How The Right Website Drastically Impacts Your Small Business

Danielle Walton
| Category

You know that you  need  a great website. But as a small business, you can’t necessarily afford to buy a fancy website like the ones the “big guys” have – nor do you want to settle for some fly-by-night, good-enough website to represent your business.

This leads to a disorder called websitephobia, and it’s not without merit.

The wrong website can harm your small business. Poor design and frustrating functionality can communicate that your business is outdated, irrelevant, or inept.

Those aren’t adjectives that describe a business people want to become customers of -and it’s definitely not the description you want for your own business.

The right website, however, can grow your business. It can establish your credibility, give your consumers insight, and provide a good experience to people searching for your products or services. A great website communicates that your business is strong, trustworthy, and downright helpful.

Those are the kinds of adjectives that describe businesses that people love to do business with.

So, what makes up a right website for small businesses? It’s about more than a pretty design or trendy features. Here are the 5 standard components of the right kind of small business website.

1) The right website has a purpose.

It seems pretty standard, but we see websites that lack purpose all the time. A purposeful website knows its role – whether to generate leads or sell products - and sticks to it.

2) The right website has meaningful content.

Content is about more than SEO – it’s about serving the needs of your customers. The right website includes original content that goes beyond the “About Us” page and gives the customer the information they need to make a decision – whether that decision is to complete a contact form, schedule an appointment, or make a purchase.

3) The right website is fast loading.

Website pages that take forever to load can drastically impact your SEO – and, more importantly, can cost you customers. What’s an acceptable load time? It depends – but the general rule of thumb is no longer than 2 seconds. 57% of visitors abandon a page that takes 3 or more seconds to load.

4) The right website is responsive.

With 48% of the US population owning a smartphone (a number that’s expected to increase to 78% by 2017), it’s simply not enough to have a website that works well on desktop and just okay on mobile devices.

5) The right website makes it simple to take action.

It’s easy to build a website that looks good – but you need a website that inspires action. From clear navigation to a phone number in an easy to find spot to clear calls to action on each page, a website should make it easy for your customers to take the actions you want them to take.

The wrong website can steal business from you, while the right website can grow your business in measurable ways. Need help building the right kind of website? Well it just so happens that we’re giving away a free website worth $20,000.

ENTER TODAY FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A NEW WEBSITE FOR YOUR CENTRAL OHIO SMALL BUSINESS!

 

Need more? We have you covered.