A company website is an essential marketing tool when you are self employed, working as a sole trader or running a small business from home. A website will act as a storefront for your business, whether or not you trade online, so it is important to make a priority of having company website, even if you run a restaurant or a local business.

You will gain new customers by having a company website that shows your contact information, details of special offers and some background to your business. You can encourage website visitors, and regular customers, to sign up for free email newsletters, or to subscribe to the RSS feed on your site. These are easily set up and will keep all your subscribers informed of new developments on the website and news of your business.

A company website could be a blog or a single page. It will be far more effective as a marketing tool for your business when you provide pages of useful information and regularly update it with fresh original content.

You can start a home business with a free website, or promote a replicated website supplied by an affiliate program, but you will have a far greater advantage in business when you build a website with your own domain, using a reliable web-hosting service.

When you work online you should target potential new customers and clients from around the world with your company website. You can add links to your pages that lead customers to affiliate sites or programs you promote online. You can use your website for Internet marketing or for e-commerce, in addition to advertising your own small business to the world.

A company website can be set up in your own name or use your trading name. Consider using keywords in your domain, to match the the name of your website, for search engine optimization.

Finding the best performance keywords for your business website is essential for getting your site indexed efficiently by search engines. Use good SEO (search engine optimization) techniques to ensure your website performs well online and is easy to find.

Keywords are generally short phrases that are integral to the content of your company website. A number of appropriate keywords should be used in the text, and in the title, subheadings and tags of each page. The more pages there are on your website, the more content will be indexed in search engines.

When pages on your company website are linked back, from similar pages at high traffic sites, those pages start to rank higher at Google and get found more easily.

Without a company website your business will not get the exposure you need online. Some of your business rivals could be gaining customers who could have found your website and signed up, subscribed or ordered your products online. Whether you are a new small business, starting out in home business or you have an established business, do make a priority of having a company website.

Learn more about this author, Ruth Belena.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Small & Home Business: Why should you make a priority of having a company website?
We want to hear your view. Write now!