When you are starting up in business the most important thing to consider is the website that will represent your business online. You may choose to use your website to detail your company ethos, or it may be the portal customers use to purchase and track their orders. The main problem with websites is that they can be very difficult to find if people don’t know to look for you.
Search engines are the main way your future customers will find out about you if you are an online business. Customers will type in a search term and be presented with every result available throughout the world wide web. The trouble is, if your website does not feature on the first page, you are unlikely to be found. The trick to being ranked highly enough to appear on the first page or two of a search engine’s results is to provide relevant content to the search term.
A website that has a big catalogue of products with a single picture and a price is unlikely to do well for most search terms. Unless you are the only seller of a particular product that is searched for, your competitors will pick up the click-throughs. You need to offer your customers and the search engines more. You should think about providing more details about the products, and links to the manufacturers. You could also provide useful articles relevant to the products you sell. Provide more content for your browsers, so people will click deeper and deeper into your website.
You could also offer incentives for customers to offer you their email address for marketing purposes. Free newsletters, or discount offers are often welcomed by customers interested in your products. Prize draws and competitions can also be a good way to encourage customers to get more involved with your brand. These are regulated by law in some places, so check your local government guidelines.
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is a way to help you rank more highly. Companies like Sioux Falls SEO can help you optimize the content of your web pages to be more popular with the search engines. The techniques to help businesses with this aspect of their online presence can change with every passing week. It is not possible to keep up with what favors the search engines without specialist help.
If you are selling on your website, be certain your payment pages are highly secure. Customers may turn away from their purchase at this point. Take only the essential details relevant to the purchase and security of the transaction. If you have a member of staff monitoring or fulfilling your orders, be certain they do not have access to customer card details unless it is absolutely essential. Online transactions should be completed online, not by you after the customer has left the page. If you cannot afford an online transaction service, be sure to let customers know the service is unavailable. Instead, ask them to phone through orders for security reasons.
