How to Start a new Small Business Website

As a small business owner, you know you need a website, but don’t know how to go about it. Advices and information abound but nevertheless setting up a website involves a number of specific details that need to be done right and experience helps.

By Alain Houle, Alco Web Design LLC

Aspects to Focus On
Creating a new small business website can be complex and seem a little intimidating at times, but proper planning and a methodical approach will help you launch your business website with the least amount of hassle. 

• The Objective - Even before you get into the details, you will have to lay down a strong foundation. Understand what you want to achieve from your site.  Are you selling any products or services or are you just trying to attract people to your offline business? Once you have this before you, it becomes the central theme of the entire project.
• Clear Picture - Sit down and visualize how you would like your website to look. Check online and look at some other sites, try to see how they work and identify which sections, tabs and pages your site will have. Though the Web designer will be handling the actual designing, you can always give your inputs and have them work on that concept. Don't copy others, do better!
• The Content - Even as the website is getting designed, start working on the content early. Make extra effort to see that you have credible and relevant content that has no grammatical errors or typos. This will help attract and hold the attention of your visitors. Regardless of how great a website you have, if the content isn’t engaging, you will eventually lose business.
• Click To Action - Customers look for convenience and when they are reading a particular page, they just may not want to go hunting for your contact information all around your site. Give them the shortcut they need to go where you want them to be. 
• Blog - This is an important part of your website. Publish interesting and useful blog posts. This will help create a following and will encourage any potential customers to contact you or even sign up for your newsletter. Add fresh content to it regularly, this will help attract traffic.

Focus on creating a user-friendly & seamless website experience for your visitors; keep the content updated and you will find that steadily there is an increase in the amount of traffic that reaches your site. For more information, you can contact us or visit our website at www.alcowebdesign.com.