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Designing Your Small Business’ Website

The backbone behind any successful online marketing campaign is a website. Your company website is the first place potential customers will go - to learn more about your business. The layout, content, and navigation of your company’s website will all factor into how visitors’ perceive your business, the attitude they generate towards it, and whether or not they will use its services. Having a well designed website that truly considers each individual user will help consumers form positive opinions about your company, and will ultimately lead to a more successful and profitable business.

The following tips provide a basic overview on how to develop a successful website:

1. Keep it Simple:

Users appreciate websites that consider their time constraints. They want to be able to know what your company does, how it can benefit them, and who to contact in a matter of seconds. If information is too difficult to find, or there is too much content to sift through, users will get frustrated and move on to another website.

When designing your website, ensure that its layout is conducive to each individual user. Do not clutter the site with unnecessary details, but simply include those that are vital to each customer’s needs:

a) Have a clear homepage that presents a brief overview of your company and how it can benefit consumers
b) Provide simple navigation,
c) Offer contact details on every page,
d) Use easy to read fonts, simple colors, a basic background, and
e) Write with efficiency.

2. Write Compelling Content:

Content is what will drive visitors to your website, and entice them to stick around. The key to creating content that will lure consumers to peruse your company’s site is considering the target audience in every piece of writing you put forth. Ensure that content is tailored to your consumers and speaks directly to the benefits your products and services can bring them. Consider including testimonials from satisfied customers, case studies, or even try starting a company blog filled with interesting and relevant information your target market will find valuable.

3. Use Continuity:

Your company website is a key tool to developa brand image for your business. The fonts, colors, images, and tone of voice on the website will shape the image, consumers associate with your business. Put thought into the style and persona of your website by considering what attributes you want to be connected with your business. Once this is determined, always use the same font, colors, graphics, and tone throughout to create a consistent brand image your target audience can remember.

4. Include Call to Action:

Design the website with a 'call to action' in mind. A call to action is the specific response you want visitors to complete such as purchasing an item, calling for a quote, filling out a contact form, or donating to the company. Whatever your company’s intended call to action maybe, ensure it is instilled into each page of the website for the greatest effect. For example, if your goal is to get your phone ringing- make sure the phone number is very visible on every page and you ask people to call repeatedly.

5. Optimize Your SEO:

Keep search engines in mind when designing and coding the site. Having a high ranking on Google is by far the best way to generate website traffic. To enhance your SEO, always include targeted content, create a logical page and site structure, tag keywords, and include internal links. See #2, “Write Compelling Content” for another great SEO optimization strategy.


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