Websites are often underused marketing tool for small businesses. duoSITES is built around this concept, aiming to help small businesses make the web work for them.

The web only works for small businesses if their websites are affordable, attractive and effective:

Affordable

Generally a custom website costs thousands of dollars. Some of the best web development companies charge on average $3,000-5,000 right out of the gate and many charge a lot more. As a small business owner myself, I know that is not affordable for many small businesses.

Attractive

An affordable website shouldn’t mean a cringe worthy website. Your site should be attractive, appealing and representative of  you and your business. A website should give customers confidence and not leave people rolling their eyes at outdated styles. I want you to be proud of your site.

Effective

An attractive website means little if it isn’t effective. If all you have is eye candy, you’re wasting
your time. You can’t afford to have websites that doesn’t deliver. Your website should do something for your business.

1. You need the have the keys to your own website

One common complaint I hear from website owners is: they canʼt change their own website. It’s true some business owners just don’t want to be responsible for this part of their business and that’s fine if you can pay someone to help you.  Regardless, you should at least have both the access and ability to change your own website whenever you want—24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from anywhere with Internet access.

The best way to get control of your own website is to use a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress. A CMS lets you easily manage and change your website giving you the power to do things like add new pages, upload photos, change text and more.

The primary reason you need to have the keys to your own website (through a great CMS like WordPress) is that you—not someone else—can change your website whenever you want.  No more waiting on someone else to make changes to your site, you’re not double-checking to make changes have been made and made right. The
power is in your hands!

I understand, some people donʼt want to mess with their own website and that’s fine. Maybe you donʼt feel like you have the time to maintain your site, or you just want to focus on doing what you do best — and want to leave the rest to professionals. I am always happy to help you!  You should at least have the option to change your own site if you
wanted to!

2. Let Google know about your business

Google has now become a verb for searching for stuff online. Millions of people each day go to Google to find products, information, photos, news and much much more. A percentage of those millions looking for the product or service you offer. You want your website and business to be listed high up on the first page in Googleʼs search results.

Google conducts complicated mathematical algorithms to determine which sites get ranked highly in search results. The ranking is based on a number of factors including keywords that appear on your site, links from other websites and the configuration of your website code and many other (very boring) factors.

With a process called search engine optimization (SEO) we can boost your positioning in the search engine results. WordPress is particularly well suited for SEO as it streamlines the process of optimizing your content.

Right now go to Google.com, type in the product or service you offer. Is your business listed in those results?

3. Get blogging, make connections

There’s a lot of buzz about blogging in the web marketing sphere. Here are just a few reasons why blogging can boost your business:

• Google and the Search Engines Love Blogs
  WordPress makes it extremely easy to have a blog on your website.  To the search engines a blog (or weblog) means frequently updated content, which tells the search engines that your website is kept up to date.
• Keeps your readers / customers engaged
  Just like an email newsletter or even a newspaper, if youʼve got an active blog, with useful information about the products and services your prospective customers may be looking for.
• Teach and Share Your Expertise
  Blogging gives you a platform to show why you’re good at what you do.
• Blogs Make Your Business More Personal
  Most blogs have a comment feature that invites readers to respond and share their
  opinion. That personal connection can be a  great way to answer customer questions, get ideas and feedback for improvement, and ultimately lead to more sales.

4. Be there for the customer

Your website means your customers can find you and get their questions answered on their schedule. Not every question can be answered on your site and sometimes your product or service requires making contact.

A website should make it easy for customers to get in touch with you. Posting your phone number is a no-brainer, but some customers are reluctant to pick up the phone for various reasons they may rather have an unobtrusive way to ask questions and get answers.

Having an simple online contact form is an effective solution. The best part about an online form is you can gather whatever information you need and send it directly to whomever should be responding to it. Adding a simple contact form increases inquiries for products and services dramatically.

5. Motivate their actions

Websites, especially business websites, should not be static. They shouldn’t just sit there, passively letting web surfers absorb information and move on. Your website should do something for your business.

Your site should be directing potential customers to do whatever it is you want them
to do. Do you want them to contact you for more information? Maybe you want them to print a coupon and come to your store. Should they sign up for your mailing list? Simply put, you need to gently steer the visitor to the desired action. It’s called a “call to action”. Whatever it is you want people to do, make sure there’s no way they can miss it. Because if they miss it, you’re the one who misses out.

7. Investigate, evaluate and refine

One of the best aspects of Internet Marketing is that just about anything can be tracked and evaluated. This means you can figure out what’s working, what isn’t and make changes to improve.

I install a free stats program called Google’s Analytics which tracks keywords being used to find your site, what sites link to you, where your visitors are coming from, and loads of other information.  You can comb through the stats to figure out if you’re reaching the people
you need to reach, if they’re finding what they need on your site, if they’re actually doing
what you want them to do.

To have a successful website, you need to be tracking your website’s stats to refine and improve the site. The ever-changing nature of the Internet means you can tweak and change your site until you find the magic combination that works.

Wrapping it up

Are you ready for an affordable, attractive, and effective website?
Fill out an easy Request for Quote form and we can get the started.
If you have more questions first you can quickly contact me.
I look forward to hearing from you!