NAVIGATION THAT IS SIMPLE
When current and prospective customers land on your small business website, you want them to be able to find what they’re looking for as quickly and easily as possible. That means you’re navigation needs to be clear and concise.
ADD A CALL-TO-ACTION
You want to have multiple calls to action. Calls to action are one of the most important elements of your small business website. As the name implies, they help prompt your visitors to take action
Take a look at your site and identify an opportunity to incorporate a targeted call to action that aligns with your goals.
REWRITE AND UPDATE WEBSITE CONTENT
You want your small business website content to be interesting and relevant to your audience. Start by rereading your content from the eyes of prospective customers. What questions will they have? What information are they looking for? Is there anything missing? How does everything flow together?
Your ‘About Us’ page.
The one area of your small business website where you really have a chance to tell your story—who you are, what your small business is all about, and what makes you unique from your competitors.
Above all, you want your small business website content to be interesting and relevant to your audience.
ADD NEW UPDATED IMAGES OF PRODUCTS AND PROJECTS
BEST PRACTICES
- Use relevant, accurate alt text for user accessibility and SEO
- Consider using captions to describe an image
- Compress images for faster load time
- Post original images
- Name your file images before uploading them
- Use responsive images
Think about your target audience and your current image strategy. What photos would you replace?
INCORPORATE CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS
A testimonial is a truthful endorsement whereby someone testifies to the quality of a product, person, or service.
The best source of new customers is a happy customer.
- It has to be truthful
Making up testimonials is unethical. Also, people can usually see right through a fake testimonial, so it makes your site less trustworthy, not more. - It is an endorsement
A testimonial really has to be coming from someone who is personally willing to endorse your product or website. That means they should have used it. - It should mention the qualities
It’s not really good enough for that person just to say they’ve tried it; they should also say they liked it and why.
UPDATE YOUR META DESCRIPTIONS AND PAGE TITLES
Visibility in search results is great but it doesn’t mean anything if people don’t click through to your site. Your meta description is the content (typically 160 characters) that appears on the search engine result page directly below your page title.
You want your meta description to be unique to each page and include keywords and a compelling description that your target audience will actually want to click.
LOOK FOR AND FIX BROKEN LINKS
I know it sounds like a no-brainer, but it happens. I use a broken link checker plugin on all my WordPress websites Take a few minutes to click around your homepage and the rest of your site to make sure links to social media profiles, contact forms, etc. are all working properly and pointing to the right place.
UPDATE YOUR PLUGINS
If your website is built on wordpress and you use plugins, you’re getting prompted for updates all of time. Although many updates might not be crucial, they can impact the sercurity of your website and potentially your functionality.
Although plugin updates are usually harmless, make sure you have a backup of your website just in case there’s a glitch. I just saw that happen with a wordpress site today. Updates were set to automatic and the entire homepage was impacted.
IMPROVING YOUR SMALL BUSINESS WEBSITE
First and foremost today, your website is the hub of your business. The job of a website has changed dramatically. It’s not some little offshoot, that’s like a brochure or a place that people go to find more information. In many cases today, it is the first place that people turn.