Best Practices For Small Business Owners To Optimize Their Website

In today's age of modern technology, businesses are using every platform they can get their hands on in order to stay ahead of the curve

. With so much competition on the net, it is imperative that you do everything you can to make your website stand out from the rest.

Small Business owners do not have the resources of larger companies when it comes to marketing on a grand scale. However, just because they can't spend major advertising dollars to push traffic to their site doesn't mean it can't be done effectively. Your website represents everything your company stands for; without it your business would be dead in the water. Twenty years ago brochures served as the face of a company. A strong brochure would say who you were, provide accessible information, and entice potential customers to call or visit your business. An effective website today should be no different.

One mistake of many websites is to stick as much information as possible on the homepage thinking it will give the visitor everything they need at once. What ends up happening is that the site becomes cluttered and the customer feels overwhelmed and leaves. Do not allow your website to become cluttered with needless information. Your site needs to be direct and to the point.

Make sure your homepage allows for easy communication between you and the potential client. Tell them your products and service, but keep it simple. If they want to learn more, think about creating a forum to engage a potential community. Have your "Call to Action" feature be clear and precise so that the visitor can take the next step towards getting what they want and keeping them satisfied. Also always have a form where people can submit information to you if they are interested.

Once you create a website that is well designed and capable of capturing leads you face the critical issue of actually getting traffic to your website. There are several different ways to accomplish this. Paid Search Advertising is a common one. Google search, and AdCenter (Bing, Yahoo, MSN) are the major search engines that offer paid advertising to boost your traffic, but they aren't very cost effective.

There are certainly less costly alternatives to drive a lot of traffic such as using SaleSpider. SaleSpider is the largest social network for Small Business owners who look to connect when building leads. With almost 900,000 members (Oct 11) and over a million job postings, sites like these are a great place to start boosting your traffic.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) also drives traffic. It's a slower approach then direct Paid Advertising. You need to have your website not only indexed by Google, but able to achieve a solid ranking so you can have more hits to your site. Make sure your keywords and titles match easily indexed words by Google's search. Try not to go for highly competitive keywords as it may take a long time before you even hit the 2nd page of a Google search, let alone the first.

The online marketplace can be a savage beast, but with the right tips and strategies you can maximize your potential for strong traffic. This was simply an introduction summary to optimizing your website. In our next installment, I will go into greater detail each of these and on other opportunities to drive revenue for your site.

Having a website without getting traffic on the web is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you're doing but no one else does. Make yourself visible and heard, and you will find opportunities come to you.

Visit SaleSpider

by: Terry Ratchett

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