7 Tips for Small Business Websites

What is your goal from the website?
There’s a saying that goes “before you begin a journey, start with the end in mind” and so it goes with the design of your small business website. Sit down and think about what it is exactly that you want your website to achieve. Is it just to be a online brochure, showcasing your work? Do you want to generate leads for your business or do you want to sell goods from your site.
Once you have a clear idea of what it is you want your site to do for your business then you can start fitting the pieces of the jigsaw together.

What do you want your visitors to do?
With the direction of the your site now firmly in mind, you need to think about what is it that you want your visitors to do, in order for that goal to be achieved. Do you want them to fill in a online enquiry form as a way of generating a lead?
Do you want them to buy a product, or just call you to find out more information.

Provide a clear path
Now you know what actions you want visitor’s to your site to do, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to do it. Too many roadblocks and they’ll abandon your site and go some where else.
For instance if you want them to subscribe to a newsletter make sure that the sign up box is ‘above the fold’ where your visitor can see it without having to scroll to the bottom of the page.
If you want them to buy a product make the checkout process as smooth as possible. If you have more than one page in the checkout process head each page with a progress bar that shows something like Step 1 of three. By letting them know how many steps there are they are less likely to abandon the shopping cart in the middle of the process.
Structure the site for more effective results
Don’t try to cram everything into one page, all your end up with is a endless scrolling page which is not visitor friendly. Instead use sub pages divided up by categories to organise your content.
Your site maybe about digital photo frames for example and you’d have different pages for say 7 inch frames and one for 10 inch frames.
Try to keep the structure in as logical a progression as possible, so that it has a nice logical flow.

Use quality content
Use quality content on your site, it should go without saying that if you have poor quality content you wont engage the attention of your visitors and they’ll flee your site.
Also unless you’re writing a highly technical article, more isn’t always better, 350 – 500 words seems to be the optimal length to keep your reader’s attention.
Use quality Graphics
Like your written content, good quality graphics can greatly add to your visitor’s experience and your ability to grab and hold their attention. Nothing screams amateur more than cheesy clipart graphics.
Try a Google search for free stock photos or visit a site like www.sxc.hu where you’ll find a lot of quality stock photos you can use for free.
Promote your site
Once your site is built, the work isn’t over, in fact it really hasn’t begun, there’s no point having the best looking site in the world if no one can find it. You need to come up with an effective Internet Marketing Promote your site by using things like directory submissions, article marketing and linking back to your site by leaving comments on other websites.