Small businesses are always looking for that “edge” to put them ahead of the competition. The Internet has provided a place where you can setup a website that is the front door to your business. Your website or more specifically your web presence is the first thing that customers will see. It is also a representation of your business that is open to the world.

We’ll go over our top five tips for your small business to increase visitor traffic, improve your website, and provide better customer service.

Tip 1: Setup An E-mail System Using Your Website Domain Name

Sometimes you might see a new business use a free e-mail service such as Yahoo! mail or Google’s Gmail, something like: sales_dept@gmail.com. While free e-mail services are what all small business owners want: something free; it’s not always good for customer reputations. Setting up e-mail addresses for your business and your employees using your website domain name will give your company a more professional look (for example, info@cbxwebdesigns.com). You’ll have the ability to setup multiple e-mail accounts and customers will feel comfortable contacting you regarding questions or comments.

Tip 2: Focus On The Little Guys To

Everyone knows that Yahoo! and Google are the premier search engines that are used. But don’t forget about the little guys also. To increase your visibility in search engines you can submit your page to smaller search engines or local search engines.

Local search engines can search your city and surrounding areas so that potential customers can pull up your information quickly. If you are selling products or services on a local level this is a good way to give your company more exposure.

Tip 3: Engage Your Visitors

These days the Internet is a more dynamic environment. People want to be entertained with all five senses. As a small business you can utilize things such as video, Blogs, Wikis, and newsletter to create a personal connection with your customers or clients.

Updated content is the number one way to increase your website traffic. If visitors know that there will be fresh information that they can regularly refer to your site and will visit your webpage often.

Tip 4: Don’t Forget To Network (Socially That Is)

So you just got launched a new website. You’ve probably given out your business cards with your URL. You’ve even created advertisement that highlights your new site but you see a slow trickle of traffic and then tumble weeds rolling through your homepage.

Just as you network at business meetings or events, you can do some type of social networking online. Social networking websites can reach a huge audience of people in a small amount of time. Even if your business is not equipped to do social networking, you still can network with other small business that may need your services on small business portals. These portals are great for sharing advice, trading digital business cards, and telling other companies about what your company does.

Tip 5: Get A Professional!

How many times have you seen this, “Get a website for low: $199 to start off” or “Free Logo Designs For Your Company”. Please keep in mind this old saying, “You get what you pay for”. If you are a small business you must understand that if you do not have a professional presence on the Internet you will lose customers. Hence our last tip: Get A Professional Company or Individual to Do It for You.

Of course you can create a free logo, but you want a logo that you can brand. Sure you can create a free or low cost website but it would be like painting your own car, its better left to someone who knows what there doing.

Tags: small business, web tips

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 11:30 pm and is filed under Technology Article. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.