Many small business owners have a misconception regarding online marketing. They feel that having an online presence is not important since they only offer their products or services locally. This type of belief could not be further from the truth. Studies show that 90% of people examine a product or service online before they ever decide to use it. This statistic alone should teach a person that an online presence is essential for expanding a small business. This does not entail that a small business owner should just slap up a website and call it fine. So where should one get begin?

Let’s take for example a local shoes store. A website that has the purpose of growing a small business needs to be planned well. If a business owner is going to build the website themselves it would be wise to start at the beginning. This means choosing a website template that is associated with the type of business one does. So if the business is selling Dansko shoes, the website should not look too “corporate”. Next, don’t overwhelm the first page with excessive amounts of information. The first page needs to introduce the business and provide a reason why a potential customer should choose them over a rival business. Other pages of the website should showcase contact information, testimonials and other useful and related information. These elements should make a adequate start to a website.

Since such an overwhelming number of people research information online, having a website is truly important to growing a small business. There is generally little rivalry online for small and local businesses. Being the first business to have a website existence will always give you the upper hand on your competition. In our Dansko shoes outlet example, this is no longer possible, as competition is extreme. This is because search engines like Google give priority to websites that have been maintained for a longer lengths of time. This is why even having a simple website is important for every small business owner.

If a business owner has no experience creating websites it is possible to hire a webmaster that understands how to craft a website for growing a small business. They will better the site to be a top result in search engines for whatever business one is in. Many business owners have found that most of their customers have come from online advertising application. Once a business owner has a quality website they will want to think about other options for online advertising. This mightcomprise of pay per click advertising or online press exposure. The best recommendation is to hire a person that can manage all of this for the business in order to leave the business owner time for what ever they do best.