Website tips for small business owners

Q: I am tasked with redoing our company website. I am planning on using a free or low-cost service and then customizing the template. My question is what do other small businesses do right and wrong when creating a business website — that is, are there things I should add or be on the lookout for?
—Sara

A: Someone recently told me that he considers a company's website to be so important, and so fundamental, that it is the "the business card of the 21st century."

Close, but no cigar.

I think my associate understates it. Yes, like a business card, your website is the first thing people often see when encountering your business, but it also has become a major factor in whether people even choose to do business with you. No business card can claim that. So your site has to be great.

Here, then, are the 7 Deadly Small-Business Website Mistakes that you must avoid:

1. The site confuses the Web for a billboard: Every now and then you will run across a small-business website that gets it: It is graphically appealing, it contains valuable, unique content, and it engages the visitor. It is a sales tool, meet-and-greet, advertisement, brochure and conduit, all in one.

But most small-business websites do not do that. Instead, they are simply an online version of a billboard or other sort of basic ad: a big headline with some backup information and not much more.

Mistake.

The days when you could simply throw up an e-version of your Yellow Pages ad are long over. Yellow Pages ads are great because they serve a specific purpose, and do it very well — namely, to get the phone to ring. But the purpose of your website goes beyond that. Sure, a great small-business website will cause the phone to ring (or the e-mail to be sent), but it should also create a positive, lasting impression.

To do that, the site has to engage, not just be.

For the rest of Strauss' tips, click here.