Succeeding Online with a Small Business Website

This article will discuss how small businesses, with no major online presence, can still take advantage of the possibilities that web has to offer and how to increase their clientèle and/or branding without too much effort.

First I will give you some background information: Recently I went to my favorite barbershop in my hometown Groningen and the owner asked me, knowing I was involved in IT somehow, my thoughts on her website. She has a rather static website, which is acting as a business card for her shop. It contains some basic information (e.g. phone number, contact form, the faces of her team, the location, etc). Overall it is a nice small website. However, these types of websites, in my humble opinion, works mostly with clients that already know the shop and will not necessarily bring in a lot of search engine traffic and with that new visitors. Her target audience is very localized and her shop is in a prominent spot in Groningen, so at the moment she does not need search engine traffic. However she wanted to improve the website (once in a while it is always good to improve websites) and wondered how she could get more out of it. So for her and others I am wrote down some thoughts that potentially will help this small business. Note that these thoughts are far from covering every angle and that even though I will use this barbershop as an example, most of these tips can be applied to any small business or freelancers website.

Creating a website

You can hire a webmaster to create a website for you (find one in your neighborhood or online)) or you can use one of many free online content management platforms to make your own website. A good platform (that for example this website is running on) is WordPress.

Once you have chosen a webmaster or platform, you need to think about the structure of your website. Keep in mind that the structure needs to make sense to your visitors. You can test this by asking around (ask some friends and family and even some customers), you may be surprised by some of the preferences people have. I will give you here a basic structure that generally works for most small business websites:

• Homepage (link here to everything popular and/or important).
• Articles section (here you will need to publish regularly unique and compelling content, I will discuss this below).
• About page (think our the history of your business, give your local visitors a chance to connect to your business).
• Gallery page (feel free to add some examples of your haircutting/products, photos from the shop, etc).
• Meet the staff-section (optional, let them write a introduction page and publish this under this section).
• Contact page (contact form, phone numbers, address, directions from known points in the neighborhood, a map for anyone who has difficulty following directions.

This is just an example. You can add anything you like, but try to keep it simple.

Having a frequently updated website is important!

By updating your website often, your website may perform better in search engines and you give your visitors a good reason to come back to your website. So the big question is with what do you update the website? Well, that should not be too hard. I am sure that you, just like most other barbers, are reading articles and news sources related to your work. In addition you are probably also communicating with other barbers and people in your sector. I am also sure that, especially after a while, have some unique knowledge about your work. For example, tips and best practices on how to color your own hair at home or your advice on what is the best way to cut keep your hear healthy. You posses unique knowledge that a lot of people would like to read more on. I would also not forget to refer to your services in each article (when appropriate) in case your readers would like professional assistance ;). So why not share this knowledge (freely) with the rest of the world or the people that speak your language?  Sharing this knowledge will allow you to build a reputation with your clients and increase the trust they have in you. It will help your branding and as a result you may get a number of new clients. This means you will become an authority in this field. Celebrities are created that way!

How to find the time to create content for my website?

Like most entrepreneurs you will probably not have a lot of time to spend on researching and writing content for your website. Don’t worry! You do not need to spend so much time on this. Of course, if you have the time go ahead and use it for this but I will assume that you do not. Consider this: You are already reading articles and other literature, why not take a few notes while you read them? This will help you to prioritize, come up with topics and references for articles and allow you to quickly write these articles (less time spend on research). Also consider writing down questions you get from your current customers. Often these questions are on the mind more people and provide great ideas for article topics. With a little bit of effort, approximately 30 minutes a day maximum, you can write enough unique content for your website.

Communication is key!

Now that you have this frequently updated website with regularly added unique content, you will need keep an eye on comments that your visitors may leave. Also email correspondence could increase slightly. Be prepared for that! Check your email and website (for comments on your articles) for 5 minutes every few hours (e.g. whenever you are not helping a client or have a staff member do it).Make sure you answer all emails within a working day (even if you do not have an answer yet, communicate that to keep the communication line to the potential customer open).

It may take a few months to get noticed and before people start commenting on your articles. This is normal, but keep in mind that you need to continue producing content before and after you get noticed. Of course you can speed up how quick you get noticed with some extra marketing (which I am discussing below).

When you start getting comments on your articles it is important that you respond to them (preferably within a working day) and that you are honest, positive and constructive to the commenter. Doing this will be highly appreciated and will increase your branding and reputation (remember client = king!).

How to build online reputation fast

A few factors will most definitely help you get noticed quicker. Some are technical and some will require you to put more time into your communication efforts.

First, the technical bit:

• Make sure your website is good indexable for search engines. If you are unsure what this means, check out Google’s SEO Starters Guidehire a professional.
• Make sure you promote your website in local search, e.g. add you business to Google Maps and check out if you can sponsor local events or clubs and promote your website here.
• Make sure you provide a notification system by email on your website that allows visitors to be notified (opt-in) when you post new content. Visitors will return to your website and promote your content through word of mouth. If you use a content management system like WordPress (otherwise ask your webmaster) you could use free tools like Feedburner to help you with this.
• Lastly, you can also use online advertising to promote your business to groups of people targeted to what they look for online by using tools like Google Adwords. Do note that you may want to get some professional advice or spend a few hours reading up the literature before using these type of tools. The main reason why I am noting this is because the cost can quickly run out of hand if you do not know what you are doing.

Secondly, your communication efforts:

• Be active in social media, e.g. use Twitter, Facebook or be active in forums related to your sector and promote yourself as an expert. Don’t overdo it by spamming every social media you come across, instead focus on one and put all your efforts into that for a while. If you are unsure about the new hypes of social media, try out old-fashioned forums first. The forums may be old-fashioned but they will teach you a lot on how to communicate and you can already start building your brand here.
• Be sure to promote your website and knowledge shared on your website to your offline environment. For example, give your customers business cards telling them to go to your website and tell them why! Also try to hang up a poster in your front window promoting popular topics you are discussing on your website and display the address of your website on your car, etc.

Identifying success

Finally you can use a number of free online tools like Google Analytics and the Google Webmaster Tools to identify your most popular topics, the increase of your visitors and the number or returning visitors. I would most definitely keep an eye out for the popular topics and which queries result in visitors. You can use these to go more into depth on these topics and really write unique and compelling content. Just try to set some realistic goals and try to achieve them. If your goals turn out to be too easy or difficult, adjust them accordingly but keep on trying to achieve your goals. Obtaining those goals will be your measurement for success.

I hope you found this article useful and do leave me your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks!

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