Here’s a typical small business complaint
"My web site isn’t working! No one is visiting and I’m not getting any new clients. What’s the best way for me to get found on the Internet; should I buy GoogleAds; start a blog?"
Our powerful WordPress-based business blogs/websites is a good idea, together with Google’s amazing services – but consider this:
To Google, Looks Don’t Count
Just about every professional we meet is under the mistaken belief that all you need is a great looking website. Not only that, many are in some stage of "re-doing" their websites, usually at great expense and with long delays.
Unfortunately, the revised website alone rarely brings better results. The secret is to get people to the site and those looking for a business or service provider use Google. And Google doesn’t care less what a site looks like.
Expertly optimising your website or blog so the Google Search engine (and hence customers) can find it is the real trick to more sales leads. This is referred to as Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO for short.
Google Places, Pay per click
Setting up a free Google Places listing and a GoogleAds ‘pay per click’ account is essential too, which involves a wide variety of specialist techniques and tricks, but each paying huge dividends.
What else? Keep the site content interesting and updated
Another major factor to keep a high listing is to understand that Google ‘likes’ sites that have regularly updated, relevant content. If your existing site provides no easy way for you to update content each week, then you’ll quickly disappear off the Google search result. And it’s not just Google that will start to ignore you, your regular clients will too!
And much to the horror of professional web designers, these simple, cheap blogs usually get a far higher search result, in less time, than most fancy [expensive] corporate websites. This I guess is great news for small businesses trying to compete against the big Corporates or retail chains.
In terms of traffic and sales lead generation, a $2,000 customised and branded business blog competes well against the big $20,000 sites!
Become Mobile-friendly
The other little-known benefit in having a blog style website using WordPress.org or similar technology, is that these simple sites are technically much easier (and cheaper) to make mobile-compatible. i.e. Better for those that visit your site using their mobile phone browser.
This is important, especially if you sell products in the 15-35yr old marketplace where 3G and internet-compatible phones are the rage. More and more people are now using their mobile phone to surf the net, not their bigger laptop or PC. This means a smart mobile-optimised website is vital today and can give you a real edge. These days you don’t even have to spend much to get a good 3G phone with internet capabilities. Nokia and Vodafone have models starting from $150.
A ‘standard’ html website expertly created by most web designers can take 30-60 seconds to load on a mobile phone browser. Yet most people will ditch you after waiting just 6-8 seconds. There are easy ways to get a report on your current website and methods to upgrade it – Example report above.
Friends in high places
Having connections in bigger companies helps too. i.e. If you’re part of, or have an agency from a major brand, ensure you get a link from their site to yours. Likely their website has good traffic and a high google ranking. This alone not only helps your traffic, but your own ranking and website grading.
It’s not about spending a lot of money to be found on the net. It’s about being a little smarter how you go about it. This is where we can help…