Are you looking to improve your small business website? If yes, you should check out our guide here on the key things to do.
It’s no secret that having a strong online presence is one of the best ways for you to increase your brand’s presence in the industry. In fact, many businesses have found that digital marketing matters now more than ever.
But, not everyone understands the improvements they can make to their site in order to optimize its performance.
Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about how to enhance your small business website.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As you may expect, one of the most important business tips to make a well-performing site is to create one that’s optimized to appear easily on search engine results. Although this sounds simple in practice, it’s not quite as straightforward as many people expect.
Fortunately, sites without proper SEO tactics in place can benefit highly even from basic changes. These typically include:
- Incorporating relevant keywords in your content that your audience is searching for
- Writing thorough meta descriptions so both your audience and Google understand what your content is about
- Properly formatting your written content (using H2 and H3 headers to break up the text, keeping paragraphs short, etc.)
With SEO, each individual practice doesn’t carry much weight on its own. But, many of them together can significantly increase the amount of traffic that you receive on your site.
Make It Easy to Contact You
A major issue of a suboptimal website that many entrepreneurs face is missing out on potential leads. Oftentimes, this is due to customers being unable to find a way to contact your business.
For instance, a website without a dedicated contact page may have its business contact info at the bottom of the home page instead. Unless the user navigates to this section, they’re unlikely to find it.
Since the average person now has a shorter attention span than a goldfish, it’s highly likely they’ll simply leave your site.
Instead, include your contact information somewhere on each page of your site and include a link to a dedicated contact page at the top of your site.
Mobile Formatting
As time goes on, more and more people begin to use mobile devices as their primary form of Internet browsing. This is a direct result of smartphones becoming more comfortable to use and the increasing popularity of tablet devices.
Unfortunately, a site that isn’t properly formatted for mobile browsing will likely appear as a jumbled mess and make it nearly impossible for your audience to interact with it effectively.
It’s essential that you extensively test your site’s mobile performance so that you can ensure it never becomes an issue in the future.
Minimize Loading Times
As previously mentioned, the average person today isn’t likely to wait around for too long if they can’t find what they’re looking for. Even a website with amazing content can drive users away if it also has significant loading times.
Not only does this detract from the overall user experience your site has, but it can also negatively impact your SEO ranking.
When Google detects that a large number of people are visiting a website and then immediately leaving, it assumes that the site has either poor-quality or irrelevant content. The more consistently this happens, the greater the chance Google will begin to rank your pages lower in search results.
A few ways to quickly improve loading times include compressing your site’s images, using less content overall on a single page, and being conservative with your use of music or video. You can visit this resource to learn more about site maintenance techniques you can use.
Is Your Site Visually Appealing?
Your site may run fine, and it may even have plenty of high-quality to offer its visitors. But, none of that will matter if it’s also unpleasant to look at.
In some cases, an unattractive site can give off the impression that your company either doesn’t care about its aesthetic appeal or that you’re not intelligent enough to see what’s visually wrong with your website. From here, they may avoid interacting with your business in the future.
One of the most common areas where people go wrong is with color. And, this isn’t limited to using colors that clash with each other.
Some colors are better suited for different types of businesses due to the feeling they naturally evoke. For example, there’s a reason most fast-food restaurants incorporate a large amount of red and yellow, as these colors are associated with energy, activity, and hunger.
As you may expect, the heavy use of these colors wouldn’t be appropriate for a website for a florist, which would benefit more from earth tones and greens.
Incorporate a Call to Action (CTA)
So, you have a beautiful site that runs well, and your content has plenty of value to offer your users. But, have you asked your visitors to take a specific action?
If not, they may not have any motivation to actually interact with your brand. Without the urge to do so, you’ll likely find that you’ll get fewer followers on social media, phone calls, emails, etc.
Instead, incorporate a solid CTA at the end of all of the content you post. Although simple in practice, doing so will drastically increase the number of leads you acquire.
Understanding How to Improve Your Small Business Website Can Seem Difficult
But it doesn’t have to be.
With the above information about how you can enhance your small business website in mind, you’ll be well on your way toward making the decision that’s best for you and your company.
Want to learn more tips that can help you out in the future? Be sure to check out the rest of our blog.
