7 ways your website can help your business right now

  Amid the doom and gloom talk of the current financial environment it is important that small businesses use their resources as carefully as possible. Follow these tips to evaluate your current site and make any improvements needed. With a professional website you'll attract more customers and from there more of them will make purchases or contact you - providing you an important competitive edge.

1. Clearly show people what you do

When a potential customer views your page it should be quick and easy for them to see what your company does. This means having a single, succinct phrase or short sentence as the main headline on your home page, with some brief, clear dot points and directions included below if necessary.

2. Provide more information for people who want it

If they are not familiar with you or your product most people will want more information than a clean and simple front page allows, but this should be provided on other pages. Organise it clearly so it's easy to find by the people who want it. Websites that contains chapters of text on the front page, hidden navigation or cryptic, creative graphics serve only to confuse and bewilder your potential clients.

3. Make it easy to contact you

You might be surprised how many small businesses have websites that don't generate enquiries for them simply because their phone number or other contact details are not easy to find. Yes, have a contact form so people can fill it out to send you an email, but also include your phone number, address and other relevant details.

4. Answer enquiries promptly

If someone does use an enquiry form then respond as quickly as you can. Within two minutes is awesome, two hours is great, otherwise within 24 hours is acceptable. Consider that the sender often has no record of it themselves when they use a web form - it's not like an email that keeps a copy in their 'sent' folder. So a week later they might not remember who they contacted or how they found you last time. This is even more reason for you to get in touch promptly and follow them up if you don't hear back.

5. Provide fresh content

There's nothing worse than visiting a site and reading 'latest news' with the most recent entry being from 2006. It makes the site seem irrelevant and the business seem like it doesn't do anything or doesn't care. People may even think you have closed down! Search engines as well as customers love regular content updates, but if you don't have the resources to write regularly then don't set up a news area in the first place. Instead, check periodically that the rest of your website is kept up to date by keeping track of information like contact details, prices and opening hours.

6. Show proof of your credibility

The internet is filled with fraud and piracy, and users are right to be wary online. Your website needs to build trust and relate to them so they feel comfortable. You can do this by having a professional design, providing clear contact details including a street address, and showing testimonials from previous clients with their personal and business names.

7. Achieve good search engine ranking

Performing well in the search engines for carefully selected keywords is a valuable asset for your small business. A high ranking in Google is the equivalent of a referral from that trusted and ubiquitous search tool. It allows you to compete with larger businesses and attract clients that are looking for your specific service or product. Depending on the competition in your industry, a search engine optimisation campaign or online advertising can be financially competitive ways of snagging new customers and getting yourself known in the marketplace.

Follow these tips and you'll find your website performing the way you'd really like it to. Sure, there's a lot more you can do to help as well, but these rules will give you a good base to start from with a minimum of effort.