Small Business Web Site Design
The main challenge for small business in the next year or so is to not only survive the economic downturn, but to become stronger and more competitive.
In past recessions, many of the top companies lost their positions never to regain them, while other companies prospered and did extremely well. What was the difference between them? Why do some companies do well even in times of financial hardship, while others falter and even disappear.
There are probably a few different reasons, but the core one is having the ability to read the changing market and to give your customers what they want as their needs change. That means being innovative and flexible, and with the ability to implement changes quickly.
In many ways, small business is in an ideal position to do well during a recession, as it can make and implement decisions quickly.
So the first step is to evaluate how your customers’ buying habits change during an economic downturn. This isn’t rocket science as it’s all happened before and much has been written about it. Just think about how you or people close to you might do things differently.
Firstly, people generally try to spend less money. They look for the best deals and the best value for their dollar. They shop around more, they compare more.
How would they do that? The Internet, of course!
In the space of a few minutes, the Internet allows people to look for products, for bargains, and to compare prices from multiple vendors from the world over.
Latest figures from research company Nielsen Online show well over nine million online searches in one month in the US alone. In the US, nearly 75% of people use the Internet, an increase of over 130% in eight years. In Australia it’s 60%, an increase of 172%. The trend to searching on-line instead of using printed directories or even newspaper classifieds has been happening for years, the advertising people just haven’t admitted it. Now out of economic necessity, more people will be using the Internet to find products and services.
Now’s the time to be innovative, to lead the market, and to cash in! If you have a small business, you need an effective web site.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. It still needs time, money, and resources to do it, right? Where will a small business owner find the extra $10-20,000 dollars needed for a small business web site design?
They don’t have to. Be innovative. The visually pretty, complex and expensive business web page layouts of years gone by are not needed for a web site to be effective. The search engines read words, not pictures.
In the past it’s sometimes taken months to complete a small business web site design. Meetings. Decisions. Proofs. Drafts. Yuk! A small business owner doesn’t have the time for all of that; he’s too busy keeping the place operational.
Thankfully, things have changed. With new software and programming methodologies, it’s possible to design a basic web page in a few minutes, and have it hosted and visible on the Internet in a few hours. The search engines take a while to index a page, and while that’s happening, the site can be updated, expanded, and modified.
Right now is the best time ever to take advantage of the new technology and get a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Of course, these small business web sites cost a fraction of what they used to; take a fraction of the time to produce; involve the owner far less than before; and are far easier to modify. Win. Win. Win.
It’s still essential to find an experienced web designer though. You need an effective web site, not just any page slapped up for all to see. It’s what’s under the hood, that’s really important.
In summary, if you’re a small business and don’t have a web site, NOW is the time to get one while we’re in a recession and you can take advantage of the marketplace. If you already have a website and it’s not performing, investigate having it re-designed to be more effective in terms of search engine optimisation. You might be surprised how much difference it makes.
Now for the really, really good news.
We’ve spent the past few months perfecting a process and a business model that allows us to provide classy, effective, small business web sites for a surprisingly low start-up cost. We’ve called it “Almost-free Websites“.
Corny maybe, but every small business needs one. Before it’s too late.