In today’s Internet age, having a website for your local business is a must! If you don’t already have a website, get one now. It’s no longer an option, but a necessity for your business’ survival!
As you know, everyone uses the Internet nowadays to search for dentists, plumbers, chiropractors, hair salons, and any other local businesses. If you want to attract new customers and grow your business, it’s absolutely necessary for you to build your presence on the Internet!
Having a website is an important business strategy as it helps potential clients find you and learn more about your services and offerings.
Design and Create Your Business Website Yourself!
Nowadays, designing and creating a website doesn’t require geeky skills like in the old days. You don’t need to know HTML, CSS, or Javascripts either. With a premium wordpress template, you can easily design and create your own website within minutes.
Introducing the SmallBiz Theme
The SmallBiz Theme WordPress theme is a WordPress theme that is specifically built for small and local businesses. You can quickly create a professional website for your business in minutes with this powerful theme.
Here are the reasons why the Smallbiz Theme is perfect for building local business websites:
- Easy to set up and change – If you can use Microsoft Word, you can create your own professional looking site for your business in minutes with the Smallbiz WordPress Theme. You don’t need to use or know anything about HTML, Javascript or CSS coding at all.
- Professional designs and colors – You can choose from seven different layouts and multiple color options. Color schemes, header graphics and business information are easy to change.
- Easy to update and publish - You don’t need a webmaster to publish new pages to your website or make changes to existing ones. And since this theme is based on the WordPress Content Management System, updating a website is as easy as using Microsoft Word. You can add as many pages as you want and the dynamic navigation menus adjust automatically.
- Optimized for top local search results – The architecture of this theme is based on the creator’s experience in optimizing hundreds of websites for top local search results on Google. Solid SEO fundamentals are built into this theme, including placement of your business address on every page, service areas, an instant Google Map, and hCard microformats beneath the covers. With all these powerful SEO features, it will help you to rank on Google faster for your selected keywords.
- Touch-enabled Mobile layouts – Google says that 50% of all searches on mobile devices are for local goods and services. The SmallBiz Theme serves special touch-enabled pages automatically when a mobile a device like iPhone iPad or Android is detected.
- Great Support – Along with the theme, you’ll get a set of Getting Started videos, a robust FAQ, tons of video tutorials, and a Support and Customization Guide.
What You Need Before You Can Launch Your Website Online
First, you’ll need a domain name, which is the address of your website. You can get a free domain name by signing up and hosting your site with Bluehost.
The domain name should be short, memorable, easy to spell, and have your business name as well as your main keywords in it (i.e. www.GrandAcupuncture.com). Avoid the use of dashes or underscores in your domain name.
Secondly, you’ll need a web host to host your domain name. The one that I use and have been very happy with their service is Bluehost.
Hosting at Bluehost only costs $6.95/month and when you sign up, they will give you a free life time domain name. Additionally, their service allows you to easily install WordPress platform to your site, set up your own email with your domain name as the address. Plus, the customer service is first class!
Whatever you do, don’t get one of those free domains that is hosted on someone else’ website. This is your business so take it seriously.
Components of a Local Business Website
As seen in figure 1 below, the main components of a local business website are the header, the navigation links, the sidebar, the content area, and the footer area.
- The header – The header should contain a professionally designed Logo and a company or business tag line that briefly describes what your business do. Make sure you have a professional looking logo that best represents your business’ image. A professional looking logo is a must and it’s important for your business’ credibility.
- The Navigation links – Links to the other main pages of your website such as services, about us, resources, contact us, etc. should be right below the header.
- The Right Side Bar – On right side bar, you can include your business’ address, phone number, photos, videos, testimonials, endorsements from 3rd parties, seals/certificates, links to your Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accounts.
- Content Area – The content area is where you have the content for each specific page. Be sure to incorporate your keywords in the body of the content as well as in the <h1>, <h2> heading HTML tags.
- Footer Area – On the footer areas, you can include information such as copyright, text links to other pages of the site, the cities that your business serve, disclaimers, privacy policy, etc.
In addition to the above points, your website should look trust worthy and professional. That means using professional looking photos and graphics, clean layout, proper color scheme that aligns with your branding, and scannable copywriting.
Note that in the online world, people don’t read, they scan. So make sure you use small paragraphs with bullets and appropriate headings that are bolded throughout the page. By doing this, it makes it easier for your visitors to scan your website content and quickly understand your messages.
Get Your Website Created Now!
The bottom line is having a professional looking website for your business is essential for your business’ survival and growth. With all the tools and resources available that make it so easy for you to create and setup your website, There is NO excuse for you to NOT have a website!
Resources to Create and Setup Your Website
Below are everything that you need to set up and create a professional looking website for your local business:
- Get Hosting and free Domain at Bluehost
- Get hundreds of designers to compete and design a professional looking logo for you at 99Designs.
- Get the Smallbiz Professional WordPress theme – Allow you to easily setup your website in minutes. Another alternative for you to be able to easily create your website in minutes is the website creation solution from Homestead.
- Get attractive looking photos and images from Fotolia.com to enhance the look and feel of your website.
