Welcome to the 21st Century, where you’re nobody til’ Google says you are. Make sure the internet tells people: “This company is terrific!” The most important, and actually one of the easiest ways to do this, is to give your website a tune-up. If you don’t have a website, well, you have work to do.
Good websites have a few key elements in common, none of which are too difficult to create for yourself.
- They are clean and easy to read, with contact details right up front
- They are user-friendly and easy to update for you to change and update without professional assistance
- They have a responsive theme or a mobile theme in addition to the regular web theme
- They are loaded with keywords, but not spammy
- They look like a professional, not like a personal blog (even if they contain a business blog).
- The design styles online (such as the logo, avatar, and header) are consistent with offline styles.
- They are authentic to each particular business.
Why Drop Contact Details?
Your contact details shouldn’t just be on your “contact” page; they should be on every single page as a call to action. If customers have to make a single extra click to get your phone number, studies indicate over 80% of them simply won’t bother. Make it easy on them to make making money easy on yourself.Yes, You Can Manage a Website
The days of custom HTML designs are over, unless you happen to BE a web designer/coder. With options like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and more, there’s no excuse for a site you can’t update yourself. Invest in a short course, one day workshop, or book to tune up your skills and you’ll be amazed at what you can do on your own.Stay with the Times
More and more, the internet isn’t something people read from the computer—it’s something they read on their phone. In fact, it’s estimated that by next year mobile searches will outnumber searches made from desktops and laptops. Most contemporary website themes take this into account and are “responsive,” which means they sense the kind of device the user is reading them on, and adapt to it. Older themes don’t take this into account, but you are often able to add a mobile theme which only comes into play when a cellphone user hits the site. Double-check to see if your site offers one of these options.Strike a Good Keyword Balance
Keyword saturation is one of the cornerstones to the arcane science of Search Engine Optimization, but it’s not actually very technical. In simple terms, you find out what your website is about, and you use those words. If your site is about lawn care, get the URL YourTownLawnCare.com. Hopefully your business is called Your Town Lawn Care or something similar! In the first sentence, use the words “lawn care” and the name of your town. If you want people to find you for your incredible ability to do a stripey lawn, use those words. Often. Put up pictures and (although it can seem like a pain) fill in all the different areas for metadata in,- File names: eg “lawnstripesinwhateverneighborhood.jpg”
- Titles: “Lawn stripes in whatever neighborhood”
- Captions: “Pictured: Lawn stripes in whatever neighborhood”
- Descriptions: “Lawn stripes in whatever neighborhood by MyBusiness in June”
- ..And Alt Text: Text that pops up when you mouse over a picture, you guessed it, “Lawn stripes in whatever neighborhood.”
