Why does a small business need a mobile friendly website?

How do people find out about your business? Do they hear about you from their friends or co-workers? Do they stumble upon your storefront as they are walking down the street? Do they see an ad for your business in the local paper? All of these are fine ways for you to reach people, but if they’re the only ways, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers.

More and more, people are out and about, and they pull out their web-enabled phones and search. One in three mobile searches have local intent, and 59% of consumers visit a local store after searching for it on the mobile Web.

When those consumers are searching, do they find you? Are you there to be found?

According to eMarketer, by 2013 the majority of mobile phone subscribers will have a smartphone. Already 61% of smartphone users search for local information, and 52% of search clicks result in calls.

That’s not only a lot of potential people searching for your business while they are out and ready to come visit, the numbers are increasing continuously. When someone searches for your business or type of business, it is critical to have a mobile-friendly website that makes your information easy to access and your phone an easy touch to call.

So how do you get that mobile friendly site?

It can seem overwhelming, of course. You have a business you know and love, and it needs your attention. So how can you go about getting an effective web presence while maintaining focus on the core of what you do?

Here are five steps in a proven process that will get you from current state to having an effective mobile web presence to help drive more customers to your business.

Identify the goal. Common goals are:

• Drive both new and existing customers to your store or business.
• Generate calls to your business.

Create a solution.

• Layout the website structure and content in a way that provides the best user experience.
• Great customer service includes providing a great user experience on your site. Happy web visitors will become happy customers.

Design and Write.

• Create a design that conveys the identity and nature of your business and that appeals to your target audience.
• Write content that enables people to quickly and easily find what they need. Make critical information such as your phone number, address, and operating hours easy to see at a quick glance.

Develop the site.

• Code the site in the most efficient way that achieves a responsive design so that your site looks great on any size device screen – from desktops to smartphones.
• Ensure a content management system that enables you to keep your content updated regularly.

Launch your site.

• With good search engine optimization (SEO) and strong content, you will be found more and more over time. Remember that it does take time to build up your site’s reputation and to be found consistently high in search engine results.
• Promote your site and be found in those ever-increasing local searches that potential customers are doing on their phones while out looking for what they need.

Always remember your customers. What do they want, and how can you help them? First, they want to find you and to quickly understand what you offer. More and more they want to achieve this while out and using their phones to search. Then they want to call or visit your business.

You can already provide excellent customer service just by having a mobile-friendly website that is there for people at the moment they need it.

The post Mobile-Friendly Website – Why and How for Your Small Business appeared first on 435 Digital.

You own a small- to medium-sized business. You’ve heard enough about search engine optimization (SEO) that you’ve decided to go for it. People search the internet before making a purchase, and you’d like to turn that into profit. At this point, you’d like to find out:

• What can I expect from an SEO agency?
• How do I start the SEO process?

When choosing an SEO agency, I recommend asking a lot of questions. The more questions the better.

• Ask to meet the team that will be working on your site.
• Ask about some of their other clients.
• Ask about their process. Make sure you understand the plan of attack.
• Ask what you or your in-house people need to participate in or can contribute to ensure the process is smooth and successful.

Make a point to get involved. Your relationship with your SEO agency is not a set it and forget it situation. Water your SEO garden and watch it grow; ignore it and it may wither away.

Beginning the SEO Engagement

At the onset of every SEO engagement, our agency will review your current website. This is called an audit. An audit can tell you what the SEO value of your current site is, determine its strengths and weakness and give us (and you) an accurate assessment of what we have to work with. Auditing your website sets the SEO strategy for the future, and can help determine if an entirely new website is necessary or recommended.

There are a few things you should have on hand to prepare for the audit. Here are 5 important pieces of information:

• Where your website is hosted (GoDaddy, BlueHost, 1and1, for example)
• The password for your web hosting
• Where your domain name is registered (GoDaddy, for example)
• The password for that domain registration
• If you have analytics on your site, the password for that

It is difficult to perform a thorough audit without this information.

One question you want answered from the start is: How do we know when SEO is working? SEO success can show itself in a few ways:

• More traffic to your site
• Sales leads
• More online sales
• More/greater diversity in the keywords that are driving traffic to your site
• More pages in the index
• Higher keyword rankings

Be aware that higher keyword rankings don’t always mean more business. Be sure to discuss your goals and expectations thoroughly with your SEO agency. Your SEO goals should support or advance your overall business goals.

These are just a few things to get your SEO started out right. Now, plant your SEO seeds and watch them grow!

The post SEO For Small Business: First Steps appeared first on 435 Digital.