One of the best investments a small business can make is to build an online presence and every business owner can afford the costs of buying and maintaining their website. This four-step strategy will help you set up your online presence which could transform your business:
- Choose a stand-out domain name.
Choosing the right domain name for your small business is an important long-term decision as you create your digital presence online.
An ideal domain name will:
- Be no more than about 8-10 characters long (excluding the www. and .com.au)[1]
- Clearly reflect what your business does or is known for
A short, concise, and unique domain name can help make your business more visible in search results and more memorable to people who come across it. Your top priority should be ensuring that your domain name is easily accessible to audiences on their computers and mobile devices. One good way to test your domain name is by typing it into your smartphone – if it feels awkward or tedious to do so, chances are your customers will feel the same.
- User friendly set up
Customers, aren’t going to spend much time in a badly-designed digital property. Build your website so that it’s easy for customers to navigate. Links to important pages (like “About”, “Contact”, and “Buy Now”) should be clearly visible on your homepage. Keep the number of pages to a minimum so that customers aren’t as likely to get lost. And make sure that your website works on mobile devices – there’s nothing more off-putting than pages which don’t scale to viewing on a smartphone screen. You can use the tools offered by your website hosting provider like GoDaddy’s Website Builder to get started even faster.
- Add compelling content
A blog or a video-log can act as a platform for you to share your expertise and industry knowledge with current and potential customers. That positions you as an expert who understands what your customers need, which in turn can help to build trust in the quality of your products and services. Your content doesn’t have to be long: frequent articles of 200 words or 60-second videos can be more engaging for quick views to help customers get a feel for your small business.
An easy way to blog or share content about your small business is to use a platform like WordPress, which makes it simple to post new articles or videos whenever you feel like it. Also consider what social media platforms your customers use, like Facebook or LinkedIn, and the sorts of content that they find enjoyable, to post up on your social media channels.
- Get the word out.
A website is no good without visitors. Your online communications should include a clear link to your website, from your social media channels.. If you’re regularly doing content marketing, post your articles on social media or consider setting up an email newsletter which people can sign up to on your website. A little further down the track, you might want to consider investing in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or a bit of additional promotion to help get your website in front of even greater audiences.
All this you can do yourself with a little research time and assistance from your provider’s customer care experts.
