“You do your best business on Main Street,” so the old saying goes. But for 21st Century small businesses, “Main Street” is the so-called Information Highway of the Internet.
While a web site is now considered a must for most any kind of small businesses—whether it’s just a “billboard” or a full e-commerce site—just having an Internet presence is not enough. You must continually monitor and reevaluate its looks, function, and utility to make sure its meeting the needs of your business and—more importantly—those of your customers.
If your web site was created several years ago, for example, it could be time for a makeover. What seemed sophisticated back then might now look simplistic and even unprofessional compared with other, more effective sites.
In this age of limited attention spans, it’s also essential that your web site catch and keep visitors’ interest. Try adding interactive features such as surveys, guest books, auto responders, downloadable documents and an e-newsletter. Your current Web host may offer some of these capabilities. And why not take orders online with a simple shopping cart feature, if you don’t already? Resources include PrestoCart.com, MyCart.net, PayButton.com and EarthStores.com.
Animated art, professionally designed buttons, bars and banners can help supercharge your site. You can acquire them quickly and inexpensively with software and online delivery from providers such as NetStudio.com and ScreamDesign.com. You can add interesting and timely content to your site as well. Consider hiring a freelance writer to produce original news, feature and how-to articles for your site that are related to your business. Putting fresh content up monthly could cost as little as a few hundred dollars.
The Web offers tremendous potential for researching your markets and competitors. A few top resources—some free, others fee based—include: Business.com for general business research, KnowX.com for public records research and Hoovers.com for company profiles and contact information.
Even if you have the best web site in your industry, nobody will find it unless it listed with the major Internet search engines. SearchEngineWatch.com offers a wealth of information about raising your search engine profile via search engine submissions, as well searching tips, search engine reviews and ratings, and other resources.
To learn more about technology issues facing your small business, contact SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business." SCORE is a nonprofit organization of more than 10,500 volunteer business counselors who provide free, confidential business counseling and training workshops to small business owners.
Call 1-800-634-0245 for the SCORE chapter nearest you, or find a counselor online at www.score.org.
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