How to Use Your Website to Focus on Local Business

Running your own business is a fulfilling endeavor, provided you know how to maximize your profits, and use everything to your advantage! Part of a business’s success is maintaining a solid online presence, especially through specially designed websites. But how can you best take advantage of your website to focus on your local business? 

Read on to find out some of the best ways to optimize your website to help your business!

Make Sure The Right People Can Find You!

If you’re wishing to use your website to target local customers in your area, then you need to make sure that those same people are aware of your website, or that they can otherwise easily find it. To do so, you may need to improve your SEO!

SEO refers to ‘Search Engine Optimisation’, which means catering your website and its content, so that it will be pushed by search engine algorithms like Google. This can generally be achieved by making use of keywords. If you want to attract customers in your local area, then it is important to use local keywords within your website’s content. For example, if you were selling a product you have made, in your own store in your local area, then you would make sure to mention on your website the name of the town, or even some key features of the town, such as a landmark. 

Make Good Use Of Online Directories!

Many people find local businesses, attractions, or amenities through the use of online directories, which point them in the direction of nearby businesses closest to their location. If you want people living in your local area, or even tourists to the area, to find your business, then making use of online directories is an absolute must!

There are many different online directories for you to choose from, and the more you choose to use, the better your foot traffic will be! You should make sure to include the most important information regarding your business on these directories, including contact details, business operating hours, and your exact location. Make sure that the name attached to your business is clear, and communicates exactly what it is you are selling.

Write About The Local Area!

One great way to attract some local attention would be to write about your local area! You could write about local news events in your area, or talk about other small businesses, or charities. You may also want to put a personal spin on your writing, and cater it to the product you sell! For instance, if you had a business that focused on selling cakes and other baked goods, you could talk about a local baking competition, or host your own baking competitions, to keep your local customers engaged!

Ask Customers For Reviews Where You Can!

Even though much of our daily lives, and our advertising have moved online, word of mouth still persists as a great way to drive up traffic to a business. If you want to utilize word of mouth to up your online presence, you can’t go wrong with customer reviews! If you are a passionate leader of your business and treat each customer well, then you could receive glowing reviews on online directories! 

Try persuading your customers to leave a review for you on these online directories, as the more reviews you accrue, and the more of them that are positive, then your business will be pushed more within these sites, being brought to the top of lists of local businesses, driven by the user engagement you have accrued. 

If you wanted, you could also highlight these positive reviews on your own website, leaving a small space for some of your glowing feedback, to entice customers on your website to visit you in person, or maybe even order online!

Use Embedded Maps To Guide Customers In!

Many websites make use of embedded maps to communicate the location of their business quickly and easily. It may be worthwhile to take advantage of these maps to make finding your business easier for your local customers. Many of these embedded maps also implement a feature where clicking on the map on a mobile-friendly version of the site will automatically boot up a maps app, so that you can easily follow directions from your phone!

Make Sure Your Website Works!

It might sound obvious, but making sure that your website functions optimally is crucial to improving your customer’s experiences with your business. If your website is clunky and difficult to navigate, then you are likely to lose a large degree of sales, due to potential customers becoming frustrated, and clicking off of your website. 

In order to maximize your website’s optimization, you need to ensure that you are not overloading it with flashy effects, animations, or tools and widgets. When building your own website, you need to make sure that you are only ever putting forth the most pertinent information, so that your users do not become frustrated or discouraged. You can guide your customer through your website with careful design, by making use of visual hierarchy, and making sure that the most important information is communicated first, with everything else following shortly behind. 

You should also make a point of avoiding implementing ads on your website. Ads and even pop-ups can be very distracting, can often overload your website, and cause it to run slowly, which causes customers to become frustrated, which leads to you losing their custom!

Once your website is up and running, you should make a point of checking it daily, to ensure that it is running smoothly, and without notable hitches in performance. Keep in mind that many online browsers update themselves daily without notice, and this can affect the operation of your website in small ways. Stay ahead of potential problems to avoid losing potential customers!

How Do I Make My Website Unique?

This will mostly come down to what it is you are using your website to advertise. If you are advertising a product that you have created that has to compete with similar products, such as baked goods, you should make a point if emphasizing what makes your baked goods stand out. Make sure to communicate this clearly in your website’s design, and through the bios that you include within your website.

What Makes A Website Attractive?

In order to make your website attractive, you must make use of some basic design principles, such as color theory, to make sure that your colors complement one another and that they do not clash, or make elements difficult to parse. Many website-building platforms boast well-designed templates, so you don’t need a degree in graphic design to make your website attractive!

What Makes A Website Successful?

Many website-building platforms will allow you to see traffic sources, and traffic numbers, so that you can ascertain how many people are using your website, and how they are being led to it. This will help you to focus on areas of your website that will drive further engagement. If your website is successful, you should also generally see an uptick in foot traffic, if you have a store.