When it comes to having a website designed for your business it is always best to go with a professional Yorkshire Web Design company to ensure that your website is built correctly and fit for purpose. When you start thinking about how you want it to look and what to include, you will want to think about the following:
Business Information – make sure that you have your business contact details including your email address and telephone numbers in a prominent place on your website. You may also want to think about having a contact us page where you can give more details such as your business opening hours.
Mobile friendly – vast numbers of people search websites on their mobiles nowadays and so it is incredibly important that your website is optimised for mobile viewing.
Content – you not only need to make sure that your website content is engaging but you should also consider search engine optimisation. This is where web design companies can help you. They can also help you with internal links which also help to boost your SEO levels. This could be linking to particular articles on your site or linking to service and product pages in your blog posts.
Social media links – you should have all of your relevant social media links on your website so that your customers and prospects can easily find your social channels and follow and like the pages. It is a great way to increase the number of people following your channels.
How search visibility brings in visitors
Once the pages are in place, the next question is how people will find them. Search engine optimisation is the work of improving both the number and the quality of visitors who arrive at a site through search engines. It focuses on free, organic traffic rather than paid or sponsored visits, by helping your pages rank higher in the results.
Much of that starts on the site itself. Unique, useful content written around the phrases your customers actually search for gives search engines a clear idea of what each page is about and gives visitors a reason to stay. Blogs and regularly updated articles help keep the site fresh.
Links from other websites matter too. Search engines treat the number and quality of links pointing to your pages as a sign of trust, so natural links from relevant, well visited sites can significantly improve rankings. A well optimised site ranks better for the key phrases in its content, which brings in visitors who are already looking for what you offer.
Optimising the site for small business growth
Search engines are where many potential customers begin, so a site that appears in results is far more visible than one that does not. For a small business, optimising for search starts with keyword research: finding the phrases that relate to what you do and creating content that answers the questions behind them. That might be blog posts, landing pages or videos.
Building links from good quality, relevant sources helps as well. Local organisations, business associations and suppliers may be happy to link to you if you ask, and listing the business in industry specific directories can help you appear in more searches.
User experience is now an important ranking factor, so the site should work well for every visitor. That means a mobile friendly, responsive design and content aimed at longer, more specific search phrases that reflect what people really want. Reaching the first page of results can make a big difference to traffic, enquiries and sales, though knowing where to start is often the hardest part.