Building a successful business website includes the right combination of design and usability. Once your site is in place, it’s time to make it work for you by attracting, engaging and converting your visitors into customers. Neither should be ignored. Follow these keys, and you’ll get your small business website right the first time.

Web Design for Michigan Businesses: Getting it Right the First Time

Building a successful business website is all about visibility and traffic.

Your website can have a stunning layout, a catchy tagline, an intelligent sales pitch, and cutting edge media presentation. But without a core that is built to attract, capture and convert potential clients, your site will be a very attractive, but lonely place.

Getting your small business web design right the first time involves the correct blend of design and usability. Neither should be ignored.

By following the attract, capture, and convert formula, you will have the correct foundation in place for the most favorable online results. It’s easy to get off track with other elements of a website, but without the proper base, none of these will matter.

Attract

Learning the basics of small business Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will bring visitors to your site. The first step to a successful website involves gaining traffic. Once your site has been built, you’ll want to attract visitors. There are several key elements to SEO that will drive traffic to your website.

Homepage:

Your homepage should have a simple and compelling message that clearly highlights your product or services. If your home page is cluttered with nonessentials, your visitors will not move deeper into your site.

Content:

When creating content, try to think like the individual who is querying the search engines. They are typing in a particular keyword phrase to look for specific information. Choosing a set of targeted keywords to be used throughout your site will allow Google to rank your website for these terms. Keep this common thread throughout your site, using the same keywords and keyword phrases in each article. By doing so, you will greatly increase the probability of being indexed for those phrases by the search engines.

Capture and Convert

Engage your reader and provoke a reaction. Some visitors are browsing, and simply won’t stay on your site long enough to make a lasting connection. Your visitor may be in the middle of something else and may bounce off of your site without bookmarking, writing down a phone number, or even remembering the name of your company. Realistically, you have 30 seconds or less to make an impression and engage your visitor, convincing them that you can provide exactly what they are looking for.

The best solution is to provide a newsletter sign up, contact form, or other call to action that is clearly positioned on your home page. Once a visitor has found your website through search results, it is vital to have your conversion tools in place. By offering a newsletter, eBook, or a short tutorial in exchange for contact information, you will be able to build a list of prospects who are ready to be converted into solid clients.

If your business is more product oriented, a call to action with a simple shopping cart and payment system is the best small business marketing system to employ. Offer free shipping, an additional bonus, or a special deal as a reward for “acting now” and your call to action will convert visitors into customers.

Tracking Your Visitors

Employing certain tracking tools to your website and taking the time to analyze your traffic data will provide rich insights into your marketing effectiveness.

Google Analytics is a simple tool that will help you identify what is important to your readers. You can use the information obtained from Google Analytics to strengthen your marketing initiatives, write stronger web copy, and increase your conversion rates.

Forward-thinking companies are making use of tracking services in a variety of areas.

Call tracking services provides unique phone numbers that can be assigned to different ad campaigns. This allows you to measure the response rate to a particular offer. Using call tracking will help you immediately streamline your advertising efforts by weeding out the nonproductive campaigns.

Email tracking: Teaming up with email delivery services also provides analytical benefits. Aweber provides an impressive variety of reports that will help you test email campaigns and the effectiveness of your newsletters. Detailed reports will reveal who actually opened your emails, which links and articles were the most popular, and who opted out or unsubscribed.

Once you’ve laid the foundation and have the combination of an attractive, functional website, along with a sensible small business marketing plan in place, all you need is the diligence and determination to continue with your online efforts. Remember, eighty percent of success lies in consistency.

Continue to add valuable, SEO content, engage new visitors, and continue tracking your results. These are the keys to a successful website.

Optimal Leads Inc. is a Michigan full-service Internet Marketing and SEO company. Located in Metro Detroit, we specialize in Web Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Management, and Public Relation Management.

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