What A Custom Website Can Do For Your Small Business

While the number of cases of COVID-19 continues to rise in the midst of this global pandemic, it is no surprise that small businesses across the nation have become affected. Some businesses have grown, while others have not only lost business but lost employees as well. Now more than ever it is important for the growth and health of your small business that steps are taken to increase business, and the team at MDPM Small Business Marketing in Dallas, TX is here to help you do just that. A major contributor to increased business is an online presence, and a custom website is the first step to receiving more clicks.

Increased Web Traffic

Being a small business competing for visibility in the digital age means strategic steps must be pursued in order to reach your target audience, and thus having a custom-designed website is a must. Most companies advertise sites that can be created quickly and cheaply to accomplish this goal, however, these pages are often created from templates. While this may not immediately seem to be a problem, the fact of the matter is that when these companies create these templates for multiple clients, the result is a simple appearance that can be duplicated and used repeatedly, offering little variation in appearance and ultimately contradicting the goal of increasing visibility. Further, search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and more factor in accessibility when ranking different pages on a search engine results page (SERP), and Google’s bots punish sites that are not easily accessible, user-friendly, mobile-friendly, and/or contain duplicative content.

Ensuring a website is easily accessible also means that its build and design should be done with different screen sizes in mind. While a page may look great on a desktop computer, it could be skewed, disproportionate, and difficult to navigate on smaller devices. At MDPM Marketing for Small Businesses, we create custom designs from scratch and create them with multiple screen sizes in mind to ensure a user-friendly experience whether on desktop, laptop, tablet, or even smartphone. Search engines reward unique, custom builds that are user-friendly by placing them higher on a SERP when individuals search for services like yours in your area.

The Benefits of SEO

Pages that are created with SEO in mind are also rewarded with a higher ranking on a SERP. Search engine optimization (SEO) factors in aspects such as a mobile-friendly design, user accessibility, credibility of source, and more that then result in better placement on a SERP. It also involves incorporating local keywords and links to your website and the content you post on it, meaning that your small business will be more likely to show up on a SERP for applicable queries. For example, if a person is searching for a service that you perform in your area, they are able to find better results that best fit their individual needs.

Local keywords and SEO-rich phrases are necessary for increased visibility, however, it is important to warn of the negative effects of keyword stuffing. Just as Google’s bots can punish duplicative content, it can punish pages that contain too many of the same keywords as well. Sites that do this are flagged as spam and could be detrimental to your small business as your online presence diminishes due to the poor placement on a SERP. More often than not, people do not look past the first page that comes up on a search engine, meaning less and less foot traffic to your business online.

Paying Attention to the Backend

Another benefit of a custom design includes appealing to your target audience. While SEO affects how search engines rank your listing, meta data assists the viewer with thorough yet concise information about your specific services or purpose. Including specific meta titles and meta descriptions aid a person’s search by providing specific information about your business in the form of what you offer, where you are located/ which areas you serve, and so on. These are the previews you see when making a search. The previews are limited to only 160 characters, which means creating custom descriptions is more of an art than a science as the specific limitations can be difficult to get an idea across. Quality experience and care are utilized to provide descriptions and titles that are both concise and to the point, but also information-rich to help direct people’s attention. For more information about the backend of websites, contact our team today.

How Microsites Can Assist

Not only can your small business benefit from a custom design, but a microsite can be utilized to streamline your online traffic. A microsite typically has a narrower focus or specific product that it promotes, bringing in views from niche or specific populations. Additionally, these designs can link back to parent pages as well and potentially broaden the results of an individual’s query. In other words, it provides another channel that can redirect individuals searching for services such as yours in your area back to you and, hopefully, provide another customer or client for your business.

A microsite also provides an opportunity to enhance your SEO practices. An additional site means an additional opportunity to incorporate local keywords and links to your content. You may also embed links to internal pages that go into detail about service specifics, and hopefully, increase visibility and presence along the way. Find out more by contacting our Dallas team today.

Increase Your Online Presence Today

In a world where people can purchase products at the touch of a button or order food whenever they feel, a strong online presence or lack thereof is what makes or breaks a small business. Maintaining a consistent online presence through a custom website makes that process easier, and the team at MDPM Small Business Marketing in Dallas, TX has the experience to help you not only bring in more customers but gain traction online as well. Contact our office at (214) 531-3006 for more information or to schedule an interview and find out how we can help you.