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6.Make sure your website is easy to read. Use headings and sub-headings. Keep your sentences short. Use bullets and lists to make important points. Set apart important text by bolding or using a different color.
7.Make it easy for your potential clients to reach you. Have a link on every page to your e-mail address and include your phone number on every page.
8.Ensure that you home page makes it abundantly clear who you are and what you do. Don’t make them guess.
9.Use terms like YOU and YOUR rather than terms like WE and US. Your potential clients want to know what benefits you can provide to them. Make them feel how you can solve their problems.
10.Do your potential clients know what to do next in order to buy from you? Give them all
information they need to take next step.
11.Check all your links. Dead links can turn off a client fast. If you are providing links to useful information, make sure they can get there! If in doubt, leave it out.
12.Choose your graphics wisely. Too many graphics distract from your message. Most clip-art graphics look tacky and take away from your business message. If you’ve seen graphic before, they have too, likely several hundred times and they won’t remember if it was your company or someone else’s.
13.Write conversationally. Make sure tone of your web-site sounds like you. This is especially important for a sole-proprietor who is selling their unique brand of personal care and attention to customer.
14. Choose your colors wisely. Bright vibrant colors are terrific, but use them sparingly in borders or to highlight sections. Don’t use busy patterns behind your main text and don’t use background colors that clash with your text color. In most instances simple black text on white background for your key pages is best.
15.Maintain consistency. Make sure your website look likes it belongs together. Have similar fonts and layouts on every page.
16.Avoid using all caps.
17.Keep it flowing. Don’t just build your site and leave it. In order to keep people coming back your site must provide useful information that is not stagnant. Schedule an appointment with yourself at least once a month to update your site.
Successful home-based business owners have identified their web-site as one of their top marketing tools. Make sure that you are getting most out of your web-presence to ensure continued business success.
Peggie Arvidson-Dailey is the founder of Pet Care Business University and the Pet-Care Business Success System™. She is the author of the “Maintain your Love Affair with Your Pet” Series and several articles on finding and maintaining happy customers for Pet-centered businesses. As a trainer and coach she has helped people across the country create and build the pet-care business of their dreams. Visit http://www.peggiespets.com for more information.
