6 Tips to Make A Small Business Website Effective

When you run a small business, your site serves the same function as your business card - it provides essential information about what you do and who you are. It also could be the first point of contact with potential new customers, so it is crucial you keep your site up to date and give new visitors a good impression. Here are five tips that you should keep in mind to ensure that you present yourself at your best.

1. Use helpful and descriptive content

Keep your product descriptions to-the-point and useful. Customers want information that can help them make a purchasing decision and not lots of editorial nonsense that no one reads. Be clear and precise.

2. Provide a prominently visible "Call to action" button

What do you want your potential customers to do when they visit your website? Do you want them to buy something from you? Or maybe visit your brick-and-mortar store? Sign up for a newsletter? Be very clear about it - ask for it from your visitors. For example, Uptimia wants visitors to try our website monitoring services, so we have a highly visible button that shouts "Start free 30-day trial". Trust me, it works!

3. Make your site mobile-friendly

There are more and more people doing their daily business on mobile phones. Make sure your potential customers have a great experience visiting your website - visitors now expect to have the same experience viewing a site on a mobile device as they do on a desktop computer. You might lose credibility if your site does not meet that expectation.

Also, Google is introducing it's "mobile-first" index, which makes it even more critical to have a mobile-friendly website.

4. Use high-quality pictures

Don't use generic stock images. You are trying to make a great first impression, so you should use high-quality photos to display your products in the best possible way.

Also, be precise. If your customer purchases an item that does not match the photo, you will have a very unhappy customer who probably will never buy from you again. If you are providing services, display pictures of key staff members to help start building trust.

5. Make your contact information visible

Potential new customers want to find contact information quickly. If your site loads slowly, they are not likely to stay very long and will look elsewhere for the goods or services they want. Even if your site loads quickly, visitors will expect a well-organized site that makes it easy to find vital information about your company. Therefore, be sure to include your contact information directly on your homepage. If you operate a real store, include your street address and working hours too. People are busy, and most won't take the time to search through multiple pages to find what they need.

6. Make sure your website is always up

It might be embarrassing if your potential customers cannot load your site. Even worse, it could cost you lots of money in lost sales if people cannot buy your stuff. Use a website monitoring service like Uptimia to get alerted the moment it goes down so that you can take a quick action.

Conclusion

You only have one opportunity to make an excellent first and lasting impression. But most of all, be sure that if you are sending visitors to your site, your potential customers will have an exceptional user experience.