Posts tagged as:

basics

5 Basic Steps to Improve Your Website (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – December 17, 2010)

by Tim on December 17, 2010

in E-commerce, del.icio.us links

Your website is key to your business success. And, lucky for us, there are lots of how-to’s and why-should’s out there about how to make your website better. I’ve even offered those myself, a time or two. But, sometimes the best things to do are the simplest. So, here are 5 basic things you can do to make your website better:

  1. KISS Metrics put together the anatomy of a perfect landing page. I love this info-graphic. It works great in conjunction with my 6 questions to improve bounce rate.
  2. Search Engine Land offers a list of the 25 most common SEO mistakes. Does your site avoid all of them?
  3. One big SEO mistake is having a site that’s painfully slow, to say nothing of what it does to consumers. Google increasingly is taking the speed your site loads into consideration in its rankings, and your customers have probably done the same thing for a long time. Of course, first you have to know how fast, or slow, your site is. Fortuntaley, the Yottaa Web Performance Optimization Blog looks at how to use Google Analytics to measure your page load time.
  4. We all love social, don’t we? Well Mashable offers a good look at how to optimize your social media marketing that’s very handy.
  5. And, of course, none of this matters if your site blows up in the middle of the night. So I strongly recommend taking a look at my 7 critical steps to ensure your website stays alive.

Now, following these is no guarantee of fame, fortune and a fanatic following. But, NOT following these is sure-fire recipe for disaster. So, if your business slows down this time of year, why not give your site a check-up and see if you can set yourself up for greater success next year?


Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

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Is your business still invisible? Why?

by Tim on January 3, 2008

in Marketing

The key point in Jackie Huba’s excellent the invisible business is that visibility builds trust. You know what this says?

No website equals no business

It says you’re not in business.

This isn’t about e-commerce or driving sales online (though you’ll want that in the long run). This is about Marketing 101. No matter what your business is, you need a website. Period.

At a bare minimum, you should have your own domain and some simple content with your contact information. In the old days, folks called it brochure-ware and for some business types (doctors, lawyers, dentists) it may still be all you need.

For my money, this is the most basic setup that allows you to grow over time, while covering your needs today:

  1. Create an account at Wordpress.com for use as a content management system/hosting environment. You’ll be able to point your own domain to Wordpress for less than $10 a year and move it later if need be.
  2. Pick a theme you like. Don’t worry about getting too wild. Just ensure it matches the tone of your business.
  3. Populate content about your business as posts or pages.
  4. Go to Register.com, GoDaddy, or Yahoo Small Business and buy a domain. Aaron Goldman at GoodURLBadURL provides some excellent techniques on appropriate domain name tactics.
  5. Point the domain to your Wordpress setup.

That’s it. The whole thing will cost less than $20 for a year.

Sure, you can do lots more, but if you don’t have a site today, don’t overthink it. Just get started. Don’t let yourself remain invisible anymore.

UPDATE – Anne Zelenka at Web Worker Daily offers some other excellent ways to create a small business website quickly. And I’ve created a detailed review/comparison of Wordpress, Weebly, Synthasite and SiteKreator for you to check out.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the mobile, social, local web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today. Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.

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