.
3. Flash and Images. Many small businesses are convinced that Flash based sites are the way to go. The problem with Flash and image based sites, however, is that search engines can’t see them. Thus any SEO efforts applied to them are all for naught. Not only this, but they are expensive to maintain, they’re difficult to update, and they’re not WC3 compliant. If you currently have a Flash based or image based website, you need to convert it immediately to a standards based website. If you’re not sure how to do this, find a local professional to help you.
4. Splash Pages. Everyone is in a hurry…this includes your potential customers. Few internet users have time to wait for your splash page or intro page, to eliminate it altogether. Otherwise you risk your visitors leaving your website immediately once they see that they’re going to have to wait. You want to make it as easy as you can for your visitors to find what they’re looking for, so no matter how awesome you think your intro page looks, get rid of it so that you’re customers can get down to business finding your products and services, not waiting for access to your website.
5. Too Much Talk. You are obviously excited about your company and the products and services it has to offer or else you wouldn’t be in business. But make sure that, in the process of talking about your company, you focus on exactly what your company can do for your target audience. The people who visit your website want to know what your product or service can do to enhance their lives, not about the history of the company. Limit information about the company to one page so that visitors can read it or skip it depending on their interest.
SEO is important, but if visitors find your page cumbersome, distracting, or difficult to navigate then they won’t stick around long enough to become customers.
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