First, you want to make sure your website is user-friendly to viewers on all devices; from desktops to laptops and from tablets to smartphones. This means your website design should be mobile responsive. Today, your potential customers are more likely to discover your website on their desktop or laptop, and then later revisit your website on their tablet for more details about your business before deciding whether to contact you or not. Or someone may use their tablet to learn about you first, and then later revisit your site on their smartphone before deciding whether to call you. The way people interact with your site will vary, but mobile device usage is up dramatically, across the board.
Also, the higher the price of your products or services, the more involved your customers will be in finalizing their decision whether to purchase your products or call you. They most likely will look over your business website in more detail, whether on their laptop, tablet or smartphone. It is very important to present your business professionally and communicate your main messages effectively across all computing devices; this can only be done with a mobile responsive website. You don’t want to spend all your marketing dollars to gain the interest of potential customers, only to turn them away because your site doesn’t display well on their tablet or smartphone.
A recent report by Netbiscuits, a web analyst firm that took the opinions of 6,000 web users in the US, UK, Brazil, China, and India revealed that 96% of viewers abandoned websites due to poor experience on their mobile devices. This statistic is a strong indication from common web users that businesses should not ignore.
Second, in order for search engines to index your business website under the correct category you need to at least optimize your web pages’ Title and Description Tags well. Also, for people to find your website’s content helpful, you need to write at least a few great content pages introducing your business and what you provide on your primary pages; such as your HOME page, ABOUT US page, and SERVICES/PRODUCTS page. Without these elements it’s very difficult for your target customers to find your site on search engines, so it’s important that you do these well from the beginning.
Third, initially, you should use an email with your domain-name in it (ex: [email protected]) to communicate with your potential customers instead of your personal email ([email protected]), at least in the beginning until the customers know you. Later you can notify them that to be more accessible you prefer they use your personal email address. Using your domain-based email (ex: [email protected]) to communicate with your potential customers shows that you are from a legitimate source, (i.e. MyDomain.com.) A personal email can look suspicious, if not spammy, to people who don’t know you well yet.
Fourth, like most people, you don’t like to wait for websites that take too long to load. Many people will exit a site if it takes more than 10 seconds to load. Therefore, you should find a premium web hosting provider to host your website to make sure viewers are not frustrated with the loading speed of your site. Don’t risk your opportunities to gain new customers with cheap ($10 a month) hosting. Getting potential customers to your site takes time and money; you don’t want to lose them because your site loads slowly during high web-traffic hours. Investing in fast and secure web hosting is just the right thing to do for any business.
Fifth, You should register your business with Google place. This will help local customers find your business listing easier on a Google search. You should also consider integrating a Google Map on your website’s CONTACT US page. It will help customers learn where your business is located.
Sixth, to keep track of website visitors, you should create a Google Analytics account and integrate its code onto your website. You can easily add a Google Analytics account if you already have a Gmail account. The tools inside your standard Google Analytics are free for you to use.
Seventh, take the time to register an account for your business on these popular business directories. It will help create more awareness of your business on the internet. You should populate your business’ information on these well-trusted sites to make your listing look professional. With Google Analytics you can track to see how many visitors come to your site through these business directories and other sources.
- Yelp.com
- MerchantCircle.com
- Thumbtack.com
- DexKnow.com
- YellowPages.StarAdvertiser.com
- Local.com
- MyLocally.com
- Lacartes.com
- CitySquares.com
- CrunchBase.com
These are key elements that will help you establish an effective web presence at minimum cost. To get these done correctly, you may want to hire an affordable web design firm to assist you. I hope you find the tips above helpful. If you do, please feel free to share it with your family and friends. Thank you for taking the time to read it.
