You can’t wait to start.
You know it’s time for a small business website or website review for your business because—let’s face it—it’s the only way to go.
The internet IS the place where business is conducted today.
It’s where your customers and prospects are, competitors too, and it’s where you need to be!
Get to Know Your Small Business Website
But before you jump in with guns blazing, you may want to stop. Stop. And take a deep breath.
Why? You’ll do yourself a favor; that’s why. Trust me, I know.
For one thing, I’m technologically challenged—maybe you are too—but don’t let that stop you. You can do it. We’ll break it down.
Heck, even if you are a first-rate tech geek, or business hotshot, or top dog SAAS provider, you’ll do yourself a favor by taking a little time to stop, think, consider, review, and plan.
You want to optimize your site’s execution so when you present your brand-spanking-new, fabulous and shiny website to the world, you’ll be presenting it with purpose.
And with fewer glitches, problems, and…well, issues overall.
Website Needs Evaluation
Yep, I know. You already know you need a website, but what we want to explore before considering anything else—platform, hosting, CMS, themes, design, and so on—is the purpose of your site.
Ask yourself, “What do I want my website to do?”
Typically, a business website’s overall objective is to connect with its customers, but how?
Will your website be about creating a web presence—an online brochure of sorts highlighting your business/products/services—in an informational and user-friendly way?
Or will you sell products directly from the site?
How about a blog? Do you have a plan for that? What information, exactly, is important to incorporate in the site’s material?
How will visitors to your site navigate it? What important navigation buttons will you need or want?
How will you organize, in other words, the information and messages on your website?
How many pages will you need to start…to grow? What are the main topics important to your business or to your audience?
See what I mean? There’s quite a lot to consider, so you need a plan of attack.
Also, the answer to these questions will help guide your decisions for selecting the right platform and plugins, for example.
Get it Right and Save Yourself Later
You want your site to do what you want and need it to do without add-ons or change expenses.
To put this together and organize your objectives, start with an outline, sometimes called a sitemap.
Mind Map your ideas/objectives for a more visual approach, but you most definitely want to set a framework to work from as you go.
Take a look at how this may work:
Of course, you want to carefully craft your messages for each of these key pages, remembering that web users are surfers and scanners. And now, some of your audience may be someone’s personal Bot, scanning your site for them.
It’s important to be clear and concise in what you present, but don’t be afraid to stand out. Which brings us to the next big (but fun) step.
Brainstorm To Your Heart’s Content
And until you are content with your content!
Maybe your brain is still hard at work on the previous section’s website plan and details, but you need to shake out the cobwebs and put your creativity cap on, one more time.
The details covered in this section can sometimes be the difference between success and not. It goes beyond brainstorming, though, and you will need to do some extra work to refine these elements.
This is a great place to toss around your fab ideas, then develop and fine-tune them, especially for the following:
- Domain Name
- Branding/UVP (unique value proposition aka USP or unique selling point)
- Content Strategy and Goals
A Domain Name
A majority of companies use their company name as their domain name. Some also have other domains/domain names that generate traffic back to their main site.
Sometimes your name is taken or unavailable, forcing you to come up with something else. No worries, you can still nail it with what you decide to use.
And sometimes you are better served by creating a name that’s easy to remember, spell, and type in search.
Most companies want a .com name. But if your niche is in education, for example, you may want to register as .edu to target educators, possibly.
Some companies (with extra budget) will buy a series of domains with the same name but under .com, .net, etc. to dominate in a field or to protect their brand.
You can register your own domain name (more when we get to hosting) or do it through your web hosting service.
Often, they are the least expensive option, willing to do it in order to handle your hosting. This saves you the step of having to transfer it from elsewhere to your hosting site, but this isn’t really that hard—even I’ve done it a time or two.
So check around for prices if you want to find the best deal.
Finding a Name That’s Available and Fits You
Next, check on availability of names (I checked out a bunch before choosing mine) and make sure, again, you don’t do anything crazy with odd spelling, specialty characters, etc., because your goal is to be easily identified and found.
Remember, make your name as easy peasy and user-friendly as possible. The thing to think about is that people’s brains and fingers are programmed to type “.com.”
Research your name and availability here: https://instantdomainsearch.com/
Branding
There’s kind of a natural flow to go from talking about a company’s name/website domain name to meaningful branding.
Killian Branding is one of the best in the business if you want to learn more.
A couple of big-name brands that come to mind immediately as examples of this include Apple, GoPro, and Red Bull. In each of these cases, the company name, the product, and the branding are all tied up in a perfect pink bow and pretty much understood by most everyone. Bamm. Enough said.
The point is, it’s important to think about branding when working on your website, selecting a domain name, and creating your brand’s core message.
Maybe your product name is the perfect domain name choice, maybe you are just forming your company name and brand now, or maybe you need to reposition your company/product in the marketplace with your new website.
Whatever the case, now is a great time to develop a workable strategy and optimize it in your website planning and design.
Pinpoint your positioning by creating, evaluating, and adapting your UVP, or unique value proposition, to find your “sweet spot,” and effectively differentiate yourself from competitors.
Make sure your message clearly communicates what it is that makes you better, different, or unique for your ideal customer to want to work with you. Then carry it out strategically and consistently in your content.
Content Creation.
Content on your website will be comprised of a mix of any number of various media, depending on what you prefer. Audio and video components are becoming more and more prevalent on websites.
The SlideShare above, for example, is the culmination of information and quotes from 3 separate blog posts, published on 3 separate blogs, reflecting some marketing ideas I’ve learned as a business owner.
Design and plan your site, therefore, to include visual enhancements because people’s brains process visuals better and faster, so it makes sense that you present your content in a visually pleasing way.
Some of what you can add to your content mix, to be both visual and more interesting to your audience, includes the following:
- Charts, graphs, bar charts, and more
- PowerPoint presentations, Haiku Decks, and SlideShares
- Infographics (try Piktochart) that combine data with graphics in original ways
- YouTube LIVES, videos, shorts, webinars, podcasts, etc.
- E-books, Checklists, How-to Guides, Case Studies and White Papers
- Learning Memberships, Groups, and Communities
- Private digital areas, libraries, and other collections for sharing information
- Photo Galleries or Collages and Flipboards of Photos (of your work, if applicable)
- Epic Content and Informational blogs, articles, and stories related to your industry/company
- Sales Material, Descriptions, Spec Sheets, Brochures, and Technical Explanations
- Drawings, Sketches, Mind Maps and Cartoons, if appropriate
- White space…don’t forget that…simple and uncluttered are a usability must
- And on and on…
Strategize a Little
Think about these things before selecting a platform so you can be sure you can do everything you want without major headaches, additional costs, or massive loss of time to figure it all out later.
Having a written content strategy is the best way to go. Statistically speaking.
This 13 Simple Questions to Help You Draft a Winning Content worksheet by Demian Farnsworth, of copyblogger, will help get you on track to move forward with your content plan.
When writing to your ideal customer, I love this piece by Pamela Wilson that takes you along The 3-Step Journey of a Remarkable Piece of Content.
Platforms for Small Business Websites
Now that you put together a sitemap for your website, you should know:
- what components or topics will be on your Menu (navigation buttons)
- the key message for pages of that Menu (copy that reflects your core brand, voice, style, etc. to represent your business)
- a purpose (or objectives) for your site and what it needs to do (show off work, blog, sell, etc.)
And if you’re really on top of things, you’ve created a written content strategy, ready to go, with a great content plan and media mix perfect for your audience.
Now you need a platform, typically a CMS (content management system), to build and customize your web presence. Your CMS is where you will design, implement, and administer your online assets.
To stay competitive in the digital marketing environment, your site must be updated consistently. Integrate it with all your business marketing initiatives and use it to create a community with prospects and customers. It should be interactive and evolving.
Evaluate Platforms
To do so, you will want a platform that offers:
- Stability, including security and backup features
- Performance and system support
- Price points suitable to your budget
- Flexibility (to customize, change, and grow)
- Responsive design (to properly view from mobile and other devices)
- SEO/GEO/AEO capabilities
Check out this buyer’s guide for a review and comparison of the most popular CMS platforms. Keep in mind, the most important thing for a business site is that it be proprietary so that everything is yours and you are in control.
WordPress is STILL the proprietary (closed-source) CMS site most used, and it’s self-hosted, which makes it yours. The size, type, and budget of your business may impact your choice, but for now the frontrunner, regardless of budget, is WordPress.
58% of all the current websites online are built using WordPress.
Hosting and Themes
Your platform will need a home, called your web host or hosting site. The most popular and reputable ones that come to mind are:
- bluehost.com
- godaddy.com
- WPX.net (is the hosting package I am using for many years now… they specialize in WordPress sites)
I think all of them will register a domain name for free when you select one of their packages, but if you register yourself, it sometimes saves money, allows you to buy a longer-term agreement, and some developers recommend your domain name not reside in the same hands as your hosting.
Once you own a domain name, you can move it to any hosting site.
Now to bling it! That’s where a theme comes in.
There are free themes and premium themes (paid), but the important thing to consider is using a reputable company like StudioPress, with themes powered by the Genesis framework, for example, which offers tested themes and all kinds of help if you need it. Two of the most popular themes today are GeneratePress, a lightweight choice, and wpAstra.
Be careful that the themes and plugins you install are compatible and up-to-date for your site.
The theme works within the platform to customize the look and feel of your website. Look around for one that matches both your needs and style, especially if you don’t know HTML or coding.
SE ut O!
Search engine optimization, or SEO, can be your best friend or the devil. It’s about where you are listed when people search a keyword or words on a topic and either find you…or not. Over time, search has come to include things like voice search, AI and bot search, generative search (GEO), and even AEO or answer engine optimization.
A first-page listing is imperative if you want to gain any search engine (known as organic) traffic (or visitors) to your site. With all the sites out there, and growing every day, it’s not as easy as you would hope to get that coveted top spot. And since AI entered the arena, search in general is at a true turning point, never to work the same again. Still, getting visible in any way possible is still imperative!
My favorite SEO tool is the SEO Plugin by Yoast because it helps you learn about meta tags, meta descriptions, title text, and so much more as you use it. It even scores you so you know that you are optimizing your work to the fullest before hitting the publish button.
The key to SEO is quality content.
Keywords and Keyword Planning, Long-tail Keywords, Answer Engines
When you talk about SEO, you may have noticed you will hear the words “keyword or words, keyword planning, and long-tail or LT keywords” a lot. That’s because keywords are the…well, the key to SEO. And now it’s more about key questions people ask!
Andy Crestodina, Strategic Director of Orbit Media, is a pretty analytical sort of guy. He keeps a close eye on Google Analytics and does a whole lot of other research, testing, and surveys to understand what drives traffic and what people convert.
This post on tools for blogging gives about a dozen sources for SEO, keywords, and keyword planners and more, for just about everything you may want to know for your SEO/keyword research, all in one place.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS AND WEBSITE METRICS
Using Google Analytics is part of having a website.
Don’t panic if you don’t have it in place on day one, but the reason it’s so important is that it’s about metrics. It measures lots of good information and gives you mega data on visitors and where they spend time on your site.
You can see what devices people are on when they visit, what browser they are using, get demographics about your audience, and measure any number of things that you set up.
Feel free to try it out, even before you really know how it works, because it’s quite interesting and you’re prone to learn something immediately. Oh, and it’s free.
Here’s Andy from Demand Studios again to tell you exactly How to Setup Google Analytics…
This post from Tamer Marketing tells you how to set things up and All About Google Analytics Reports. Remember, you can continuously improve your small business website by mining the data presented in the analytics to better understand customer behaviors.
A/B or SPLIT TESTING AND KPI’s
When you talk about metrics and analytics, you have to talk about KPIs. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) help you set goals and objectives to determine what to measure and the most important things to analyze.
Using your site’s KPI’s and metrics helps you collect meaningful data you can use to make improvements so you can increase your conversion rates and, ultimately, sales.
One way to accurately find out what truly works best and resonates with your audience is to do A/B or Split Testing. You can use this to test one page design against another, headlines or other copy versions, even CTA (call-to-action) button text or color.
The “Crazy Egg” blog walks you through Simple Steps to A/B Testing in this article you can check out.
Set to Launch?
Whew. Well, I think that covers what you need to know for the basics to get started on your small business website, so you’re up and flying for the perfect small business website launch or relaunch with a little plan behind you.
Are you set for the countdown to begin? Is it time for your NEW small business website or website upgrade?
I hope this answers a few questions and fuels your passion for that small business website launch or relaunch so your company soars on the World Wide Web. Now!
For More on Having a Business Website:
- The Changing Role of Websites
- Why Your Website Needs a Heart
- Destination: Website: LIVE on The Marketing Mirror
Reach out if you need help with your website content!
