Small businesses rely on an online presence to ensure their success. In a world dominated by large players, the internet can be a force for punching above your weight, but only when it’s coupled with great design, strong content and excellent customer service. To help your small business website stand out from the rest, you need to make sure you make good in these four essential areas:
Branding
Your brand is more than your logo; it’s your service ethos and the way you connect with customers. Once known, these are woven into your company’s website, customer service interactions and content. Your brand should be so pervasive in all aspects of your site, that even without your business name, visitors should be able to identify the site, purely by the content on the website.
Working with a branding agency is an excellent way to do this. They will conduct market research and ask your target audience what they like. They will also look at your competitors and find a unique look and feel for your business that sets you apart.
Simplicity
Keeping your website simple to navigate is a way to make you stand out. Nobody enjoys visiting clunky internet sites. By minimising the number of clicks to relevant activities on your website makes your site more accessible and enjoyable to visitors. If a site is cluttered, it can reflect poorly on your company. Keep text and images separated and don’t be afraid of white space. Make sure your most important messages are front and centre on every page.
Imagery
Choosing the right images is part of a good content strategy. They should reflect the purpose fo the site and the tone of your brand. Find images that are uniquely you and find images from a reputable source that are similar to each other in look and feel. Resist the temptation to fill your site with free stock photography from random sources just because it looks good. Wherever possible put real pictures of you, your team and your products on every page of your website – after all, isn’t that what you’re selling?
Fresh content
Keeping your content refreshed and updated is the most efficient way to attract new readers, and bring old readers back for more. Use sharing plugins to amplify the impact of your content, and make sure you are making the most of your social networks to share and redistribute your content. Don’t be afraid to repurpose old articles or create summary reports to take new readers back to older content on your site. By writing content that is evergreen (not time specific) you will always have a deep reservoir of content to draw on, that keeps readers interested in you.
We’d love to chat with you about your website. Talk to us anytime by sending us an email.
