There are hundreds of mistakes you can make with your small business blog or website. There are very few true masters of the art of internet design that are able to make a great site or blog that converts well and offers the correct SEO opportunities for your company. Many times entrepreneurs are designing their website or blog by themselves and are not aware of all things that can trip them up.
Here are our top three things to watch out for when designing your small business blog or website:
Thinking fancy blog or website design is good for business
When most small business owners start building their blog or website, the first thing they do is pick a snazzy template or select their colors. They make sure they know what kind of showy flash design they are going to use or which animated gif will work best.
That is NOT the most important thing about website or blog design! The vital thing is to know what the goal is for your small business blog or website. Are you trying to get visitors or are you looking to collect email addresses. Are you getting people to buy something online or are you trying to get them to visit your online store?
When someone visits your blog or website, they should know RIGHT AWAY what you want them to do. There should be a prominent button that directs them to your goal or there could be a popup box that offers something for free in trade for their contact information. If you look at most websites, there is so much going on there that your visitor doesn’t know what to do!
Not having the right Search Engine Optimization for your blog or website
There are tons of companies out there who say they will get your blog or website to the top of the search engines for a specific search term. That may be true but it will not get you regular, interested visitors. Ranking well for one or two terms is not the goal – ranking well for multiple terms is possible now with thoughtful planning.
Have a qualified keyword company do a keyword research analysis report for you and then use those keywords throughout your posts and pages. Be mindful that your first paragraph, description and title all agree. Use a free keyword analysis tool to make sure that your site is showing up the way you intend.
A big red flag about those fun flash websites that every small business owner thinks they need. When you have a landing page in front of your website, google does not know anything about your company. When you have a gorgeous site with all kinds of pictures, the search engines do not have any words to spider. Please make sure to focus functionality, having lots of keyword rich information on your blog or website!
Trying to do it by themselves
This is not a pitch for your website or blog design business. There are many great web design companies out there who spend a lot of time and money researching the latest search engine information and who do great work. Your Uncle Steve who knows how to sort of make a website is not spending all of his time researching the current internet info. Your pal John would be great for designing a personal page but we are talking about your business, you need a professional website or blog.
You may be surprised at how the cost of website and blog design has gone down in recent years. What used to cost a fortune now costs much less and most small business owners can afford to hire a professional!
If you cannot afford to hire a professional, make sure that you take some training on how to use HTML correctly. There are great classes {both in person and online} {online and in person}, just know that your time to market will be longer than if you have someone do it for you.
Well there you go, our top three mistakes that we see small business owners make with their website or blog design efforts. Some of these probably make sense to you and some might make you uncomfortable, but they are all true. We work with many different kinds of businesses and see everyone making these mistakes.
If you would like to get 10 More Mistakes Small Business Websites and Blogs make, please visit our site!