5 Ways to Make Your Website a Business Tool

It’s safe to say that every business needs a website today. From my experience in the web industry, I have noticed that while business owners know that they need a website for their company, they may have difficulty telling you the reasoning behind why you would need one. How about the fact that there were almost 300 billion dollars spent online just in the United States in 2012? That doesn’t even include all of the leads generated through the internet such as phone calls and emails that are generated from a website, which is estimated to be worth in the trillions of dollars of value just in the United States alone. Business owners need to ask themselves one very simple, very important question- “How is my website going to make my company more money?” Because let’s face it, that is why most people go into business, to make more money doing what they love.

1. CALL TO ACTION

Having a website with a call to action is the first and most basic step to using the internet as a business tool. All websites are not created equal. A business website should always have a task it wants the visitor to complete, whether it be a contact form, a newsletter sign up, or an on sale promotion, these are called “call to actions”. If you are not getting any customer information from your website, it is not providing the value that it should be to your business. You need your main phone number to be prominent on your header or footer of your website as well as an easily found contact form or page so that visitors to your website will never get frustrated because they do not know how to contact you.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media makes your business available, all the time. Having a Facebook allows you to reach your customers on a higher level. Social media is where people go on their spare time, it’s where they “hang out” with “friends” online, and if your business is liked by them, you’re “hanging out” too. It allows you to be accessible at all times to customers who have questions, people who like what you do, people interested in you, and everyone else that may just happen to want to follow you! It is a new way of providing customer service, and keeps you relevant to your customers, allowing them to keep up to date on what is going on in your company. Maybe you are running a sale? or you have a new product? Link all your social media sites to your website and stay consistent on the major platforms, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and any other social media site that is specifically relevant or helpful for your business.

3. HAVE A PURPOSE ON EVERY PAGE

Having an unfocused website can be a disastrous mistake for business’ looking to use their website as a business tool. When a business isn’t focusing on the parts of the website that drive sales, they are being counterproductive. Websites are an investment for any business, and the main goal of any investment is to use it to make more money in the long run. To get the most out of your money and time, you must focus on driving sales and activity on your website, don’t worry about whether or not there are enough pages related to the about section of the company, and focus on making each page useful for the user which is the potential customer!

4. LEARN FROM YOUR COMPETITION

Check out your competition. Make sure you are competitive online with everything you do. If you are more expensive, make sure that you explain why, and explain well. When someone visits your website, they will want to know why you are more or less expensive, or why you do or do not offer a product one of your competitors offers and so on. Play on your strengths online, be competitive, and learn from the best things your competitors do and try and make them your own.

5. SEO AND PPC

Last and probably the most important is Search Engine Optimization and PPC. These are the most undervalued and underutilized tools for small and mid-sized businesses. SEO is literally the act of getting people who are looking for your goods or services on the major searches to your website. Just having a website is not enough for people to find you because most people are searching on Google, Yahoo, and Bing and researching multiple websites. SEO and PPC Agencies will help you to show up on the first page of search results for keywords related to your business. As an example let’s say that you are an optician. Many SEO firms are expensive so if you are a new business without a lot of money I would suggest trying to find someone you know to help get the SEO or PPC process started.
In short, people go into business to make money while having the freedom of being your own boss or manager, and today the money is online. Just having a website doesn’t cut it anymore, there is simply too much competition online. With a well-designed website, good call to action, and a strong SEO or PPC Company working for you, your business will be able to grow larger in the increasingly digital times we live in!