Regardless of whether your business is big or small, getting found on Google is becoming more and more important. In fact, a strong online presence is often more important for local businesses than for large corporate companies. Potential customers often search for a local businesses online, so a listing in local search results will definitely help you gain new customers.
One of the main ways you can boost your visibility in local searches is with a professional website for your business. Your website will be the online representation of your brick and mortar business. In the same way your customers can find your business in one place offline, your website gives customers a specific place to find your business online as well!
A Professional Website Is a Business Investment
A good website is one of the best marketing investments you can make. It’s always there, any time of day or night for your potential customers to stumble upon when they do an online search for your business.
To potential customers who find you online, your website will determine their first impression of your business. Even if your business has the most beautiful brick and mortar location in town, a shoddy website will make you seem unprofessional online. Luckily the opposite is also true – a professional-looking website can also help you compete with businesses that have locations that are far more stylish than your own.
With your website, you have the opportunity to create a first impression for your business that you can control. Your website design should speak volumes about what your business does and the target market you cater to within your industry. It should mimic your offline brand as accurately as possible.
Unlike other marketing expenses, your website is part of your business. Because it’s simply the online extension of your offline business
While you could spend the minimum on your website, or even try to go for a free option, you’re unlikely to gain good exposure from this. Customers want to work with professionals, and if your website design looks amateur, they might assume your business is amateur too.
SEO Focused Website Design Is a Must
While the branding and overall design of your website is a big part in creating a good first impression, there’s more to website design than just the looks.
Your website should be designed to be attractive to potential customers and search engines alike. It’s possible for a website to look good and still rank low in Google because of technical design flaws. For instance, website that loads too slowly, or one that isn’t optimized for mobile devices won’t rank high in local searches, regardless of whether or not it looks good.
Because of this, your website design should be focused on both looking good while still being practical at the same time.
Does Your Business Need A Website and Local SEO?
While SEO is good for any local business, there are certain kinds of businesses that can benefit more from being visible in online search.
Restaurants, bars, guest houses and wedding venues are among the businesses that can undoubtedly benefit from local Chattanooga SEO. People often do searches for these kinds of businesses with the clear intention of finding somewhere to eat, sleep or host an event.
However, any business can benefit from getting found online, No matter if you sell office supplies or own a catering company, someone’s looking for what you offer. And just like with searches for restaurants and event venues, people searching for your product or service are looking to buy.
Because of this, most business owners would be surprised at how much potential customers they’re losing out on by neglecting their website and local SEO.
Businesses can grow twice as fast with a good website and a solid Internet marketing plan. When comparing the cost of marketing expenses to return on investment, getting a website and investing in local SEO is by far the best option around. This makes local SEO an excellent option for businesses with a limited marketing budget.
Web Design for Chattanooga Businesses
Getting a website and improving your local SEO shouldn’t have to take forever. Ideally, you should focus on your business while outsourcing online marketing to experts, because improving your local SEO requires a substantial amount of time, energy and knowledge.
Needless to say, if you were to start learning about local SEO right now, it would still be quite a while before you can expect to see results. You’d first have to learn more about SEO, then you’d have to see what works for your business through trial and error.
But when it comes to attracting customers online, time you lose is like money in the water. Even while your business website isn’t up yet, people are doing local searches for your product or service. Unfortunately, you’ll be missing out on these potential customers until your website is up and optimized for local SEO.
The expense of a website and local SEO can seem high at the beginning, but when you start to enjoy the rewards of your investment (i.e more customers), your initial investment will seem well worthwhile.
With that in mind, you should strongly consider to find a Chattanooga web design and SEO company as soon as possible. The sooner you find a company that’s right for your business to work with, the sooner you can attract more customers online.