As online businesses boom, brick and brick-and-mortar businesses are on their way out. If you have a local business you can increase market share and gain new customers just by having an optimized website. Here are a few tips to help you build a successful business website.
First Impressions Account
A study the Missouri University of Science shows that visitors take less than two-tenths of a second in order to form an opinion about your company or brand upon visiting your website. This means that your business site should be visually appealing while being user-friendly at the same time. An outdated design with clashing colors or slow loading flash can reflect poorly on your brand.
Luckily it’s easier than ever to build a slick business site thanks to numerous intuitive website builders such as WordPress, Squarespace and Wix. WordPress is one of my favorites because it’s extremely versatile with thousands of available free and premium themes. No matter which website builder you choose there are numerous tutorial and guides available on how to make a website that can help you plan and build your first site.
Pick A Reliable Web Host
One of the most important decisions you’ll make when it comes to building a business website is picking a solid host with reliable uptimes and solid customer service. Frequent outages means less visitors and revenue for your business. Customer service is also very important as it can be very frustrating to wait a few hours or even worse a day to get a response. Read online hosting reviews in order to find reliable and fast web hosting that will help your site make a good impression with visitors.
Conduct Keyword Research
Proper keyword research is essential if you want to rank well in the search engines. For example, if you are a criminal attorney in Los Angeles you may want to target “criminal attorney Los Angeles” as well as keywords affiliated with the surrounding cities and areas. Tools like Ahrefs or Google’s Keyword Planner Tool can provide you with the overall search volume as well as “keyword difficulty” for specific keywords.
Build Service Pages
Build geo targetted service pages explaining the various services your business provides. For example, if you own a beauty salon that provides balayage, hair cuts and extensions you may want to create pages detailing each service. You may also want to provide pricing, parking information and links to your business reviews on Yelp.
On-Page & Off-Page SEO
In order for your site to rank well you’ll need proper on-page as well as off-page SEO. This means optimizing H1 headings, title tags and sprinkling in relevant keywords in your content without being overly spammy. Off-page link building for local businesses can include inclusion in local directories such as Yelp and Superpages. You can also look for local business directories in your locality or niche.
Building a business website can be challenging but it is a necessity as more consumers are opting to shop online than ever before. Stay ahead of the curve by setting up your business website properly and you’ll reap the rewards.
