| Three Website Challenges For Small Businesses
Is your website not generating
the results you want? Are you looking to design a website for your
business, or redesign your existing website because it is not generating
leads and sales? If so, here are the three obstacles that you need
to overcome so that you can start generating your share of the
internet revenue from the website:
1. Designing the website - while
fairly complex, is the easiest hurdle to jump over.
2. Getting visitors to the website - presents
a much higher series of hurdles to overcome than getting a website
designed.
3. Converting visitors to customers - is
the most complex obstacle course to navigate. Now we’re talking
about all the realities of business; competition, communication,
closing and credibility.
All three challenges are intertwined in the sense that there are many
common elements of a website that impact design, visits and conversion.
The key is to plan the site upfront. Remember that old graphic on the
subject? PLAN AHEAD
Small Businesses can overcome these three challenges with a well defined
and executed strategy before even starting the website design.
The key is planning--knowing what you want the website to do for you
before the first code for the website is written.
Store Layout Format: Always look
at your website as your store/office and make sure that it follows
the basic layout of your store/office. For example, if your website
is to follow a store layout, it needs to:
- Identify your business with a name that reflects what you offer (either a brand that people
know or a name that identifies your business – Ex. Paolo’s
Pizzeria identifies your restaurant as a Pizza shop. Domino’s
conveys the same thing because it is an established brand).
- Offer what the name of the store suggests immediately when the site visitor enters your
store. Walking in the store (site visit) should instantly confirm
that you offer what the name of the store suggests. You can
accomplish this result on your website through appropriate page design and its title/description.
- Use tabs and other visual aids to guide a visitor to items. These visual aids help store visitors find items by following signs for the item or category.
- Sell products using a shopping cart. Here they will see details of the items repeated such as price, description, postage and time and means of delivery.
Of course you have already provided this relevant information in your website.
The following pages provide the
seven simple steps to complete an internet strategy of your business.
However, please be aware that you need to have a complete strategy
in place upfront because the three challenges are connected to
each other.
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