Are you a part of the 46% of small business owners who think there's no point in having a website?
If so, then you're missing out on opportunities to build your customer base and your revenue. You have 88% of consumers researching businesses online before visiting a local business.
Imagine how many prospects you're not reaching by relying solely on offline marketing methods.
But you don't have thousands of dollars to pay a web developer. Nor do you have the time to learn how to code.
The good news is you don't have to do either. You have the option of using a web page builder. Before you do, let's take a look at five things you need to look for to find the best tool.
The theme of your business website should match your industry and brand. If your site doesn't align, then it may turn off your visitors.
This is exactly what we see in studies:
In other words -- you can't overlook your website design. So as you're searching for a web page builder, you need to find one that offers a range of website themes.
This will help you find the perfect match and quickly set up a site that suits your restaurant, gym, boutique (or whatever industry you're in). And you'll be satisfied in knowing you have a layout that's professional and appealing to the eye.
We already established that you're not a coder. But this shouldn't mean you have to put up with a web page builder that doesn't allow simple customizations.
Sure, themes can give you a major headstart, but it may not be exactly what you want it to be. Maybe you want to rearrange the text boxes and CTA buttons.
Or even add elements, such as a photo gallery at the top to capture attention.
This is simple to pull off when you have a web page builder with a drag-and-drop feature. With this, you can select the element you want to add (or move) and drag it anywhere on the page.
It speeds up the process and eliminates the headache of trying to teach yourself to HTML and CSS.
In the past, businesses would build two separate websites to accommodate desktop and mobile users. And as you'd imagine, it became expensive trying to manage two sites.
Not to mention, it hurt your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts, since you had to have two sets of content for each website. Duplicating pages is a no-no and will land you with a penalty from Google.
The solution -- responsive websites. This allows business owners to have a website that works on all devices and screen sizes.
This is important now that 77% of adults use their smartphones to surf the web. And they're making it known -- about 72% of people state they want more mobile-friendly websites.
If your site isn't mobile-friendly, then you're going to risk missing out on revenue opportunities. So be sure your web page builder offers responsive web designs.
When you build your business website and hit publish, how will people find it? It's not going to soar to the first page right away, especially if you don't implement schema markup.
Schema markup is structured data written in the language of search engines. This allows Google's bots to index your web pages properly.
Without schema markup, Google and other search engines will have a harder time crawling your pages, which can eventually hurt your SEO.
A website with schema markup will show rich snippets, which can help users determine whether to click your link.
By choosing a web page builder with a schema checker, you can ensure every page is structured correctly for indexing.
Again, you don't want to be stuck with a generic template for your business website. You want to make it your own, make it stand out, and win over your target customers.
But you can't do this if you're using a template that's purple and orange while your brand colors are yellow and green.
It'll confuse your visitors and make your business look unprofessional.
Your web page builder should come with customization options so you can manipulate the color schemes of your drag-and-drop layout.
While a great web page builder should be simple to use, you may run into issues along the way. This is where excellent customer service will become a godsend.
Never choose a web page builder that doesn't offer online chat or a phone number for customer support.
If you don't have an online presence for your business, then your competitors will continue snatching up potential customers. And if you already have a site up, but it's unprofessional, non-mobile-friendly, or lacks branding, then you need to make changes ASAP.
With best website builder for small business, you can quickly build a site that meets the demand of consumers and search engines. Check it out today!