subject: Before you Launch that Local Small Business Website [print this page] Before you Launch that Local Small Business Website
Before you Launch that Local Small Business Website
I was approached to do a speaking gig to a group of local small business owners who owned brick and mortar businesses and wanted to launch websites to use for local and online marketing purposes. I figured since I was writing a presentation up for that, I would condense it into a shorter version and throw it up here.
This post is not for experienced search marketers or professional webmasters. This is aimed at the small mom and pop that doesnt make their living online, but rather would like to gain a few leads here and there from generally non-competitive geographical + keyword combo terms by putting up a website consisting of a handful of pages in addition to providing useful information to all visitors to their sites whether they come from search engines or local offline marketing efforts.
Believe it or not, not everyone who reads my blog is big into search engine optimization I get a lot of emails from small business owners asking about what may seem like remedial topics to those of us who make our living in the industry. So, this post is for them. ;-)
Getting started:
1. Get your own domain name and register it for several years. With a successful business, spending 50 dollars to register your domain for the next five years is a no-brainer.
2. Get a decent host for a local small business website that doesnt envision mounds of traffic or a complicated website setup, you can find a ton of affordable and reliable hosting options for less than 10 dollars per month. Pay the 1-2 dollars extra per month for a unique IP address (your host will know what that means).
3. Set up an email address using your domain. Your hosting plan will come with a minimum of one free email address and your host should have instructions on how to setup and configure your mail client to check that email. me@mybusiness.com looks much more professional than me432@yourisp.net.
4. If you dont know how to make a great website either hire a web designer (for a small site spanning only a few pages, the cost should be quite nominal) or keep it simple with a basic background color, fonts and real life pictures (if applicable). Id suggest the internet designer for a nominal fee. Keep in mind, the web site will probably be the very first impression of one's company to on-line users.
What to place in your homepage:
1. Make certain your company name, what you do, exactly where you do it, who you do it for and why youre the very best at it all seem on the homepage in text. Be brief and sweet (they are able to go to other pages with the website for in depth info on these topics) but also be descriptive.
two. Your address, telephone quantity and e-mail address ought to seem on each and every page in text. Make sure to list this info in complete, such as street address, city, state and zip code. List the telephone quantity with region code.
three. Hours of operation.
four. Cities you serve inside your local area.
Other pages you should have at a minimum:
1. About page This is where you go in depth on your company. Give a detailed, but not too long (think essay, not thesis), explanation on what you do, how long youve been doing it, what makes you the best at it and why customers should choose you above the competition.
2. Services or Products page(s) Tell them what you do and what you can provide to them. Add pricing information if you feel it is appropriate. If you do something that has a finished result such as landscaping, pool construction, paint jobs, room additions, etc. consider adding pictures of past work as they say, pictures (that are resized properly using a graphics or photo editing program) can be worth 1000 words (but be sure to add descriptions of what the photos show in text).
three. Get in touch with page Inform guests how you can get a hold of you. This consists of your complete address, telephone quantity, e-mail address, fax quantity, extra places (if applicable with all of their pertinent info also), hours of operation, a map (you are able to effortlessly get 1 on-line by way of main mapping websites) and directions from 1 or two main roads within the vicinity. Make sure you list a privacy policy on the website in the event you have any types for users to fill out telling them what you'll and wont do with their info. Be sure you verify emails frequently and are timely in responses to inquiries.
four. Coupon page (optional) If you would like to understand when new referrals are coming from your web site, inform individuals to mention that they discovered you by way of your web site for a nominal discount.
Generating your new web site search engine friendly:
1. Make sure the titles tags on each page are unique and include some keywords you think people would type into a search engine while trying to find your site. I.e. if you do landscaping in miami, Florida your homepage title tag might be: be: Professional Landscaping Services in Miami, Florida Your Company (no quotes). Every page on your site should have a title tag that reflects the content specific to that page.
2. Make sure the meta description tag on each page contains a sentence that serves as a mini-advertisement for your company that makes people want to find out more as it may appear at times under the title of your website in Google and other search engines. Be sure the description is not only promotional, but informational about your company and website.
3. Make sure the designer doesnt use flash (for the entire website) or JavaScript links to navigate your site. For a myriad of reasons you dont care about, I assure you this is very bad if you have any hopes of people finding your website in the search engines.
4. Add some links to your website that are useful to people looking for information about your services. I.e. if you belong to an association (like an attorney would to the bar), if you have a partnership with a related business (you build pools, so you list a few recommended pool maintenance companies), if you can refer people to sources of additional information (such as an accountant pointing to various documents on the IRS website that may be helpful to consumers) these are all great links to add to your site. You can work these links into your regular pages or create an additional page for resource links.
