After more than 100 local website builds, we have learnt a fair bit about what creates a successful website. And with our new websites averaging 53% greater traffic within 6 months it shows!

Here are some key takeaways that make a real difference to local business website success;

Some Key Areas To Consider

• Initial planning
• Naming
• Content
• Local Market
• Search Presence
• Costs

Initial Planning

Its easy to get excited and want to get building a website. Getting that fresh new front page is often the most fun. For success we recommend taking the time to look at the local landscape and goals before taking the first design steps. This can make an incredible difference to your website performance once live. Think of it like laying a foundation for a house, the house is much more interesting but if the concrete slab isn’t solid, not much matters of what you put on it.

For us a typical pre-build review is talking with the business owner about what they are doing now vs what they are looking to achieve. Then looking at any existing website analytics for current performance and laying this against local competitors to see what they do well, and what seems the best way to compete with them for your goals.

Naming

If you are setting up a new or existing website you have probably spent some time considering the name. While for existing websites we almost always recommend to keep a name it is worth considering. And for new sites we can give advice on how the name can impact things such as your google search presense.

The most common choice is to decide if you want a generic name that matches common web searches e.g. ‘Brisbane Accountants’ or do you come up with a name that has brand distinction like ‘Journal Jugglers’.

One good think about aligning to local search is you tend to build more traffic from google search in that category fairly quickly. This comes at the risk other business can have similar names and doesn’t give you the same distinction as your business becomes established. In this we cant always tell you what is ‘correct’ but we can help you understand how we feel this will effect you initially and ongoing.

What Content

The simple answer is more is better. Time and time again we see content provides search presence. We also recognise content takes time and costs money so there needs to be a balance here. When you build a website we recommend putting up good initial content, while structuring the site so you can continue to add content ongoing. Ideally your website should be an ever improving enviroment

Search

• For local business people tend to search for:
  • Location – suburb pages, this is changing and will be an ongoing fight
  • Service – focus on common usage rather than industry usage e.g. ’emergency vet’ for industry insiders tends to mean 24 hours vets. For pet owners it means ‘I need a vet in a hurry’ – so by understanding the consumers and adding an emergency page to vet websites we found this creates a significant source of traffic to local clinics many did not have before.
  • Staff – Often for local business such as a GP, vet or accountant the staff are important to customers and we recommend having a bio page for key staff members.
• Google My Business – this is the business listing google often shows. We find this is hugely important and is commonly responsible for ~30% of organic traffic to a website. We always recommend taking to the time to review this listing as well as ensure happy customers give you a positive review.

Other tips

• Phone numbers and email in header. Often customer just want to reach out via phone or email. If this suits make sure this is easy to find as ever time a customer has to click to search for this basic information a percentage will go elsewhere.

So what’s the cost?

• Generally our websites start at $3k. They can be less or more based on many things. For example, will your website be built on WordPress or did you want it custom coded from scratch? Are we getting the content from a previous website, updating it or are we (re)writing it all? How many pages is the website? Do you have many blogs to bring across from your old website. Do you need a new logo. Is it an informational website or do you require a shop and payment system. Would you like SEO done? Would you like a photographer to get some engaging business shots of your team and work as it always helps a website if you can break away from only iStock type images.
• What we can tell you is our prices are extremely competitive for the quality of work we do. I did an analysis on websites we rebuilt for customers, and on average our new websites had 53% uplift in traffic within 6 months. This is because we take the time to understand your business, your market and do things the right way.
• When quote we break down the build costs into the various components so you can choose what parts you want, dont, and use this information to build the best possible website for your budget.

If you are interested in getting a new website built, reach out to us for an initial chat on phone or email to see what we can offer and if we are the right team for your business.