Although the importance of the Internet is not exactly a new phenomenon, many small businesses have yet to venture into this domain. How many small- and medium-sized businesses have made you cringe with their pre-millennial websites? How many small businesses in Montreal have failed their social media strategy? Small- and medium-sized businesses are far from well equipped to handle the digital age. Here are the top six reasons:
1. Where’s the Call to Action on Your Homepage?
Make sure that it is as easy as possible for a consumer to enter your site and find a phone number or email where they can reach you. If they don’t find it right away, they will get distracted and forget about it. Make it as available as you can on your site.
2. Lack of Information
Most small business websites don’t have a contact form directly on their site. If you’re potential client has a question, they can quickly shoot you an email and you can respond in a timely manner. This is very easy to create and maintain. It will also greatly increase conversion rates on your site!
3. No Phone At All!
Imagine that over half of small businesses don’t even have a mention of a toll-free or local number on their site. Although email may be the preferred method of communication for most looking into a site, if they can’t find a contact form or email, you better hope you have a phone number they can find easily!
4. SEO Problem
If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it… If you create a website that isn’t search engine friendly and no one can find it, does it really exist? The majority of your site’s traffic will come from search engines like Google and Bing (but mainly Google). So make sure that you have the right keywords, appropriate links, and ascribe to other white hat practices that will be of benefit to you.
5. They Forgot about Mobile
The gap between consumer adoption to new technology and small business digital knowledge is widening. Small businesses barely have a website off the ground only to find out that it looks even worse on a mobile device, which is the way most consumers check up on a business now. Mobile compatibility is growing fast, so make sure to optimize your site.
6. Social Media Is Missing
This is a big one for us, but it should not be understated for anyone. The majority of social media traffic and likes come directly from your website. Make sure that you have social media icons on your site and make sure that they are linked to the correct social media pages. However, if you have a blog, I would suggest that you don’t integrate it fully on social media. For example, when WordPress automatically updates your posts to Facebook or Twitter, they don’t come out looking optimal. It’s better to manually post them to limit bugs. But by all means include a Tweet or Post option as much as possible.
All of these problems are potentially disastrous for your website. Contact us to learn how your small business presence can be improved online.
