Make a Great Local Business Website

Make a Great Local Business Website

✓ Why Do Local Businesses Need a Website?

✓ What Kind of Website Should You Have?

✓ Best Practices for Websites

✓ Website Mistakes to Avoid

✓ Website Examples

✓ Build Your Website

Learn How To Make Your Website Great > Webinar Outline

Webinar Outline

Why Do Local Businesses Need a Website?

Appear in Local Search Results

✓ Your website = your storefront on the Internet

✓ Customers rely on search engines and directories to find businesses

✓ To show up in their searches, you need to have a website

✓ 7.6 billion searches/month (87% of which result in a phone call or visit)

Learn How To Make Your Website Great > Why Do Local Businesses Need a Website?

Acts as a Digital Business Card

✓ A website is the most inexpensive and effective way to market your business

✓ It is the core of your business on the Internet

Learn How To Make Your Website Great > Why Do Local Businesses Need a Website?

What Kind of Website Do You Need?

Mobile✓ 50% of local searches are on a mobile device

✓ 70% of mobile searchers will take an action within 1 hour

✓ Google favors local businesses when searchers are on mobile devices (they assume you are going to be shopping locally)

Learn How To Make Your Website Great > What Kind of Website Do You Need?

Professional

Learn How To Make Your Website Great > What Kind of Website Do You Need?

✓ Your website is how potential customers will discover your business

✓ You wouldn’t call a plumber to fix an electrical problem -- if you aren’t a professional web designer it is best to hire a pro

✓ Customers will make assumptions about your business based on your website (have them be the positive kind)

9 Best Practices for Local Business Websites

#1 Should be Easy to Navigate✓ Map out your website for user experience and SEO to get the

most out of Google

Learn How To Make Your Website Great > 10 Best Practices for Local Business Websites

#2 Create Effortless, Predictable Navigation


Limit the number of top-level navigation items (4-7 is ideal)

Organize navigation by content type

Visual cues (or breadcrumbs) help the user navigate

#3 Have Clear Call-to-Actions


Location addresses and local phone numbers

Social media and newsletter signup

Prominent reservations link

#4 Update Content for SEO Benefits


Registration information, prices and blog feed

History of business and embedded keywords

Special events prominently displayed

#5 Feed of Tweets or Facebook Posts


✓ Can include a feed of your tweets

✓ Or formal icons in your navigation

✓ Goal: integrate all your online properties to increase your social media footprint

#6 FAQs, About Us and Contact Us Pages


✓ Use keywords to boost your SEO

✓ Your website is about measurable conversion – make it easy for customers to reach out

✓ Shows that you provide good customer service

#7 Contact FormsStarts the conversation and encourages feedback


#8 Have a Good Web Host


✓ 63% of people will turn to a competitor’s site if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds on mobile

✓ You have one chance to make a first impression: don’t blow it due to technical difficulties

✓ Can also affect your SEO rank (many search engines detect slow loading speeds)

#9 Trying to Target Everyone


✓ Your website will be a mess if you try please everyone

✓ Figure out your target audience and create your site for them

✓ If you try to please everyone, you’ll won’t have a strong focus and won’t please anyone

6 Website Mistakes to Avoid

#1 Filling All the “White Space”

Learn How To Make Your Website Great > 6 Local Business Website Mistakes

✓ “White space” doesn’t equal blank (although it can)

✓ If there is too much information competing for your viewers attention, they won’t know where to go (and may leave)

#2 Not Being Search Engine-Friendly✓ Make a list of 25 keywords or phrases that define your business/industry

✓ Incorporate them into your website, social media pages, etc. so that you move up to the top of the page


Questions

about SEO? Visit the LocalVox

Resource Center for

free ebooks

#3 Not Posting New Information✓ If the information on your site is old, potential customers will wonder, “is

this business still around?”

✓ Contributes to your rank of search engines, engages customers and positions your business as a thought-leader


#4 Burying Your Name, Address and Phone

✓ 63% of local business websites do not have their phone number

✓ The goal of your website is to be a point-of-entry for customers – so don’t hide your contact info!

✓ A hyperlinked email address gets bonus points


#5 Letting Your Website Sit Vacant


#6 Dead Links and Error Messages✓ If the information on your site is old, potential customers will wonder, “is

this business still around?”

✓ Contributes to your rank of search engines, engages customers and positions your business as a thought-leader


Website Examples

Spa Salons

Learn How To Make Your Website Great/ Local Business Website Examples

Spa Salons


Carpet Cleaning Service


Carpet Cleaning Service


Dental Care


Dental Care


Mobile Website Examples

Tourism Agency

Learn How To Make Your Website Great > Mobile Website Examples

Restaurants & Franchises


Retail (Furniture)


Get Started Building a Great Website

Where to Start

Learn How To Make Your Website Great > Get Started Building a Great Website

Do It Yourself Tools ✓ Ex. Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, 1and1, GoDaddy, etc. ✓ Pro: Inexpensive: $10-30 per month ✓ Cons: No service. You are not a website expert, SEO

ninja or copywriter, templates are limited

--OR--

Custom web development / agency ✓ Ex: PR companies, Wordpress developers, etc. ✓ Cons: Expensive, stuck with your vendor, difficult to

update (use: Wordpress if you can)

Very Low Price, Low Value,

High Time Commitment

High Price, High Value,

Medium Time Commitment

Get a Professional Marketing-Enabled Website

At an Affordable PriceYou want a website that drives your business and is part of your local marketing strategy:

✓ Responsive

✓ Converts visitors into customers

✓ Ranks on SEO and maps

✓ Is easy to manage and update

✓ Delivers great business results


Optimizing Your Directory Listings is EssentialHow Are You Listed?

✓ The average local business website gets 200 hits

✓ Far more activity occurs on directories

See exactly how you’re listed on 40+ major online directories at localvox.com/free-report


Simple, Effective and Affordable Local Online Marketing

✓ Search

✓ Social

✓ Mobile

✓ Email

✓ Advertising

✓ Website

✓ PR

✓ Lead Gen

Get your free SEO report today! localvox.com/free-seo-report

Additional Resources

More Local Marketing ResourceseBooks

DOWNLOAD localvox.com/resources

Blog

SUBSCRIBE localvox.com/blog

http://localvox.com/blog/

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Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Make a Great Local Business Website