Improving Your Website One Piece at a Time

For small businesses today, a presence on the web is growing ever more important. One particularly effective outlet is Google Places, now named Google+ Local, but that’s not the only thing you should pay attention to. In fact, even your Google Places listing can be improved if you take steps to improve your web site.

But dealing with the business’s web site can be a very daunting task, especially when you already have so much else to do just running the business! When you approach the task, you can break it down into manageable tasks that are easily accomplished, giving you some forward momentum to improving your site.

Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media describes “5 Ways to Improve Your Web Site This Week,” giving you some realistic goals for just that purpose. We think they are worth sharing, and hope they help you this week:

1. Focus on Site Navigation: “Your nav is what a customer will use to get around and find the information on your site. To aid them in this journey, you want to make your navigation as intuitive and easy to use as you can.”
2. Create a Better “About” Page: “It’s easy to look at your About page as a chore or something that makes you uncomfortable. Instead, think of it as your formal introduction to your audience. What do you want them to know or feel about your brand?”
3. Update Your Blog: “Updating your blog not only gives your audience something to find and engage with, it gives the search engines something to find, as well.”
4. Make Your “Contact” Form User-Friendly: “Where contact forms go wrong is when they either try to get too much information in one sitting or they intimidate your visitor – either due to length, scope or language.”
5. Show Off Your Social Media: “The more connected you look to your customers, the more they’re going to trust that you’re a reputable SMB that will be around in the morning should something go wrong.”