How to refresh your small business’s website
These days, ‘keeping up a good shopfront’ doesn’t just mean ensuring your bricks and mortar premises are in apple pie order. Having a website that’s fresh, informative, user friendly, easy to locate and lightning fast is every bit as important, if not more so. Just as a grimy, rundown office or showroom can cast your small business in a negative light, a clunky, outdated website can drag down your brand image and hamper your efforts to attract and retain traffic and trade. If it’s been a while since you’ve spring cleaned your site, here’s what you need to do to transform your online presence into a powerful asset for your enterprise.
Assess the status quo
The first step is assessing what you have, to determine whether what’s needed is a basic refresh or a more comprehensive structural overhaul. Design, functionality and user experience should all be put under the microscope. If you’re finding it difficult to decide how well or badly things are working, it can pay to seek expert advice, from a consultant or designer who specialises in small business sites.
Plan a program of updates
Once you’ve decided what needs doing and found a contractor or service provider to help you do it, it’s time to start planning for an orderly upgrade. If you’re intending to make major design and layout changes, it pays to finalise those first, before you begin updating your content for relevance and accuracy. While some of the information on your site may be ‘evergreen’ – think company history, for example, or your terms and conditions and trading hours – planning and scheduling regular updates will keep things fresh and interesting. If you’re digitally savvy you may be able to do some of this work inhouse but, if finances permit, employing a copywriter can help you present a more professional image.
Boost traffic and engagement
After that, it’s time to get more eyeballs on your site, via search engine optimisation (SEO). SEO is a digital marketing process that can boost the visibility of your site and push it higher up the rankings when people search for businesses like yours online.
You can also use Google’s Business Profile tool to create and personalise a free profile that showcases your business’s personality and highlights essential information, such as your contact details and opening hours. Encouraging satisfied customers to leave Google reviews can bring more business your way too.
Securing your site
Like any other critical business asset, your website should be protected from damage and disruption, both accidental and deliberate. Keeping your SSL/TLS certificate up to date will stop hackers from accessing information that’s transferred between your business and its customers via the internet and can help prevent some types of cyber-attacks too.
Putting these types of high-tech defences in place is essential, and so is thinking about how your business’s sales would be affected if your website were to go offline for an extended period of time, for any reason.
Having a disaster recovery plan will help you get back up and running again faster, while business interruption cover can help you bounce back financially. It’s a form of insurance designed to protect your cash flow if your business is unable to trade due to disruption, online or in real life.
Cover to keep your small business ticking over
Having the right insurance is the best way to protect your enterprise from the unexpected. If it’s been a while since you reviewed your cover, the start of a new year is a great time to do so. To discuss your requirements for 2025, contact BICS today.
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