Your business needs a website – end of story. In 2014, only 53% of small business had an active website, and yet 97% of consumers reported searching online for products or services. That discrepancy is absolutely insane! The most commonly given reason for not having a website is that the business doesn’t need one which is far from true: a small business without a website will fail to reach a huge part of its market.
So if you don’t already have one, you need to start building a business website now. We can’t tell you what to put on that site, but we can help you plan it out by covering four things your site should have.
Domain Name
This one is pretty obvious – you need a domain name if you’re going to build a site. Anyone without a site is already late to the game, but as long as your business’s name isn’t too common – i.e. John Smith Flowers or Jane Smith Tires – you should be able to grab a domain name that’s fairly close to your DBA name. However, if you’re too late and your desired domain is taken, you can choose a domain that doesn’t directly match your ‘Doing Business As’ name. You just need to remember that it’s now your job to make it clear what business your customers are dealing with, so make sure your DBA name is clearly seen on your site.
Privacy Policy
Does your business website collect and store emails? Cookies? Form data? The names and addresses of customers? Then it needs a privacy policy. A privacy policy isn’t technically required by federal law, but most states have laws that say businesses must publicly state what information they collect, and what they do with it. A privacy policy doesn’t have to be overly complicated either. Just disclose how you collect information, whether or not you sell it, how you protect it, and what you’ll use it for.
Copyright
You have an automatic copyright to anything original that you put on your business website. And, no matter what, copyright violation is illegal. However, it can very hard to enforce your copyright if you don’t register it. The last thing you want is for a competitor to download your site, throw a copy of it up under their own domain, and stick their name it. Your website is your intellectual property, and is a valuable part of your branding, so it’s a good idea to, at some point, register your copyright for it.
Content
Content is king. Google and SEO dictate what sites are found, and which ones are passed over, and Google hates duplicate content. So any and all content on your website needs to be unique. We realize that writing unique copy for an entire business website seems daunting, but the effort is worth the result. You can also boost your search engine ranking by updating frequently, and maintaining a blog. Like we said earlier, we can’t tell you what your site should look like, or what it should say, but take a look at the websites for other companies in your industry and see if you can’t find any content patterns. If you use the internet with any regularity, you probably know what a modern site should look like, so don’t skimp on the build and, if you want people to find your site, keep the content fresh.
Have any questions about building a business website? Need some advice? Leave a comment below, or give us a call at 1 (877) 692-6772, and we’ll be happy to help you out!