5 Steps to Improve Your Small Business Website
For a small business to not only survive but thrive digitally, there’s one element that is of utmost importance: the website. A website can be the cornerstone for all other online activities, whether that is selling products or brand promotion.
Yet, simply building a website is not enough. It’s simply the start of your journey when the aim is to create an online presence that boasts real staying power. If your website isn’t generating the results you seek, it is time to take a closer look under the hood.
That’s where this guide can help point you in the right direction. Here are five steps to improve your small business website.
1. Optimize your search engine optimization
If you operate a business website, one of your main priorities is to rank on the first page of relevant Google search results. By doing this, you open the floodgates for organic, targeted traffic – the type that can turn your small business into a much bigger one virtually overnight.
To do this, it’s imperative you know all about search engine optimization. SEO includes everything from keywords to backlinks, and all of these aspects have to be refined if you have hope of topping the search rankings. This means you have to learn SEO best practices to give your site the best chance of success.
2. Simplify the design
It’s not uncommon for a new website owner to go a little crazy with their design. They see the plugins available. They see all the different design elements used by other sites, and they attempt to throw all this together for their confused, amalgamated creation.
The trick, however, is to go with a clean, simplified site design. This ethos includes everything from the homepage to the navigation. This approach ensures users can browse your site easily and without any frustration.
3. Refresh your content
Is your current content at its best possible standard? Have you incorporated the best images to represent your brand? Is the copy engaging and keeps people reading until the end? If you’ve answered ‘No’ to any of these questions, it’s time to take a closer look at refreshing your website’s content.
4. Speed up
A slow website is the last thing you want for your business. There’s nothing that will turn away visitors quicker than a site that takes five seconds or longer to load. With this in mind, see what tactics you can apply to maximize your site’s speed. There are tools available for insights into speed performance, along with the steps needed to improve this element of your site.
5. Constant updates
Even if your website is seemingly a static one – think a restaurant or utility business – there are still opportunities to constantly add updates. The most effective way is to start a blog on your site. With a blog, you have the chance to post about everything from business updates to topical stories in your field of work. This keeps your site updated, provides content to share, and boosts your SEO efforts.
