In an increasingly digital world it is important for businesses of all sizes to build a strong online presence.  Whether you’re operating a small retail store, a restaurant or a salon, the majority of your potential customers are going to visit your website before they step foot in your physical location.  Here we’ve compiled some key attributes to an effective small business website.

Simple Is Better

When building your website, you should focus on quality over quantity. Your site should be easy to navigate, quick to load and visually pleasing. Avoid clutter by including adequate whitespace and keeping your website copy clear and concise.

Educational And Entertaining Content

While keeping your website user friendly and streamlined is important, the more indexed pages you have, the stronger your search engine rankings will be. To add volume to your website focus on creating blogs, videos and product pages that contain target keywords and industry relevant subject matter.

Optimize For Search Engines

The content on your website should be based around target keywords that you expect your audience will be searching for. Technical aspects such as page load speed, mobile optimization and proper URL construction also play a major role in search engine optimization.

Clear Calls To Action

When someone comes to your website the overall goal is to turn them into a customer. There are a wide variety of CTA’s one can use including links to content downloads, promotional codes, blog subscriptions, product pages and even your contact us page. Calls to action are what allow you direct visitors through the buying process.

Graphics And Images

High quality images add color and sophistication to your website and makes your business appear more credible. Conversely, not including images will diminish the visual appeal of your website and blurry, unclear or irrelevant images can detract from the purpose of your website.

Get On The Video Bandwagon

Video has become a strong marketing tool for small businesses and including them into your website and content strategy is essential in today’s digital world. Company overviews, product demonstrations and industry humor are all great angles to take when building your video library.

Don’t Forget Mobile

Nearly everyone has a smartphone these days and if your website isn’t optimized for these users your stand to lose out on a substantial percentage of potential website traffic. Making it easy for these customers to browse and order from your website will help your website increase revenue. It also helps your SEO as Google takes mobile optimization into account in their algorithms and fewer visitors will immediately click off of your website.

Accept Online Payments

Whether you operate under an eCommerce business model or not, the ability to accept online payments is a big draw for customers. Making payments and ordering easy contributes greatly to a positive customer experience. Security and usability should be the focus of any payment system.

Leverage Ecommerce

If your business model involves retail sales an ecommerce page is a must have in order to compete with larger box stores. Ecommerce can help increase the reach of your business, and even the smallest companies can become global with the right products and marketing.

Links To Social Media Pages

Social media plays a major role in brand recognition, customer service and even product development. A simple way to improve your social following is to include social media buttons on your website that link to each of your company pages. Encourage likes and shares by offering small incentives and promotional items.

Regardless of the industry you’re in, your customers are online.  Leveraging your website as an online storefront and source of education and entertainment will help you to draw in new business.

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