In the Time newspaper today (Tuesday 17th April 2012), they had their 3rd of 6 Small Business Masterclasses titles “Acquiring customers digitally” (I recommend reading a copy). It talked about how no business, even small micro businesses like local plumbers and electricians, etc cannot afford to ignore the power of the web.
The main reason being that there has been a huge shift from established ways of attracting customers such as directories, parish magazines, leaflets, cards in shop windows, etc to more and more people searching for products or services online (either with a computer or increasingly a smartphone).
One of the alarming points the article states is “Research has shown that today people search the web even for services they can find next door, rather than look at their parish magazine or in a newsagent’s window”.
This article made me think of a recent conversation with one of my client’s. They were expecting a visit from one of the long established directory services and wanted to discus advertising. In the past they had been spending a lot of money on half page adverts. While it was possible to advise the client on what size advert to take. I did discus the trends of more people moving to online search and crowdsourcing to find products or service. I also added that in many cases, hardcopies of directories do not make it out of the plastic wrapping before going straight into the recycling. All very similar thoughts to those expressed in the article in the Times. See our free resources on local mobile search that covers some of these points.
So what does this mean to a small business?
1. You must have a website that contains basic business and contact details.
However, there are more and more websites being added to the internet every day and landing a position on the first page of search engines like Google is becoming increasingly harder. So:
2. To really give you business the best chance online you need an effective website that has been designed to provide the content that people are searching for.
This means ensuring that you conduct key search phrase analysis before designing the website. You could design the best looking website. But if it does not relate to what people are searching for it will never appear in the search engine results, you will have not visitors meaning no opportunity to win new customers.
Points to consider
You could build your own website, it saves money. However, it will take a lot of your valuable time and it may not end up attracting visitors.
The flip side, you could choose a web design company that understands how to design a website to target the key search phrases for your market. It will cost you money. However, what it saves in time and more importantly, the visitors (aka potential customers) it may attract will prove a sound investment.
If you have any questions or would like more information of the comprehensive range of website design and online services provided by Digital Ark, do not hesitate to contact me.
