Every small business faces a myriad of challenges. Marketing, taxes, and payroll just to name a few. While I am not an accountant or a human resource professional, I can help you with your marketing. After all, if you don’t have that, you won’t have taxes and payroll.

In this day and age, how you get your message out to showcase your products or services is tantamount to your success. The most important tool in your marketing toolbox should be your website.

 According to Gene Williams, owner of Three Dog Ink on the Outer Banks (and the publisher of Outer Banks Coastal Life), “Regardless of your type of business, or the size of your business, a website is imperative. The days of going to your yellow pages to find a business are long gone.”

As we sat in the office at Three Dog Ink, Gene continues,” It is so much easier now to just pull your (cell)phone out of your pocket and search for plumbers OBX, or plumbers Outer Banks. Everyone is listed on the web along with their services, hours, and reviews. It doesn’t matter if you have a candy store, a tire store, or a lawn and garden center.”

In fact, as Williams points out in our conversation, 65% of all searches are done right on our phones.

Ok, so we need a website in order to be successful as a business. So now the hard part. What do we put in it? Again, according to Williams, if you follow the rules that Google lays out for you, you have a pretty good website. “But accuracy is key!” Cautions Williams. A mantra that he repeated throughout our discussion.

“Google has clear rules to follow to rank in a search, and you always want to rank on the first page,” says Williams.

In fact, the top three listings on a Google search will get 70% of all traffic.

There are several things you can do to rank on the first page and to be amongst the top of those listed.

Again, Williams: “300 words describing your business is the most important factor in your ranking. Make sure you’re describing accurately (there’s that word again) and completely what it is you do as a business.”

Keep in mind the 300 words is just a guideline. Google wants to see at least that, but it certainly can be more too.

“You’ll also want to use SEOs that are appropriate for your business.” Cautions Williams.

Not being as technology savvy as I would like to be, I had to stop the conversation. SEO, certainly I’ve heard the term. Just not altogether sure what it exactly means.

SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization, which, according to Optimizely.com, “is the art and science of getting pages to rank higher in search engines such as Google. Because search is one of the main ways in which people discover content online, ranking higher in search engines can lead to an increase in traffic to a website.”

So if we go back to our plumber example, you would want to include in your description specific services that you provide, such as sink repair and toilet repair. As Williams explains it, these are secondary words that tie back to the original plumber Outer Banks search.

Another important factor to keep in mind when writing your description is to keep it simple. No need for flowery or technical jargon that only you would understand. Also, keep the writing entertaining so you can engage your audience.

Your description is the first part of your plan in getting your business’s website ranked on the first page of a Google search. After that is completed you want to make sure it loads quickly. Williams and the designers at Three Dog Ink’s goal is to have each of their client websites load in under 3 seconds. Having a site that loads in 6, 7, 8, 10 seconds, just isn’t going to cut it in today’s short attention span theater world.

The speed in which your website loads is really in your control. Lots of photos or graphs will slow the load down. If you do have a photo-heavy site, there are tricks to overcome bogging down your system. According to Williams, “there’s something called a lazy load that will load one photo, and then as you scroll down the next photo will load after that so that not everything is loading at one time and is bombarding the internal function of your phone.”

Google is also going to want to see you engaging from time-to-time with your site, so on occasion you’ll want to add or revamp some of your content. It doesn’t have to be extensive each time, but enough to show engagement.

Williams indicates that this is a good time to do some keyword research based on Google Analytics. Three Dog Ink will do this on occasion because Google Analytics will tell you exactly what phrases and words people are using to get onto your site. You can take this information and change your business’s description to include this information you are getting.

One of the points that Williams stressed in our conversation was that with “Word Press themes, nearly anyone can set up a decent website. But what sets a great website apart from a decent one are these SEO techniques.”

Another absolute must for any business to take advantage of is the free service that Google provides to everyone. It’s called Google Business Listing. This is where your business will show up when a person does a web search for your business type. In it, it should have your address, your times of operation, and the days you are open. Take the time to always make sure this information is accurate! (there’s that word again).

Williams says the easiest way to lose a customer for life is to have wrong information in your listing. If you’ve got listed in your description that you’re open on Monday, and someone shows up to find your doors locked, well, good luck in getting them back again.”

Truth be told, Gene Williams is a numbers guy. I also wanted to get the opinion of a “visual” person, so I brought Kevin Groat, the Art Director of Three Dog Ink into the conversation. As you might expect, Groat backed up Williams’ earlier thoughts. “Search ranking. That’s the most important thing.” Said Groat. “But you also want a site that evokes your brand and is visually appealing too. Gone are the days of animations flying across your page. People want straight forward content that they can find easily. If the customer can’t find what they are looking for in two to three clicks, then your site is confusing and they’re gone.

Gene Williams

Williams chimed in, “If your site isn’t visually stimulating and well organized, it won’t matter what you’ve written. You have to engage them through your site!”

As I concluded the discussion, I still had Williams words swirling around my head, “You can have the worst website out there, but above all else, just make sure:

Your hours are up-to-date.
Your telephone number is up-to-date
Your contact information is up-to-date
And use your FREE Google Business Listing.
And make sure it’s all ACCURATE!

Contact gene@threedogink.com for a free assessment of your website.