Web Development Tips for Optimizing Your Website

I get asked questions all the time about building a website for small businesses. First what’s your business, who’s your customer, what’s your service or products and what’s your marketing budget? You might say, “what about my marketing budget?” but I say should really consider your website as a part of your budget for Marketing. Your website posts content about your services and products, who you are and where you are located. Plus most businesses want their websites optimized so it shows up high in the rankings. So if you are looking to get more leads turned into customers, that’s marketing.

If you are a Do it Yourself (DiY) business person running a small practice or business on your own with some office support, a custom business website is probably too expensive. Again what’s your marketing budget. If you need a small Internet presence and probably can do most of it yourself, here’s a guide.

1) Be on the Social Network, create your own Facebook business page.

2) Make sure your listings are posted and accurate. Check your listings on Avvo, Yelp, Manta, Yahoo Local and Google Places.

3) Make sure your reviews are positive. Check your reviews on Avvo, Yelp, Manta, Yahoo Local and Google Places.

4) Build a website using a service like Yahoo Small Business Web Hosting Yahoo Small Business Web Hosting, By WordPress Blue Hosting or Go Daddy Website Tonight (my recommendation). You can register your domain name and set up a multiple page website with in a hour and your cost is easily under $20/month!! I cannot provide those basic services at that cost but what I can do is take you to the next level up with a custom website that entails more rich media, content, pictures, video, features and search engine optimization to drive traffic to your website.

5) Make your website sticky. You have about 4 seconds to grab your web visitor’s attention before they leave your website landing page. See this article on how to make your website “sticky”. Sticky Website Tips

The next level of websites are for a small company who is tech savvy or has someone that is and knows a little about HTML, maintaining a website, setting up a database and Content Management Systems (CMS). You can set up a really nice website using WordPress, Joomla or Drupal within several hours. These packages are free open source but you still need hosting. These websites offer a lot of features and as you learn more about the products there are add on themes, modules and apps to the package. If you are going to post less than 10 pages stick with the above recommendations. If you plan to have a core website with articles or large amount of client interaction then this might be a good option. Although without web development experience plan on taking a couple of days to get familiar with configuring and setting up the package into the format you like. Once you have created the website and format you like it’s a great tool!! If you choose this we can help you as well in setting up the package and turning over the keys to your staff once it’s up and running. Plus we are available for additional support, tech updates/patches and enhancements.

Now the next level of websites are for a small company a small staff and need to get important business information out to their current and future clients. Their website is about driving business to them, building relationships, and keep their current customers updated on current events and procedures. You need to keep your business focused on expanding and maintaining business and not on the Internet Presence; that is where we can help!! See the J2Net website and if you are interested in expanding your website behind the entry level for the Internet, contact us. We will take your existing website and customize it to your business needs while ensuring that the website is being optimized to perform with Search Engines, Rating Websites and Social Media. If you are counting on the Internet for marketing using your website to bring in some or substantial new business, check us out at J2Net.

Regards,
Jim

J2Net
obyrneje@j2net.net