To run a small business website today is challenging. The sluggish economy makes operating a successful business even more difficult and cost cutting can only go so far. At some point, the effort in increasing revenue is the only way to ensure the success if not, the survival of your small business. With today’s competitive business environment, online presence is essential if you, as the business owner, want to be able to build your brand, attract customers and retain your existing consumer base. The bottom line, you need a website to compete on and offline. Some business owners are not interested or shy away from building a website fearing that the technology behind it is too complicated. But this is entirely not true. Although this is not difficult as many would think, there is work involved in creating and updating a website. In creating a website, there are possible pitfalls and this can be avoided by planning well and following some simple guidelines. 1. Keeping it simple. You website should convey who you are to potential customers of your business while giving your existing customer base the affirmation of who you are. There is no need to go over and beyond. Nothing too fancy. There were studies that have shown that if a webpage does not convey the main message within three seconds, the page will not hold the viewer’s attention and if this is not accomplished, the person clicks away and goes to another website to find the information they need. 2. Spelling and Grammar. Remember to proofread for errors in grammar and spelling. Have someone help you to read it as fresh eyes would generally help find faults in the content. Spell check is not enough to do the job. Remember that you have a business running and image is a big deal. 3. Navigation. Too often, websites are difficult to navigate. Basing on the first item of this post, always, keep it simple. 4. Walls of text. The size of a user’s browser window and how much text is on a page matters. Remember that these factors impact the experience of your website’s visitors. If a single page is hard to read it will make it difficult and in turn, the user experience will not come out as expected. 5. The “If you build it, they will come” mentality. Once your website is built, it does not automatically that visitors will come. A website will be of no use if no one visits it. You would need to know the very basics of inbound marketing techniques that will help you get found. Using SEO, Paid advertising, social media are the basics. But if you are having difficulty, there are professional online marketing companies that can accommodate your specific marketing needs.