Excellent content and well considered design are as vital to the success of a small business website, as is the enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit that goes into setting up any new venture. Sadly many small business websites appear to be an after thought or add-on extra and fail to understand that it is more than a shop window or portal for your customers or visitors and in some cases it is the only shop window or public access that the business may have to offer it visitors. Your website dose more than provide an overview of your products and services or provide just anther communication device. It defines “Who you are”, “What you do” and “What makes you different” (your USP unique selling point) it sets you apart from your competition and is a critical part of any marketing platform. Your website defines your whole business persona, its aims, its objectives and its values, making this a vital element in the overall success or failure of any business and should be of paramount concern to all small business owners. Understanding this and having a website that works for you will get visitors, win customers and ultimately make you a profit.

Getting that all important listing on the first page of Google is not as difficult as some would have you believe especially if you are only working at a local level as are most small business and start-up. Take your time, think about what you want your website to do. Surprisingly your URL should not be the fist thing you think about! Consider first your website’s overall business identity from your visitors point of view and develop your contact information, products, services and content around this.

Weather you use a professional web design company or do it yourself (with a free point and click program) your design needs only to be clean and simple to use. Your navigation element is best placed in the upper right corner below your header logo. With short bold headline style opening statements followed normal body text for the rest of the article in a standard font that is easy to read will keep your readers interest. Don’t be afraid to employ a copy writer to assist you which dose need to be expensive and can usually be found locally.

Finally a note on keyword and your URL which are the way that you will be found in any search on the internet. Do your research and chose you Keyword with care. If you can, try and get a URL that includes your keywords and better still the town or area you are working in. For instance If you live in “Bath” and are selling “ceramic tiles” you might chose a URL like “ bathtiles.co.uk” or “bathceramictiles.co.uk” or “tilesinbath.com” take your time, keep an open mind and play around with it until you get it right.

Is not as hard or as expensive as it might at first glance appear to be listed well.  Being an artist might help me in the design process but that is only a very small part of the overall development required for a website, neither do you need to pay out large sums of money to be listed in the many directories to achieve a first page listing. One of my own sites www.dkm-cleaning.co.uk lists very well on Google and other search engines for “domestic cleaning in Essex” and as you can see I did not even include “Essex” in the URL (we all continue to acquire wisdom) Google along with all the rest are looking for content rich site’s and with well considered keywords this offers something of value to potential visitors and thus revenue for them!            

Once your site is hosted and it is submitted to the major search engines (which should cost you anything) tell people about it! put out a press realises! get feedback from friends and family you will be amazed how many misspellings and broken links can be overlooked. Get it right it’s important. I strongly believe that lunching a website is just the start of an ongoing relationship with your customers and visitors. But even if you don’t quite get it right! don’t despair you can change things in the future. Your position within the natural listings of the major search engines can be improved over time. With the good use of keywords, SOE (search engine optimisation) linking campaigns just to list a few options and alongside your traditional marketing which will all help to put your site where it belongs at the Top.