Monday, March 12, 2012

Does Your Small Business Have A Website?

As a small business owner you need to seriously consider having an online presence. If you don't have a website for your small business you're losing customers.

I've read statistics of anywhere from 65 to 90% of searches for information/pre-purchase is online. Even if you are really conservative and say 50%, that's half of your potential business who will likely not find you if you aren't online. It doesn't have to be expensive or fancy for many businesses, but it does need to answer the basics and give a sense of who/what you are. Are there those customers who never hit a keyboard? Sure, but the question is, can you stay in business by only serving that group?

A website is a MUST in today's economy and integration with social media is a tool that gives even the busiest professionals real-time access and the ability to market themselves both locally and globally.

I believe one of the main reasons small business have avoided a website is cost and time. I've seen in the past web designers/developers charging a premium that scares even me...never mind shoe-string-budget minded organizations. A simple site should not require a second mortgage! And tools can be set up to help integrate social media and keep content fresh with ease of use.

Building a simple site that enables as much hands on as possible, with integration of widgets and editable areas, is key. The challenges small business owners face are real and I can relate. But opting to not have a presence in today's economy is not a viable option.

I ask small business owners all the time why they don't have a Web presence and why they are not taking advantage of all the free advertising available to them on Local Search Directories - they're all still free IF you know how to get to the free options - and they just don't "get it". They don't know how a Web presence can benefit them or why they need to make themselves easy to find.

Building a web site (small and simple or super-complex with all the bells and whistles) will do absolutely nothing for anyone if it is not built implementing basic fundamentals of marketing and SEO. This requires thinking about the domain, tags, site description, media used in the site and file names, promoting the site (can be done for free), submissions to search engines, directories, etc... And, of course, the COPY and having the site designed specifically to accomplish what the owner wants it to accomplish.

If a site is just built, and those things are not taken into account, I sometimes make the comparison to having a beautiful brochure advertising the best product... at a trade show where you paid $ to have a booth... and your booth is a 3x6 table off in the back corner of the convention center between the loading-dock door and the staff restroom. NOBODY will find you. The WWW is a HUGE universe, and it takes thought to make it to the front of people's eyeballs if you have a product or service.

BUT .... not to worry. Here's a resource that makes it VERY easy and VERY cost effective to get a quality HIGH PERFORMANCE business website up and running. Simply click on the link and read all about it .... it's sure to put a smile on your face.


Websites For Small Business