Before you Launch that Local Small Business Website

I was approached to complete a speaking gig to a group of nearby little company owners who owned brick and mortar companies and needed to launch web sites to make use of for nearby and on-line advertising purposes. I figured because I was writing a presentation up for that, I'd condense it into a shorter version and throw it up right here.

This post isn't for skilled search marketers or expert webmasters. This really is aimed in the little mom and pop that doesnt make their living on-line, but rather would prefer to acquire a couple of leads right here and there from usually non-competitive geographical + keyword combo terms by placing up a web site consisting of a handful of pages  additionally to supplying helpful info to all guests to their websites  whether or not they come from search engines like google or nearby offline advertising efforts.

Think it or not, not everybody who reads my weblog is large into search engine optimization  I get lots of emails from little company owners asking about what might appear like remedial topics to these of us who make our living within the business. So, this post is for them.

Obtaining began:

1. Get your personal domain name and register it for a number of years. Having a effective company, spending 50 dollars to register your domain for the following 5 years is really a no-brainer.

two. Get a decent host  for a nearby little company web site that doesnt envision mounds of visitors or a complex web site setup, you are able to discover a ton of inexpensive and dependable hosting choices for much less than ten dollars per month. Pay the 1-2 dollars additional per month for a distinctive IP address (your host will know what that indicates).

three. Setup an e-mail address utilizing your domain. Your hosting strategy will include a minimum of 1 totally free e-mail address and your host ought to have directions on how you can setup and configure your mail client to verify that e-mail. me@mybusiness.com looks a lot more expert than me432@yourisp.net.

four. In the event you dont know how you can make a great website either employ a internet designer (for a little website spanning only a couple of pages, the price ought to be really nominal) or maintain it easy having a fundamental background color, fonts and actual life photos (if applicable). Id suggest the internet designer for a nominal fee. Keep in mind, the web site will probably be the very first impression of one's company to on-line users.

What to place in your homepage:

1. Make certain your company name, what you do, exactly where you do it, who you do it for and why youre the very best at it all seem on the homepage in text. Be brief and sweet (they are able to visit other pages of the site for in depth information on those topics) but also be descriptive.

2. Your address, phone number and email address should appear on every page in text. Be sure to list this information in full, including street address, city, state and zip code. List the phone number with area code.

3. Hours of operation.

4. Cities you serve in your local area.

Other pages you should have at a minimum:

1. About page  This is where you go in depth on your company. Give a detailed, but not too long (think essay, not thesis), explanation on what you do, how long youve been doing it, what makes you the best at it and why customers should choose you above the competition.

2. Services or Products page(s)  Tell them what you do and what you can provide to them. Add pricing information if you feel it is appropriate. If you do something that has a finished result such as landscaping, pool construction, paint jobs, room additions, etc. consider adding pictures of past work  as they say, pictures (that are resized properly using a graphics or photo editing program) can be worth 1000 words (but be sure to add descriptions of what the pictures show in text).

3. Contact page  Tell visitors how to get a hold of you. This includes your full address, phone number, email address, fax number, additional locations (if applicable with all of their pertinent information as well), hours of operation, a map (you can easily get one online via major mapping sites) and directions from one or two major roads in the vicinity. Be sure you list a privacy policy on the site if you have any forms for users to fill out telling them what you will and wont do with their information. Make sure you check emails often and are timely in responses to inquiries.

4. Coupon page (optional)  If you want to know when new referrals are coming from your website, tell people to mention that they found you via your website for a nominal discount.

Making your new website search engine friendly:

1. Make sure the titles tags on each page are unique and include some keywords you think people would type into a search engine while trying to find your site. I.e. if you do landscaping in miami, Florida your homepage title tag might be: be: Professional Landscaping Services in Miami, Florida  Your Company (no quotes). Every page on your site should have a title tag that reflects the content specific to that page.

2. Make sure the meta description tag on each page contains a sentence that serves as a mini-advertisement for your company that makes people want to find out more as it may appear at times under the title of your website in Google and other search engines. Be sure the description is not only promotional, but informational about your company and website.

3. Make sure the designer doesnt use flash (for the entire website) or JavaScript links to navigate your site. For a myriad of reasons you dont care about, I assure you this is very bad if you have any hopes of people finding your website in the search engines.

4. Add some links to your website that are useful to people looking for information about your services. I.e. in the event you belong to an association (like an attorney would towards the bar), in the event you possess a partnership having a associated company (you develop pools, so you list a couple of suggested pool upkeep businesses), in the event you can refer individuals to sources of extra info (like an accountant pointing to numerous documents on the IRS web site that might be useful to customers)  these are all fantastic hyperlinks to add for your website. You are able to function these hyperlinks into your normal pages or produce an extra page for resource hyperlinks.


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