Dave Chase

The Internet Age is here and it’s here to stay! In fact, we have now entered the Google Age where people don’t go to the library or the phone book or their friends for information, they go to Google. So, there should be no question that every small business, no matter what their field is, needs a strong web presence.

Design

This summer I have been working on a web and marketing strategy for my mom’s catering company, The Casual Gourmet. So I spent a great deal of time researching what other small businesses and and caterers have for a web presence. I looked at what worked and what didn’t worked and well… mostly I looked a really bad websites.

The very first focus for any small business should be a professional looking website. I know that seems like a no brainer. Believe me, I thought it was. But unfortunately, there is no regulatory agency or licensing authority to make sure that web designers know what they are doing so it is left up to the business to find a good web designer. Trust me, Uncle Johnny might have been the bees nees in web design back in 01 and he says he has stayed up to date but I promise you he has not.

If you are on a budget, here are a few sites to go to (mine should of course me first ): Freelance Designers and Get a Freelancer. Post your project and your budget and within an hour you will have 5-10 bids. Pick the person who responds the quickest and is the most professional. And make sure they give you a content management system. Trust me, your site will look so much better then if you hire the local web company or have a friend or family member do it.

Content

Once you have a good looking site, figure out what you want it to do. So, for my mom’s company the goal is to get potential clients to call or submit a detailed contact form about their wedding or event. Everything revolves around that. There is a giant “Book Your Wedding Now” button on every single page that links to the contact form.

All of the content is geared towards getting people on the phone. And there is a ton of content on the site. There is a page for every venue the company works at, sample menus and lots and lots of pictures. However, the one thing you will not find anywhere on the site is a single price… for anything.

The reason for that is that weddings do not get sold on a website. They get sold on the phone. The point is make sure that as you write your content, you know what it needs to accomplish.

Forget the rest… for now

A lot of small businesses try to reach for the stars with their web site. They want blogs and rating systems and photo galleries and email sign ups and twitter pages and  forums and … well you get my point. They want a lot.

Some of that is good. Some of that is helpful. But if you have a well designed site with good content then you can get the rest of that later. Focus on the basics.

Remember that with every new feature you add, that is staff time and money to develop and maintain it. The perfect example is the current blogging craze. Everyone thinks that if they add a blog to their website, sales will shoot through the roof.

Unfortunately, once the blog is up, they only post once or twice to it and the posts are all about the company. Wait till you have the staff time and an experienced blogger before you get the blog going.

Finally, remember the old cliche: KISS. Keep it simple stupid! That is never more true then with websites.