To a small business, a website can seem like just another tool to monitor and update. After all, social media profiles offer lots of the same features right?
In reality, having a website has never been so important for small businesses. Your website is actually one of the most prevalent first points of contact that people have with your business. In fact, your social media profiles should always point back to your website.
A website – no matter how simple – is a further confirmation to potential customers that you are a legitimate business. As a small business, having a way to show off your work and demonstrate your expertise is incredibly useful for building that trust and credibility with potential customers.
Websites allow you to provide valuable information about your business, what you do and who you are. Listing your products, services, features, story, delivery information and more on your website allows customers to have a “one stop shop” for seeking all the information they want on your small business.
What are the Benefits of Having a Website for Your Business?
There are endless benefits to having a website for your business but here are three of the main ones:
It’s a virtual storefront
Your website is exactly like a brick and mortar store, only it’s not limited to one place. It gives you a scalable way to reach customers, which is incredibly important in today’s globalised day and age. If you are online only, you want to envision your website as an experience your customers will have, just like if they walked through the door into a physical store. Make your website engaging, exciting and interesting to keep the customers’ attention.
Understand your customers better
There are many tools that you can utilise to see exactly where your customers engage with you online, and on your website. You can see their user behaviour to better understand who your customers are, and convert them into paying clients.
A website is also the perfect place to gather feedback from your customers. This can be explicit, in written forms that are submitted directly to you from your customers, or implicit, by using marketing data and analytics to see how customers behave on your website.
Increase your web presence through Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO is a great way to get a lot of success with a small amount of effort. Your web presence can grow infinitely bigger with SEO, using keywords, content marketing, and by setting your website up the right way. Building out the content and pages on your website using the right keywords that you know your customers will search for on Google or other search engines is an excellent way to get more eyes on your website.
A website can also help with search engine optimization, which is important if you want to have the most success with the least amount of effort. You can put in keywords that are relevant to your business and it will help people find you when they search on Google or other search engines. This gives you the awesome opportunity to reach 100x bigger than your local area with your content.
Your Website as a Platform for Marketing & Advertising
A website is an important marketing and advertising tool for any small business. It helps with brand recognition, customer acquisition, and lead generation – three key elements needed to effectively market your business in a competitive landscape.
Your website is the destination for all advertising campaigns you might run, as well as the goal destination for any posts or links you provide on social media.
Website Features That Matter Most For Small Businesses
A website is your online representation and can cement the opinion of your business that a customer might have. The design should be engaging and user-friendly, so that anyone on your website can browse easily. The design of websites can vary depending on what is needed; for instance, some may have relatively little text and use pictures instead. If this is the case, then images will need to be high quality in order for people using screen readers or low vision devices to view them too.
For small businesses, some important website features to have are:
An engaging home page
Being the first thing that a customer would usually see organically (from search), an inviting home page is incredibly important. Think outside of the box for design, but think like the customer for the layout and content. Instead of asking yourself “what do I want your customer to see first” ask “what does my customer want to see first”.
Must-haves:
- Company name
- Logo
- A destination (another page, a product, a link to contact us, a service support call)
An easily accessible menu
Easy navigation makes it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for without having to hunt through multiple pages of content, or get confused and discouraged from using your website.
Must-haves:
- Consideration for what the mobile menu looks like
- Readable text (make sure your background colour is differentiated from your text colour)
- Links to all relevant pages
Up-to-date content
By regularly updating your content and keeping it fresh and relevant, you greatly increase your chance of getting readers to come back to your website. Make sure you are updating your product or services page too – this doesn’t just apply to blogs or business updates!
Every year it’s a great idea to also revisit your ‘About us’ page to make sure all of the information is still accurate.
Get More Customers With Your Blog
“There are more than 252,000 new websites created every day around the world.”
Siteefy.com, October 2021
When people use search engines to find businesses online, they typically don’t start with the homepage. With the number of websites available, it is easy to get lost in the vast world of information on the internet. Having an active blog on your site will help stay top-of-mind for potential customers when they are looking for more info about your business or services you provide.
Blogs are one of the most important parts of any website. They can help you bring in new customers and provide a way for you to connect with your current customer base.
A blog not only helps to provide information about your business but also allows you to share your story. This can help you connect with other people who are in the same industry as you, and it can help you find new customers. Blogs are important because they provide fresh content that may not be found on any other page on your site or on any other site that is related to yours.
How do I make my website stand out as a small business?
First impressions are always important in business, but they are even more critical when potential customers find you online. First impressions are what often lead to conversions and increased revenue. To ensure you are giving the best first impression of your small business to website visitors, it’s worthwhile getting professionals to look at your website and alerting you to any immediate actions you can take to get your website in the best shape. A marketing professional can help you align your website to the goals of your business, and what you want your site to do for you. Is your website designed to help customers find out more about who you are as a business? Are you using your website to tell customers about all the products and services you offer? Will the website be where your customers will make their purchases?
When it comes to improving websites for small businesses there aren’t too many affordable options out there. This is why we, EmpowerUp Marketing, created our business model to suit all small businesses. We offer two comprehensive and affordable PowerUp Packs in this area:
Website Audit
In a website audit, we will go over your website with a fine-toothed comb and not only look at the technical aspects (how your website is set up) but also the overall layout, design, and existing content. We produce a detailed, comprehensive and easy-to-understand report for you with all of our findings, and a list of immediate actions for you to take. You will also receive a support call with us, to walk you through our findings and answer any questions you might have!
This audit is quick (with a 5-day or less turnaround), actionable, and has an affordable price tag attached to it to suit any budget.
Website recommendations session
Spend some time with us in a dedicated one-on-one video call to discover our industry insights along with unique and personal opportunities specific to your business and website platform. Following a review of your website, we will help you gain confidence in how to grow your business into various opportunities using your web presence. In your website recommendations session, ask us any questions or run any ideas past us relating to website efforts to discover how to make a greater impact.
Not sure what suits you?
We offer free discovery calls where you can chat to us about your marketing needs, and we can guide you to the best options based on your requirements.
