How to Generate Content for a Customer-Focused Website

When you’re gathering information for the new website for your business—or when you’re planning content updates to keep your current site fresh and appealing—it’s important to focus on the needs and expectations of your customers to make their website visit an informed and productive one.

To that end, we’ve prepared the following questions—and some of the possible answers—to help you generate creative and constructive ideas for content about your business. When you take the time to pinpoint the information that’s relevant and valuable for your website visitors, you’re one step closer to gaining . . . and retaining . . . the customers you’re looking for.

Why would a customer choose your business over a competitor’s? What differentiates your product or service offering from your competition?
Consider the following:

• Quality
• Selection
• Price / price guarantees
• Personalized service
• Service area
• Specialty services
• In-home demonstrations
• 24/7 emergency services
• Product or service warranties
• Special-order items
• Custom work

What visual examples can help convey the quality and value of your products or services?
Consider the following:

• Before-and-after photos or videos of your projects (such as kitchen renovations)
• Before-and-after photos or videos of your services (such as beauty treatments)
• Photos or videos of what you manufacture, sell, or repair

What information resources do you have that answer questions about your products or services?
Consider the following:

• Frequently Asked Questions (or FAQs)
• White paper (a downloadable resource)
• Video tutorial

What information can help customers feel confident about your skills and experience?
Consider the following:

• Licenses
• Accreditations (such as the Better Business Bureau)
• Certifications
• Testimonials from customers
• Product or service ratings from customers
• Years in business
• Years of experience in your field
• 24/7 emergency services
• Bio and photo
• Bios and photos of your employees

How has your company been recognized in your industry?
Consider the following:

• Product or service awards
• Endorsements by trade associations
• Endorsements by local, regional, or national organizations

What special incentives or discounts do you offer customers?
Consider the following:

• Loyalty programs
• Website and mobile coupons
• Email specials

How are you contributing to your local community?
Consider the following:

• Sponsor of a local event (such as a 5K race)
• Donor to a local nonprofit organization (such as a food bank)
• Volunteer for a local nonprofit organization (such as Habitat for Humanity)

How are you connecting with customers in the social media space?
Consider the following:

• Social network (such as Facebook)
• Professional network (such as LinkedIn)
• Microblogging site (such as a Twitter)

How to claim your business on Google Map

If your business has been established in the same location for a while, then your local business listing probably exists on Google Maps™, and you'll need to claim it (if you haven't done so already). If your business is relatively new or if you've recently relocated your business, then you probably need to add your business listing. (To learn why this is important for your business, read our blog article on Claiming Your Local Business Listing on the Search Engines.)

Ready to get started? Just follow these simple steps to claim or add your local business listing:

1. Go to Google Maps.
2. Enter your business name and ZIP code.
3. If your business listing appears, click on the "More Info" tab to claim your listing. A form with information loads (skip to step 5).
4. If your business listing does not appear, go back to the Google Maps homepage and click on the "Put your business on Google Maps" link. A form with no information loads.
5. Update/complete the form with information about your business, including your website address, business hours, a description of your products or services, and the business categories you want to be listed under. You'll also find options for including photos and videos.
6. Submit the form. After doing so, you'll need to verify your account via phone or mail. When you click the "phone" option, you'll receive an automated call in a matter of seconds. Be prepared with pen and paper to write down a five-digit PIN, which you will then enter in the verification box that appears on your computer screen. Voilà—you're done!

Be sure to update your listing as frequently as you can. Even if your website already includes all of this information, the more content you include in your listing, the better organic ranking your Google Maps listing will achieve.

And most importantly: Keeping your listing fresh and up-to-date helps to increase your chances of being found by customers who are searching in your area for your products or services. Missing a free and qualified lead could mean missing a new and long-term customer.

How to Build User-Friendly Website

Building your company’s website is only half of the job. The other part is to attract traffic and encourage repeat visitors to your website.

You can spend as much money as you like on creating what you perceive to be the perfect website but if no one else agrees with you then all your efforts (and all that cash) were for nothing. Here are some tips for creating a user-friendly website.

Determine Your Site’s Purpose—Are you trying to entertain, inform or sell? The overall design of your site should be tailored to its main purpose. If you do not have a clear understanding of what it is you are trying to achieve how can you expect that your visitors will?

Plan Your Site with the Visitors' Needs in Mind, Not Your Own—Take into consideration how your future visitors will use your site, their motivations for using it and the reason why they should ever return.

Site navigation should be simple and easy to understand. Links should be named so that they are concise and self-explanatory and the most important information should be the most prominent. The overall design should be consistent from page to page; you do not want you visitors wondering if they have accidentally navigated to another site when they begin to click through.

Encourage Interaction—Give your visitors as many ways as possible to contact you and encourage them to provide you with the feedback you need to endure that your website is as user friendly as it can possibly be.

This also provides you with a great opportunity to build an opt in email list that you can use for marketing purposes off site, especially if you offer the visitor something of use to them in return for that information. Newsletters, e-books, special reports and discount coupons can all work very well.

Support Your Visitors—Reassure your visitors by providing help pages, FAQs and a site map. If a website is too confusing or difficult to understand they will leave as quickly as they arrived, probably never to return. Security is a big concern for internet users, especially if you are asking them to buy something, so the fact that your site is secure should be prominently displayed and you must ensure that it is.

Go for Visual Appeal But Keep It Simple—Your website’s design should be clean and simple. Flashy animated graphics may impress but your visitors will become annoyed by waiting for a flash animation to load before they can actually get to the information they are looking for. Flash presentations also discourage search bots, the other very important visitors that you need to attract.

Speed Matters—In the era of the high speed internet connection a visitor’s patience is measureable in milliseconds. Keep page sizes reasonable so that they load quickly and efficiently. Check on a regular basis that all the links on your site are working, as there is little that frustrates an internet user more than trying to navigate to a page that does not exist.

Keep Your Content Fresh—If you build a website and then fail to update and refresh it on a regular basis, you will lose both human and search engine traffic. Having a site filled with outdated or irrelevant material simply makes you look inefficient and disinterested in your visitor’s needs. From a search prospective new content triggers repeat visits from those busy little bots, something that no website can ever get enough of.

Research published by analyst firm Access Markets International Partners shows that almost 70 percent of small and medium businesses actively use social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to promote their companies. But simply posting what your CEO had for lunch isn't going to do much to help move your business forward. Smart companies are tactically using social media tools to increase their exposure to potential customers.

We've compiled ten of the most compelling reasons that you should consider using social media tools to promote your business.

1- Brand Recognition: Using social media allows your company to reach the highest number of potential customers possible. Getting your name out there is incredibly important - studies have suggested that customers need to hear a company's name at least seven times before they will gain the trust and respect needed to become a customer.

2- Brand Monitoring: Having a social media presence allows you to better understand what current and potential customers are saying about your product or services. Through active social media monitoring, you have the opportunity to address negative comments and correct false or inaccurate information about your brand.

3- Be Forward-Thinking: Your target audience is becoming savvier when it comes to the using social media sites in their daily lives. If you want to appear relevant and in-step with the latest advances in technology, your potential customers will want to see you on these sites as well.

4- Find New Customers Through Friends: You shouldn't neglect your personal social media accounts as potential avenues to promote the activities of your business. Posting regular updates relating to your business and activities can remind your friends of what your company does and either to use your services or refer one of their friends.

5- Find New Customers Through a Company Profile: Your company profile is a great opportunity for you to post regular updates on your activities, but also about important news and trends in your industry. This will catch the attention of new customers interested in your industry and increase your reputation as an expert in the field. It's critical to post regularly if you want to increase your followers or fans and convert them to potential leads.

6- Generate Site Traffic: By updating regularly on sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn with posts that link back to your site, you can create additional traffic to your site. Social media bookmarking tools like Digg, Stumbleupon and Slashdot can also generate additional traffic to your site if you create frequent articles and blog posts.

7- Links for SEO: Many social media bookmarking sites use NOFOLLOW tags that limit the outbound link value of posts made on their sites. There are still many leading social media sites that allow DOFOLLOW tags including Slashdot, Digg, Furl, Mixx and FriendFeed. However, you can see benefits from posting to social media bookmarking sites that use NOFOLLOW tags if people read your posts and link back to your Website.

8- Increased Search Engine Rankings: Social media profiles frequently rank highly with major search engines. Using brand names and keywords in your profiles can help you to generate traffic for your social media sites and company homepage.

9- Integrated Social Media Results in Search Engines: Search engines like Google and Microsoft Bing are increasingly interested in indexing and ranking posts and other information from social media sites. Videos from popular Internet sites like YouTube can also be optimized for indexing by the major search engines.

10- Niche Marketing: Social media allows you to reach very specific subsets of individuals based on their personal preferences and interests. You can create social media strategies based on reaching individual interests or even create unique social media profiles to target these audiences.