#7: Understand your traffic

...part of the "Ten Ways to Maximize Your Small Business Website’s Performance" series...

With web sites, the numbers tell the story. Once you have your web site launched, you’ll have questions. Are people interested in your products? How long do they stay? On what pages do they exit your site?

All of these questions can be answered by installing Google Analytics into your web site. Google Analytics is a free service that gives you information on who is visiting your web site, how they arrived, what they do during their visit, and when they leave. This data allows you to make informed business decisions, on and off your web site.

Knowing which sources send you the most traffic lets you target your marketing efforts in the direction that gives you the best return on your investment. Knowing where in the world your visitors are lets you tweak your message to encourage local traffic, if that’s what you need, or to accommodate your global clientele.

But you can only take advantage of this information if you collect it, follow it, and understand how to use it. If your skill set doesn’t include working with quantitative data, get professional help with this step. Don’t lose out on the opportunity.

Contact Sharp Hue and we'll help you install Google Analytics into your web site -- it's easier than you think. Check back soon for tip #8: Maintain a blog

#6: Create a Call to Action

...part of the "Ten Ways to Maximize Your Small Business Website’s Performance" series...

Even with fast web hosting and a search engine optimized site, your visitors’ experience has to be easy. Since your web site is connected with a business, you’ll have more to offer your customers than just the information and enjoyment they find on your homepage. Make sure you drive them all the way through the sales pipeline by creating text and buttons that make their next step clear.

Spend some time thinking about, and perhaps researching, the optimal user journey for your customers. Identify the decision points along the way and plan to give your visitors clear guidelines every time they need guidance. When your customers want to buy, subscribe, or otherwise take their next step with you, make sure it’s easy for them to do so.

Don’t think you’re being too aggressive by providing those clear guideposts. In fact, you’re helping your customers. They’re wondering how they can get the great goods or services you provide, and you’re making it easy for them.

“Buy Now”, “Sign up”, “Schedule an appointment.” Phrases like these, linked clearly to the pages that let your customers take those steps, keep your visitors traveling smoothly along the path to a satisfying transaction.

Contact Sharp Hue and we'll give you a free analysis of your web site's usability. Check back soon for tip #7: Understand your traffic

#5: Use Professional Web Hosting

...part of the "Ten Ways to Maximize Your Small Business Website’s Performance" series...

Sharp Hue offers professional web hosting, so you may think we’re biased here, but in fact there are significant advantages to professional web hosting, from the point of view of your visitors. All these aspects of your website will be superior with professional hosting than with a mass market bargain host:

• Speed


• Uptime


• Security


• Freedom from spam and unwanted advertising

Visitors to your website are more likely to stay and more likely to return if their experience at your site is good.

What about your experience? With a high-quality professional web hosting firm, you can expect superior speed, responsiveness, and support as a site owner, reducing both stress and time away from business-critical tasks.

What’s more, when you need other, related services, from design work to e-mail marketing services, you already have a provider you know and trust. Again, the time you don’t spend searching and sifting through options is time you can devote to your business.

Contact Sharp Hue and let us migrate your web site to one of our blazing-fast and ultra-reliable hosting plans. Check back soon for tip #6: Create a call to action

#4: Optimize Your Web Site for Search

...part of the "Ten Ways to Maximize Your Small Business Website’s Performance" series...

In the early days of the web, there wasn’t much available, and people would flock to almost any new site. Now your site competes with millions of others for traffic.

Your web site content should be written with language that will attract both search engines and people. When your customers – or the people who should be your customers, but they don’t know it yet – look for you at their favorite search engine, what words do they type in? Those are your keywords, the words which the search engines need to find at your web site. Those words should have prominence. But your awareness of search engines should never interfere with your human visitors’ positive experience.

What’s more, search engines give preference to well-designed, well-written sites. Take the time to create a quality web site for best results. Major search engines favor sites with valid, up-to-date coding and correct English. They favor sites with a high level of usability, or user-friendliness. And they always favor good content.

There are no tricks to SEO; it’s just good business. A high-quality, professional web site will perform better than a lesser-quality web site.

Contact Sharp Hue and let us help you create a successful and cost-effective Search Engine Optimization strategy. Check back soon for tip #5: Use Professional Web Hosting

#3: Make navigation easy

...part of the "Ten Ways to Maximize Your Small Business Website’s Performance" series...

Don’t frustrate your visitors. Present your navigation in a clear and intuitive manner so information can be found easily. Your visitors should be able to move through your web site naturally, without having to think through all the possibilities and decide among them. “Where should I go next?” and “Which button will take me to the place I need?” are not the thoughts you want your customers to have. You want them to have thoughts like, “Wow! This is just what I need! I’m so glad I found this web site! I’ll contact them right away!”

This means that navigation is not the place for exciting new approaches. Navigation buttons should look like navigation buttons. Attractive, special, visually appealing navigation buttons, but navigation buttons all the same. Put them in places where people expect to find them.

Try to have no more than 5 to 7 main navigation buttons and then create sub-pages below them with relevant information pages. Organize them in a logical way that will make sense to your visitors’ brains even while they’re not thinking about it.

A well-designed highway or airport gets people to their destinations without making them stop and figure things out. Your website should have the same effect.

Contact Sharp Hue and let us help you create an intuitive navigation and sitemap for your web site. Check back on Sunday, May 10, 2009 for tip #4: Optimize Your Web Site for Search

#2: Create a Visually Appealing Home Page

...part of the "Ten Ways to Maximize Your Small Business Website’s Performance" series...

When people first access your web site, whether it be from a search engine or by typing the web address in from your business card, they should land on a home page that represents exactly what you do.

They should know immediately what you have to offer, and how they can get what you’re offering. Your unique selling point and the visitor’s next action step should both be visible within the first few seconds of opening your home page.

That’s not enough, though. When your visitors get the message immediately, but it feels like an ad, they’re likely to click away. When they grasp the information but feel no connection with the site and no desire to deepen their relationship with your company, you lose them.

Your visitors have to get your message, but they should also say “Wow,” and feel moved to click deeper into the site to learn more. People stay longer and explore further at a web site that is a pleasure to look at, that sparks curiosity, that engages them.

Take the time to develop a home page that gets this response, and your web site will be a valuable member of your sales force.

Contact Sharp Hue to have us create your website with "Wow". Check back on Thursday, May 7, 2009 for tip #3: Make navigation easy

#1: Ten Ways to Maximize Your Small Business Website’s Performance

Americans now use the internet most often to search for basic information about businesses, not the phone book. A growing number of consumers begin their transactions online, even if they visit your brick and mortar business to conclude the sale. And, in today’s economic climate, the lower cost and increased ROI of online marketing makes your web site even more important.

How can you get the most from your small business web site? Today we begin a series of ten ways to maximize your website’s performance. Stay with us to learn how to make your web site reach its full potential.

#1: Use a professional web design company

The internet is participatory. It’s full of user-generated content. So when you know you need a web site for your business, you might feel that you can just have your neighbor’s kid build one for you.

That’s a mistake.

Internet technology changes quickly. It takes an experienced web designer to keep up with the latest development and design standards so your web site looks good on every computer and every device. It takes some engineering to make your web site behave the way you want it to. It takes artistry to give your web site the look and feel that you want to have representing your company.

A professionally designed web site ties together your online and offline marketing, branding, and identity. It presents your company’s face to the world in a way that leads to increased customer loyalty, increased efficiency for your business, and ultimately to increased profits.

This isn’t the kind of thing you should leave to a hobbyist. The most expensive web site is the one that you have to abandon when you start over and have it done right. The wisest course is to have it done right in the first place.

Contact Sharp Hue to have us develop your web site right the first time. Check back on Monday, May 4, 2009 for tip #2: Create a Visually Appealing Home Page