If you are a small business or start-up, one of the most powerful tools in your marketing armoury is your business website. This mainstay of your online presence is the destination of all your digital marketing engagement and without it, you can’t hope to make more sales, get more clients or convince customers you’re the company to do business with.
The key to a successful website is not only the graphics and slick design (though these are important, of course). It’s the UX. This stands for User Experience and has become increasingly important as our digital technology has developed. What it means is actually giving your customer all the opportunity possible to engage effectively and easily with your business at all times.
Most people will be accessing your website on their mobile phones rather than a traditional desktop. If you do not have a mobile-friendly website that shows up clearly on a smartphone, you’re likely to lose out because people will become frustrated and search elsewhere.
With this in mind, here are our 5 top tips for improving your small business website so that it works most effectively for your customers, and for your business:
1. Click to Call Phone Number
Potential customers may want to call you directly. The last thing they want is to have to remember your number in order to key it into their mobile.
Your phone number must be clearly displayed on your website and must be a click to call link that automatically dials your business. This is quite a simple point, however you won’t believe how many business websites we come across that do not have this functionality!
2. Boost Your Mobile Business Website Speed
Many things can slow down your website. The truth is that Google and other search engines are likely to penalise your rankings if your website is taking too long to materialise in front of customers. If you’re not sure how fast your website is, you can use Google’s website speed tester to check things out.
We’re far more impatient when it comes to download speeds nowadays. If we don’t get a response in a few seconds, we’re likely to click away. Our advice is don’t risk losing customers because of slow mobile download speeds, find out what the problem is and fix it asap.
3. Link to Social Media Platforms
Want your visitors to share your content on their social media platforms or follow your social media accounts?
It’s amazing the number of businesses that don’t have sharing tools and their social media links highlighted on their website. And those that do, often hide these away at the bottom of pages. Make them front and centre to ensure more engagement!
4. Invest in a Business Website Chatbot
There are lots of benefits to using chatbots, AI software that can do the heavy lifting when it comes to the standard questions people often ask about your business. Not only does it give customers answers they are looking for immediately, it greatly improves UX (It doesn’t have to be expensive either!)
5. Claim your Google Business Profile
Google offers a range of different services aimed predominantly at local small businesses. Claiming your business profile means that your location and business information appears on searches. Having accurate profile information, and by adding products and services, you can get additional promotion and visibility online.
Making the most of your website is vitally important if you are a small business. These simple tips will improve the user experience, help promote better engagement, and boost your business growth.
If you would like to find out what else you can do to supercharge you small business website, why not take advantage of our Instant FREE SEO Site Audit and we’ll send you a report to highlight all the things that can be improved on your website!