13 "KISS" factors for Small Business Websites

Your website is the face of your company to the masses who roam the internet. Get it right and you will see many new customers knocking on your door, generating sales without you having to put in too much effort. First impressions are important, as you would want to build a loyal following of customers, returning to your website regularly. 

Here are a 13 "KISS" (Keep It Simple Stupid) factors to consider;

1) Who are you? What do you offer?

Within 5 seconds of opening your site the customer must know who you are and what it is you do. Your landing page is the first impression customers will have of your site and thus your company, so take extra care when planning your opening statement.

2) Choose a simple domain name

A domain name doesn’t necessarily have to be catchy, it just needs to be something that people will easily remember. If your business operates locally, it would make more sense to opt for a (.co.za) domain, as people feel more at ease doing business with a locally registered company.

3) User friendly layout

Make sure your site is well laid out with links that are highly visible and easy to navigate. A user friendly layout is of utmost importance and goes a long way to ensure returning customers.

4) Up to date Contact info

If people can’t get hold of you, you won’t be doing business. Make sure to always keep your contact details up to date and check your email links regularly.

5) Testimonials

Show new customers that you know how to get the job done by requesting testimonials from previous clients and posting it on you website.

6) Get your Main message across

See to it that customers know exactly what it is you offer, not just on the landing page, but throughout your entire website.

7) Learn some basic SEO

Reading up on some basic Search Engine Optimisation guidelines will ensure that your website is SEO friendly and gets a higher rating with search engines. (I will soon be publishing an article on SEO guidelines)

8) Quality content

Quality content is what brings value to your website. Add insightful written content and quality pictures, Youtube videos etc.

9)Trusted hosting provider

There's not much use in going online if you’re going to be off line half the time. Don’t just choose the cheapest hosting provider, but rather an affordable, reliable one.

10) Mobile optimised 

In a recent study done  by InMobi it was reported that more than 60% of people access the internet via smartphones, so make sure that your website caters for the rising mobile market.

11) Social Integration

Connect your social media sites like Google+, Facebook and Twitter to your website. Your website must channel to your social media sites and vice versa.

12) What makes your business unique?

Every business has a unique selling point that differentiates it from competitors. It is very important that your clients understand the reason they should choose to do business with you, above other companies.

13) Special Offers

Offer customers a discount or free trial period of your services. This is specially important when launching a new website. 

For more info on our Small Business Website offerings, visit us at Affordable Websites

Affordable Websites vs Cheap Websites

Affordable, Cheap...  Tomato, TomAto... Right? What's the difference?

Trying to get the best value for your hard earned cash has been part of human culture for ages and so to the challenge of finding the balance between affordable and cheap.

Being a web designer myself, it is a question I ponder about regularly.

I remember a few years back, signing up to a "do-it-yourself" automated WYSIWYG web provider. Once the payment was made, I was left to fend for myself. Having to figure out how the system operates was quite frustrating at the time -and response from their support team was very poor.

So for me the answer to the affordable vs cheap question is quite simple,
quality customer service.

Knowing that the person on the other side is committed to your cause is what builds trust.
It shows the clients that they are getting value for their money, which makes the service worth the price and thus affordable. Even the most expensive options, littered with poor customer support can be classified as cheap.

The difficult part though, is how to go about offering your services at a low price, without it being labeled as cheap? How do you instil a sense of trust before doing business?

Having learned a lesson from my previous experience with the above mentioned web provider, we created a model where we only accept payment from our clients, once they are 100% satisfied with the test site we provide. We create the website, send the clients links where they can view the progress and only when they give the go ahead, do we launch the website and accept remuneration.

Our products are mainly aimed at the small to medium enterprise -and sole proprietor market.
For a small businesses, scraping together R5000 - R10 000 to create a website is not always easy and that money could rather have been invested in stock, advertising etc.

What makes our product unique is the fact that there are no setup fees involved and because we know that the life span of small businesses are not always set in stone, we provide an easy exit strategy, giving them the option to cancel their contract at any time with a 30day written notice.

If you would like an affordable website or would like to find out more about our product offering, feel free to visit our website at; Affordable Websites