Don’t pay for a new small business website until you know you’re getting these five must-haves
MUST-HAVE #1:
You want small business websites you can update easily, yourself. You also want a website that has cool features and applications that work, are safe and get updated regularly.
So, you need a content management system (CMS) for your website. Why? Because most importantly, you benefit from the thousands of development hours others have put into building it, for free. If built from scratch, the cool apps, plugins and layout features you’ll need for your site would cost the earth. The money spent on web design is much better spent on content and an eye-catching site, not the invisible infrastructure to make it all work.
You also want to be able to make changes yourself: not have to pay your website designer to make small tweaks to the wording. So, save yourself a bundle of money and time and get a Woodswork WordPress website. We provide complete Divi WordPress training and it’s available to you 24 hours a day – 7 days a week.
MUST-HAVE #2:
Fast-loading websites work.
Don’t bother with flashy sliders or videos that take ages to load. Yes, they may look cool, now, but if your site is graphics intensive, it won’t load quickly. As a general rule of thumb, as the number and size of images increases then the time your site takes to load also increases and Google doesn’t like slow loading sites.
Image optimisation is really important. We make sure every image and asset is optimised to maintain the fastest site speed possible. We also make sure that we use the correct size image for the space across devices. That means images may be smaller for mobile or there may be less of them. Images that are too big make the page slow to load, especially on mobile. Having a slow site on desktop or mobile will affect your site’s ability to get a good ranking in Google.
MUST-HAVE #3:
Google just loves words on small business websites, the more the merrier.
You may have heard that a picture paints a thousand words, but when it comes to the internet, that is not quite true. Google can’t read images, nor can it read text contained in an image. And if Google cannot read them, then it can’t help you get found in a search. All wording on your site should be text and not some image containing the text.
Google also ranks your content on it’s ease of reading. Creating written content that contrasts well with the background colour helps your optimisation. So white type on a mid to dark grey background ranks better than white on a light grey background. Makes sense right?
Search engines like Google and Yahoo and Bing also like you to use a good amount of words. Over and above 2000 words and you are considered a bit of an expert.
Search engines also love a great internal linking strategy.
We’ve made it easy for you with our comprehensive guide on how to create content for your website. If doing it yourself is daunting we are here to help and also have comprehensive small business website packages available.
MUST-HAVE #4:
When it comes to Google, content is king.
Anybody who allows you to believe otherwise is being disingenuous. Your site needs well-organised, well-structured quality content with clear calls to action. But there is more to it than just writing great copy, putting it up on your new website, and walking away. Content goes stale, fast. Returning users don’t like it and neither does Google. You need to keep posting new and engaging copy, blog posts, landing pages or case studies: whichever works best for your site and your business. The easiest way to do this? Through a WordPress CMS.
If you can post once a month is great, one a week is even better. We can help by adding writing and posting content for you. Ask us about how we can help with blogging services for small business.
MUST-HAVE #5:
Ask for training or a hands-on demonstration of our content management system.
Make sure you know how to drive your site, after all, it is yours. You need to know you’ll be able to use it and it fits with what you want to do with your website. For small business websites that work hard for you get in touch with us.
Using our training you will learn to use and edit your Divi WordPress site quickly and easily. You’ll have access to tutorials containing short videos and text notes 24/7.