How to Improve Your Local Business Website in 5 Easy Steps

Learning how to improve your local business website will require more than just a single step to complete.  Things with any importance that lead to success require several steps over a period of time. It is just inherent within the nature of things that significant undertakings usually aren’t accomplished overnight.  You need to prepare yourself, learn how to do it right, then stick to it and persevere. Regardless of what task or project you choose, you shouldn’t expect to find exceptions to those requirements.

But it’s really not so difficult.  You simply break it down into simple steps and take them one by one…

Site Search

This is of critical importance because for those who have greater than 20 pages, it’s recommended that you give a search facility.  For those who have a web site search, make sure it’s prominent. Usability guidelines often like the upper-right corner of the page.  Keep the button label basic and clear – “Search” still works best for most sites. Don’t unleash your powers of lateral thinking and swap inside a word like “Retrieve”. Make it simple..

Ensure Your Webpages Can Be Skim-read Easily

This is how to do it the best way, for the best results.  Give your website a quick review and make sure all your text is broken up into clear, manageable sections.  Always keep your text in manageable chunks, not an unbroken wall of words like insurance small print, so it’s easier for customers to look up what they want right away and with confidence – which is critical if they are making a buying decision.  The primary reason this will be significant is because few people read word for word online. The vast majority skim-read to get a sense of the page before they read any of it in detail.  Make it easy for visitors to skim-read your content.  Always use headings and bullets to break up text. Think about it.  If a heading is not relevant for your visitor, they can easily skim down to the next heading, making it straightforward for them to get directly to the information they need..

Keep Your Styles & Colors Consistent

The reason for this will be to make sure people know they’re still on your site by being consistent – confuse them and you’ll lose them.  Keep the look and feel of your website sections consistent and avoid any radical changes.  Layout, headings, and styles should be consistent site-wide, and colors should usually have the same meaning.

For example, don’t use red for headers on one page, red for hyperlinks on another, and red as standard text somewhere else. .

Use Emphasis (bold,italics etc.) Sparingly

To break that down into more detail, it’s a fact of human psychology: try to draw attention to everything and you’ll effectively draw attention to nothing.  We’ve all seen that site, the one with a red, blinking, underlined “NEW!” next to everything.  Please don’t be that person!

Remember, if your site’s graphic design is counter-intuitive and doesn’t help visitors get something done quickly, it’s going to make your site much slower and difficult to work with. Slow, awkward sites don’t ever delight your customer or create a good rapport online.  Visitors will be back at the search engine in seconds if they find your website “complicated” or “busy”. Ensure your website is only highlighting critical factors you absolutely need your visitors to gaze at or clíck on in order to meet your online business goals.  Menus, buy buttons, opt–in boxes and so on.

Keep Your Ads & Pop-ups Unobtrusive

Additionally, ads are a fact of life, but integrate them nicely into your site.  Don’t try to force ads and pop-ups down peoples’ throats; you’ll end up creating frustration for your visitors. Also, do people a favor and make your ads clear.  If you blur the line between ads and content too much, your content may suffer, since many people have developed “banner blindness” when it comes to surfing, and might overlook some important content by mistake.  Doublecheck if your popup window is significantly increasing your opt–in rate.  If it isn’t, you could be annoying present and future customers unnecessarily.

Finally, should you have observed these tips closely, you are going to succeed and will then benefit from the fruits of your success!  Welcome the rewards and admiration.  You achieved it you now deserve the credit! It’s you that set out to attain your goals and also you who succeeded! You now may revel in your achievement and revel in it!

For those who chose to not stick to the steps above and try to improve your local business website, ah well, that is life, I suppose.  Not everyone succeeds, just those that truly want it…

You don’t have to look very far to see that nearly everyone is using some sort of wireless device and these devices are being used by a growing number of users to access the internet.

Failing to recognize this could mean you’re losing out on a large portion of your potential market share.

We’ve all heard the phrase: “Leaving money on the table”… It means neglecting opportunities to make as much profit as possible with products and/or services you already sell. But how does this apply to mobile websites?

Well for starters,  if you don’t have a mobile version of your business website, your mobile visitor is forced to view the desktop version of your website on the small screen of their mobile device. This tends to lead to frustration and the visitor quickly leaves without finding what they were looking for.

Mobile websites are designed and coded so they can fit within the exact screen size used on mobile phones.

Business mobile websites allow businesses to advertise their products and services directly to mobile phone users who use their mobile phone to search for products and services at the instant they are needed.

1) Another online medium to market your business brand

2) Create the perception of a reputable and trusted business

3) Increases business “find ability” and market reach to customers on the move

4) Increases your business search engine listings and rankings

5) Grow your customer database by using mobile site coupon codes

6) Directly market to your prospect’s and customer’s personal mobile phone with instant offers

7) Improve communication interaction between your business and your customer’s with content that has a specific call to action

Make changes to your mobile site content quickly and easily with no technical knowledge

9) Add new products and special offers in real time

10) Process real time online payment transactions for instant payment for purchases

11) Give customers a “direct dial” link into your business for support from their mobile phone

I hope this has helped you to understand how important it is in having a business mobile website. Start increasing your business now and stop leaving money on the table by not having a mobile ready website.