Top 2 Ways to Make Your Small Business Website More Effective
by Mashum Mollah Small Business Published on: 15 May 2017 Last Updated on: 11 November 2024
The purpose of your small business website is to attract visitors who might want to buy your products and convert them into customers who actually do buy them. Is your site effectively doing that?
If not, it’s time to rethink your messaging methodologies. Maybe the problem is that you, and therefore your site, are thinking like a seller, not a buyer. That needs to change. Like the old song says, “It ain’t what you do. it’s the way that you do it!” Here are the two best ways to make your site more effective.
1. Think Like Your Target Audience
Who is your target audience? Who are the people who are most likely to buy what you’re selling? In all likelihood, they are people with a problem who are searching for its solution. You have that solution but they don’t know that. They’re not searching for you, they’re searching for answers. Your site’s real purpose should be to give them those answers. If it does that effectively, you’ve gained new customers and increased revenue.
Search engine optimization (SEO) must be a crucial part of your business. Up to 80% of web searches are informational and often are in the form of a question:
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- what is _____?
- how to _____?
Google is the most popular search engine, accounting for 72.48 percent of the world’s search market share in 2016. Most people never go beyond the first few listings on Google’s search engine results page (SERP). They often don’t even get to the listings, clicking instead on the URL of the site in the featured snippet box or, at best, the URLs of the sites in the “People also ask” accordion.
This makes it even more critical that you know what questions your potential customers might ask and that your site answers those questions in a straightforward, easy-to-understand, conversational way. In other words, talk to them in their language, not yours. If your various site pages do that well enough, Google might put your site in the featured snippet box. You don’t have to pay for this like you do for Google Adwords. Your site becomes the featured snippet if Google finds the answer to the searcher’s question on one of your site’s pages.
If you’re unsure of how to write site content that not only speaks to your target audience but also is SEO-focused, hire a company that is experienced in writing content for small business websites.
2. Make Your E-Commerce a Shopping Experience
Have you ever watched how shoppers shop? They don’t just look at the things on the shelves. They pick them up. They turn them around. They move any movable parts. Obviously, your website shoppers can’t do that in person, but your site can and should make their shopping experience as real-life as possible.
Provide multiple pictures of each item you sell. Show it from the front, back, and sides and what it looks like in a home or car or wherever it’s going to be used. Provide a quick demo video of someone using it and how it works.
Include a cost calculator so your shoppers know how much their purchase will total, including its price, tax, and shipping. At checkout, include PayPal as one of your payment options. Not only does PayPal have 179 million active accounts, but it also has an iPhone app for mobile shoppers that allows both them and your computer customers to buy your products without having to disclose their credit card information online.
Finally, include a mandatory customer email address field on your site’s Checkout form. Make sure your site has the capability to automatically send each customer a purchase confirmation email and a follow-up email when the item has shipped, including its tracking number. Having your customers’ email addresses also gives you an ever-growing database of people to whom you can send future “ads” for new catalogs, special promotions, etc.
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