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Can Your Business Get By on Just Facebook and Twitter?


With business’ having learned the art of Facebook pages and Tweets, many have left their websites to the wayside. This is not an effective online marketing strategy. Facebook and Twitter do increase your exposure, but you still need to have an engaging website to back that up.

The internet gives you the chance to reach out to more potential customers, but it also puts you in direct competition with millions of other similar businesses. You can give your business a competitive edge simply by having the right type of website. This is vital, as a website:

  • Helps You to Be Found – People use Facebook to find friends, and Google to find a local plumber in Appleton, Wisconsin. They won’t find you in a search unless you have a site that clearly represents what your business does and where it is located.

  • Is the Basis of SEO – You don’t stand a chance of making the 10th page of a search, let alone the first, if you don’t have a website that has been designed and optimized to rank high in search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. It is here where you have pages and blogs full of content for the Google spiders to pick through and decide your ranking. Facebook has a large wall around most of the content, ensuring that it stays invisible in Google searches.

  • Gives Your Metrics – Tools are available that help you to track the traffic to your business website, down to where it is coming from and the browsers being used to get there. This is vital for enacting a local online marketing strategy, especially for the small business owner.

  • Is Easy (and Inexpensive) to Manage – A business website is still the easiest way to advertise your business. Adding content can be done quickly, as can updating vital information like sales and new merchandise. In comparison to other types of marketing campaigns, enabling a brand based website is an inexpensive form of advertising that can garner amazing results.

How to Maximize On Your Business Website Presence

An effective website needs to be more than just a one-pager that details your business products or services. You need SEO to get visitors to your site, and then relevant and engaging content to keep them there long enough to make the sale. In order to increase the benefits of your business website you should be:

  • Creating content that is relevant to your location and service area. Unless you are offering a product and service that is available to the entire world, don’t waste your resources on marketing to the globe. Local marketing online will ensure that you show up in searches relevant to your region, state, city or town. For example, if you have a restaurant based in Appleton, or Green Bay Wisconsin then there is no valid reason why you would want to appear in a search generated by a consumer in New York.

  • Blogging, or at least having someone blog for you. Business blogs give you the opportunity to engage with customers in a more personal manner – plus they let you add more SEO terms to draw traffic to your site. Add blog posts to your site, and list the most popular topics down the side so that visitors have good reason to spend more time reading your content.

  • Adding new content regularly. It is estimated that at least 80% of consumers are now searching for local businesses online. That means that your website is their first impression of you. Keep pages and posts up to date and reply quickly to questions and comments so that consumers see you as a reliable source for the service or goods they are searching for.

  • Checking on your traffic. Looking at where your traffic is coming from will help you to see if your website is reaching the right audience. Don’t forget to check referring links as well, as these can be coming from unexpected sources.

The Importance of Your Business Website Design

While something in the way of a website is better than having no online presence at all, how it is designed can make a difference in how effective it is. Today’s consumers have high expectations, and grow frustrated with websites that are not quick to load or intuitive. The look should be professional, and the content valuable to your target audience.

There are four major factors to consider in the design and function of your website:

  • Load Time – If your web page has not loaded by 3 seconds, at least 40% of your visitors are going to click the back button and try someone else.

  • Color – The colors that you choose as the background and to highlight your content will affect the site’s performance. Green and blue are favorites, while light colors show a lower percentage of growth. For some reason web users don’t like red, with sites using this as a primary color are often having a loss of traffic as a result.

  • Layout – There are tricks that a professional web designer knows that can make pages naturally more appealing. Things such as the pattern of content placement or use of bullets will have an impact on whether or not people bounce off of your site fast or stick around to learn more about your business.

  • Cell Phone Adaptability – A website has to be adapted to work on the small screen if you wish to grow your business. The number of people using a mobile device to get online is increasing daily, and has now surpassed those using PCs or laptops. Before going live, check how easy your website is to navigate from a smart phone. If it isn’t, talk to your website design team about making those adaptations.

Overflow Local is a creative website design company that is able to conquer all of the challenges that come with website design for business concepts. Each client is unique, necessitating a strategy that professionally outlines their specialties in a way that attracts a steady flow of traffic. Don’t let a few likes and shares on social media convince you that the website for business has become antiquated. Facebook and Twitter are just a way to gain attention, once you grab it, you need to have a solid site for those interested individuals to land on.

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