Setting up a home business website shop from the comfort of your home is certainly an attractive proposition for the busy stay at home mom
Setting up a home business website shop from the comfort of your own sofa (or bed) is certainly an attractive proposition for the busy stay at home mom. Of course, an essential component of your business will be your website. It will be the hub of all activity that you undertake, the place where you market your goods or services, and the place where your leads convert to sales. There are ten important keys to success when it comes to setting your home business website up though:
Domain Name
Choose a name that reads well. This is so important. Ultimately, you want people to know what you are about as well as who you are. All this needs to be clear within your domain name. Be sure you’re not putting words together that might read like other words. How do you get a domain name of your own? You can register one and then choose where to host your website. Or you can pick one for free from somewhere like WordPress that will include the WordPress domain in your URL.
Content
Knowledge is very highly valued, but none of your followers or customers are willing to pay for it. That means you need to providing plenty of great content daily for free. Why should you give away your time? Content attracts customers. If you offer them information, they might hang around long enough to hear your sales pitch. Think about a standard retail store. You pop in with interest in one of the products. The salesperson talks a bit about that product, how they’ve personally used it, and other items to compare it with. You’ll remember that personal attention, even if you don’t buy on the spot.
Social Media
Connecting with different social media accounts is challenging and time-consuming. Why do it? Because you want to talk with your customers and you want to hear what your customers have to say about you and your competitors. Some of these are great platforms for distributing your content too. Forums can be a great place for you to start developing your voice of authority. Answer questions and maybe post one or two. Be helpful and not too salesy.
SEO
Optimizing your website content is essential if you want to rank with search engines. It is thought that having social media accounts with those search engine companies might boost your rank too. Make sure copy is relevant and that link building is appropriate across your site. Even the layout can make a difference. Most importantly, make sure the loading times for your web pages are minimal. Compress wherever possible!
Security
Google has suggested that pages that are not prefixed with a Https:// URL will not rank highly due to the potential lack of security. Make sure your home business website is as secure as possible. If you sell through your website, build trust with your customers by picking the most well-known payment services. Keep your accounts secure, and make sure that your host is installing the latest updates to protect your website. Use a good backup service for all your website data.
Branding
Once you have all your social media accounts active, you need to ensure you have brand consistency throughout. Pick the same colors and images for your profiles each time. Also, check nobody is misusing your brand elsewhere. Try misspelling your company name to see if anyone is taking advantage of customer typos. Most importantly, make sure every communication with your customers is branded correctly. This might include all of your advertising campaigns too. Match to the website. If you update one, update them all.
Design
Over time, you will have more and more content on your website. This build-up of archives and material might prompt you to consider changing your design. If you use something like WordPress, a simple theme change might be all you need. There is, of course, a lot to be said for customer building your website. You need an incredible business website to become a successful entrepreneur. A template might not be enough. Instead, design your website around your customer’s needs. Check your analytics or simply ask customers directly how you can improve.
Research
To ensure your customers are receiving all the information they need, you may have to put in a lot of research. Why should you go to the trouble? If you answer all the questions they have, then they have no need to search for them elsewhere. It also builds a voice of authority, it shows professionalism, and it builds trust. These are the things customers need when they’re shopping online. This is how you can be so much better than the competition.
Customer Services
Your customers are going to want to contact you from time to time. As well as all your sharing buttons for social media, make sure you also have your connection buttons to lead customers to your accounts. This makes it easier for them to contact you without having to worry about filling in forms, picking up the phone, or writing emails. Why wouldn’t they contact me in those traditional ways? Because they’re on mobile. Let them use their apps to contact you with ease in a way they are familiar and comfortable with.
Of course, you must also have your phone number and business address clearly detailed on each web page of your site. Add a customer services email address as well as a customer services tab. In the page for the tab, detail all those ways to contact you again. Make it easy for the customer. If they have a complaint, you would rather they tell you first than sharing it all over their FaceBook page.
Follow Ups
Make sure all your orders receive follow up emails. This can be set up quite easily, and it instills a lot of trust in the customer that you are looking after their order. Give them as many details about the order and when they can expect to receive it. Why not add some extra info like product details or a link to the page? Take care of your website, and your website will help you succeed.
