Debunking old small business website advice and less stressful ways to go about handling your website
Small business websites have changed A LOT over the last decade, yet a lot of the small business website advice from the 2000s is still being promoted today.
“You need to self host your website.”
“Wordpress is free.”
“Wordpress is fully customizable.”
“Squarespace and Wix are terrible for SEO, Wordpress is the only CMS platform that will help your site get found.”
“Pay a developer to do routine backups and updates of your website and plugins.”
“It doesn’t matter if your website is not good looking.”
Website design doesn’t have to be scary. I’m here to tell you that there are more modern and easier ways to go about your small business website. Now let’s go ahead and debunk these myths.
*Just a disclaimer, this is not intended to bash any platform or business owner who lives by this advice. This is still helpful to certain types of businesses. I’m speaking to the small service businesses that need a professional, modern site up and running and don’t have the time to maintain or grow it.
“You need to self host your website.”
I understand that this statement is intended for you to have full control and ownership over your website and content. However, with full ownership comes great responsibility. You already wear so many hats as a small business owner that if you put this hat on as well, then your hats will start wobbling back and forth until some start to fall off. CMS platforms that host for you like Squarespace, Wix, Webflow or Showit handle backups and security in the background, so you don’t need to worry and can focus on your primary business responsibilities. On CMS hosted platforms, you still own your original content like blog posts, images, icons, website copy, customized website layouts and sections and your email list. These can all be replicated on other platforms if your business website needs change and you decide to migrate your website. Lastly, if you are worried about one of these CMS-Hosted companies disappearing, you do not need to worry. These companies are quite large with great security and are constantly making updates. They hosts thousands of websites everyday and have been doing so for years. They are not going anywhere. And they are much more reliable than having your site hosted out of some guy’s basement.
“Wordpress is free.”
The amount of times I’ve heard this is astounding. Sure you can create an account and build a site with the block editor from ground zero, but it lacks the user experience of a drag and drop editor that most website builders provide. Plus it can also be quite daunting to figure out how to get started, especially without a technical background and be able to create a website that looks and fits your desired outcome. So you decide to use a website builder within Wordpress. You still have to pay for that builder annually. And if there’s a feature you want to add without advanced coding, then your options are a free plugin with limited features or the paid version of that plugin with all the features. Additionally, you’re still required to pay for hosting the website you build, so that’s not free. And from my personal experience, these hosting companies will charge really low for the first year and then jack up the price once the first year is up.
“Wordpress is fully customizable.”
Going back to my point in the first tip, with full website customization comes great responsibility. Each additional feature you decide to use on your website requires updates, but you need to make full backups before the updates in order for content to not get messed up or lost. Plus certain customization add-ons can feel like you’re being nickel and dimed.
As a small business owner, you do not need to customize every nut and bolt of your website, you need a website that:
Looks modern and presentable
Has a good user experience
Is built with functions you need to help you achieve your business goals
Communicates who you are and how your method of service benefits your audience
Low maintenance
You still have a lot of customization abilities through Zapier integrations, Code Embeds, built-in apps inside of website builders and custom code.
“Squarespace and Wix are terrible for SEO, Wordpress is the only CMS platform that will help your site get found.”
There are many tactics that help your site get found, regardless of what platform you use. Getting found organically online by your ideal clients does not happen overnight. It can take a while to climb the ranks, but the results last even longer. Before I dive too deep into SEO tactics, focusing on technical SEO is a great place to start.
Optimize your CMS hosted site for technical SEO:
Decrease each of your image’s storage size to under 250 kb. I like to use TinyPNG or IMG2GO
Make sure each website page only has one H1 tag
Categorize subsection headers by H2 and H3 tags
Add alt text to each image that describes the image and so screen readers can read it
Make sure the names of the image files clearly describe the image, have a dash between each word, and don’t have any random numbers or letters
Same goes for each web page link. Make sure the link matches the page, includes a dash between each word if there’s multiple words, and there’s no random numbers or letters
Add relevant links from your other website pages to your web pages that relate. This is called internal linking (not just in the footer)
Title your site with a title that’s around 50-60 characters, highlights what you offer (include a keyword once you’ve done your research)
Add meta text that describes your business (and include a primary keyword if you have one)
Research and interview people in your target audience in order to create a buyer persona. Ask them if they were looking for your type of service, how would they go about finding that. Ask them their pain points when it comes to problems where your service could be the solution. Then present your service process and ask them if that’s something they’re looking for.
Use the information you get to begin to research keywords that your audience is likely to search. There are many SEO tools that can be helpful including free ones like ahrefs free keyword generator, Ubbersuggest (limited free plan), Google Trends, AnswerThePublic and KWFinder (limit 5 searches per day). There’s also paid tools like Keywords Everywhere, SEOSpace (for Squarespace) and ahrefs (can be more advanced).
Categorize each keyword based on user search intent (Informational, Navigational, Commercial and Transactional).
Informational - The user is looking for answers to their problem and you write a blog post containing helpful information.
Navigational - The user is looking for a specific place like “LinkedIn” or “YouTube.”
Commercial - The user is doing research on products or services that could solve their problem.
Transactional - The user knows exactly what they are going to buy and they search the direct name to go make the purchase.
Use backlinks from websites with high domain authority for users to discover you and to help build your website’s domain authority (which helps you rank higher in search engines). Backlinks are links from other sites that link back to a web page on your site that you choose. The link should be hyperlinked with text that relates to your offering and is a variation of your keyword rather than the name of your site. This is called anchor text.
There’s different ways to form backlinks. If you are a business that serves people locally, create and optimize a Google Business Profile, a Yelp Business Page, a Bing business profile (for non Google users) and some local, high quality business directories. Make sure you get your clients to leave reviews on these pages. You can also write blogs with high quality, informative content that answer your ideal client’s search queries. *Do not stuff these blog posts with key words. You will get flagged. Just place the query once in the title and then include a secondary keyword that relates once about every 100-150 words. You can write helpful content on blogs that your target audience reads as a guest and link a couple words as “anchor text” that link back to a specific page you want to target on your website. *Keep in mind that some blogs welcome guest posting while others do not. Make sure that the blog is not associated with anything inappropriate. Basically, there are many ways to get ranked and attract your target audience, regardless of the CMS platform.
“Pay a developer to do routine backups and updates of your website and plugins.”
While this may be a great option for a larger business or a business with vast amounts of content, I don’t think this is the best area for small business owners to invest back into their business. I truly believe that investing in the right marketing strategy for your business is a much better return on investment along with more occasional maintenance or content updates. You can focus on your business and sustain your energy while a trusted marketing partner helps you grow and maintain your ideal client base.
“It doesn’t matter if your website is not good looking.”
I keep hearing that the only thing that matters is that your site performs well. And while performance is still highly important your branding matters too. You don’t need to have the most insane animations, complex graphics or drone videos, but your site does need to look modern in today’s market. A modern, usable website indicates to leads that this person is an expert in their field and stays up to date in the modern marketplace. A website on Squarespace can set you apart from your competitors and helps you be more memorable when a prospective client is deciding amongst multiple service providers.
Hopefully this gives you insight into easier ways to go about handling your small business website. As a small business owner, you already have so much on your plate. Your website does not need to become another headache. Running your own business is exciting and should bring you more autonomy. Designing, running and maintaining your website should be a positive experience. You deserve a website you’re proud to show people that doesn’t become another job.
