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Small Business Websites What You Need to Know! October 18, 2007. Liz Niederberger Zumu Software. Overview. Why every small business needs a website? Basic Terms You Need to Know What should you have on your website? Who looks at your website? How do you use your website effectively?
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Small Business WebsitesWhat You Need to Know!October 18, 2007 Liz Niederberger Zumu Software
Overview • Why every small business needs a website? • Basic Terms You Need to Know • What should you have on your website? • Who looks at your website? • How do you use your website effectively? • How often should you change your website? • Tips and Tools • Questions and Comments
Why Every Business Needs a Website? • More people are on the web than ever before • The phone book is obsolete • When looking for something, many people will look on the web first • Business Legitimacy • A good website conveys a lot about your business. • A bad website conveys a lot about your business.
Basic Terms You Need To Know • Domain Name • Hosting Provider • Website Design • Website Updates • Content Management • Email
Domain Name • What is it? • How do I get one? • www.NetworkSolutions.com
Some Hints About Domain Names • The name of your business. • An abbreviation of your business name. • Something short and easy to remember (if possible) • .com (if possible) • .org (if non-profit)
Hosting Provider • What is hosting? • How do I get one? • How much does it cost? • How do I learn more?
Website Design • Layout of the site • Navigation of the site • What pages you want on the site • How each page will look
Website Updates • Once everything is setup, you must keep the site up-to-date • Who will do the updates? • How often? • What’s really needed?
Website Updates • Once everything is setup, you must keep the site up-to-date • Who will do the updates? • How often? • What’s really needed?
Content Management • Setup and Design of the Site • User can login and change text with no technical knowledge • New pages can be added easily • Additional features that were not need initially can be added quickly
Email • You should have an email address with your domain name, e.g., liz@zumu.com • This is the email you should print on business cards and sales material • If you don’t want to have more than one place to check your email, you can always forward email • People often use email address to find company websites
What Should I Have on My Website • Business Name, Address, Phone Number, Logo • What you do! (services, products) • Business Hours • Product Photos • Pricing Information • About Us • Contact Us (email, phone, form, etc.) • Directions • Credit Cards Accepted • Upcoming Events
What Should Not Be On Your Website • Broken Links • Old, out of date information • Spinning, flashing, blinking • Advertisting that is not yours! • Hard to read text • Unclear images
Build It and They Will Come • Publish your website address. Include it on all your sales material. • Make sure your site can be found using the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN) • Try to get your site on the first page of search. The top three is better. First is best. • Title Tags and Meta Tags are the most important components of search engine listings. • Utilize other sites to get your site out there, e.g. Chamber of Commerce sites, town sites, municipal groups, etc.
Who Looks at My Website? • Almost any service you host with should provide statistics about your site. • Google allows you to embed code so you can get statistics • www.google.com/analytics
What Statistics Tell You • Number of Unique Visitors • Number of Hits • Monthly, Weekly, Daily, Hourly History • IP addresses of visitors • Robot and Spiders that stopped by • Duration of the visits • Pages visited
How to Use Your Website Effectively • Collect email addresses from customers and website visitors • Use email list to send information about discounts, sales, and special events • Add new pages for sales and special events • Create reasons for people to go to your site • Provide useful information for customers • Gather feedback from customers using web forms
How Often Should You Change Your Website? • It really depends upon your business • But you must update it as often as needed • Pricing should be up-to-date • Menus should be up-to-date • Pictures should be up-to-date
Tips & Tools • Useit.com • Allbusiness.businessweek.com • NJentreprenure.com • Google.com • NY Times Small Business • Trentonnj.org • www.zumu.com