I was actually driving today when I saw a vehicle with an advertisement on the side of it with their business name, phone number and website address. The more I looked at it I realized something was wrong. Their website had a word spelled incorrectly. I actually called the number and talked to the owner and said what I had seen and he could not believe it. They called me back later in the day and said “sure enough it was a typo” on their ad.

Today many businesses are gaining an edge on their competition just by having a web site that provides their address, phone number, and even directions to their storefront. There are key benefits to a web site you should consider:

*Gives your company prestige
*Allow customers to contact you on-line from your site
*Show potential customers the professional image they expect from any business in today’s information age
*Allow customers the ease of browsing your products or services on-line
*Reduce costs associated with paper brochures, advertising in newspapers
*This will be the savviest investment your business had made since its inception

The Internet provides a fast and convenient way to gather information, products, or services from people or businesses around the world. Imagine opening up your business to the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Purpose of a Website?

To look fancy? To look high-tech? To make money? The answer is to make money. Too many people are concerned with the “looks” of their site and don’t realize that you can have a 10K site but if it is not done correctly it will return no profit. The idea of having a website is to make money for your business through this advertising. A website should be something that you put thought into, put proper work into, and then never have to worry about it again. But, when all is done you should have visitors coming to your site, you should make contacts from your site, you should make money from your site.

Why a Website?

If you have a business you have to have a website. Years ago this would not of mattered but in todays world you need to have a website. Think of the amount of people in the Fredericksburg, Stafford and surrounding areas that work in Northern Virginia. Typically what people do is go to work then decide they need something done or want to look up some type of service/business. Well they are not going to look in the phone book, instead what they will do is look online.

How Do People Find You?

Your website should attract visitors. Visitors in turn become cusomters. Say for example you own a “dog grooming” business. The name of your business is “Elite Dog Grooming” and you are located in Fredericksburg. Of couse if someone knows the name of your business and types that “exact” address in Google, Yahoo, or the other search engines they should be able to find you. Can they find you?

Now that is great if the potential customer knows your business name, but what about the person just looking for a “dog grooming” business in say Fredericksburg? This potential customer types in Goolge “dog grooming fredericksburg”. Will this potential customer find your business?

These are the types of searches people do when looking for a service provider, seldom do they know the name of the business theh are looking for.

Search Engine Optimization?

People always ask about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The majority of the time the person does not need to pay a “continual” fee for SEO to be done. If your business website is properly put together and coded correctly then your site will work for you. There is no “magic” to getting your business listed in the search engines and “nobody” can guarantee that they can do this for you. The best you can hope for is having your website done properly and that will make it happen.
Can you pay for SEO? Yes, there are companies that will set you up, and you can do monthly payments for “x” amount of dollars. But, all you are going to be doing is spending money on something that you don’t need. Again, if your website is done properly SEO is going to work on it’s own.

Linking

What is linking? Linking is when people want to trade website links with you. That is they will put a link on their site to your business and in return you will put a link on your business to their site. As much as it’s a nice gesture to do things like this it will not help your website in the search engines or being found. What you want is that website that will list your website with nothing in return. Linking to each other negates the effect on it.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is your website should be making you money. Your website should be getting you inquiries about your business. Your website should be your first and foremost number one priority in advertising.

Dan
Computer Repair Business Lessons Learned
www.computerrepairbusiness.net