I've put together a list of 5 must-haves that every small business website needs to include. Whether you're building a website yourself, or have a web designer to do it for you, work through this check list and you won't go wrong.1. Contact details.It might seem a bit obvious this one, but you'd be surprised how many people forget to add their contact details. Not only must you have your contact details--at a minimum your address, phone number and email address--but you mus...

 When I first started writing for The Virginia Gazette in 1998, the Web was a giant mystery. Almost 13 years later, it's still a mystery for most! With the emergence of Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, Google, Linkedin, and a host of other sites, getting started with online marketing seems more daunting than ever. Yet, as consumers flock to the Web daily to research local products and services, visibility for your business via the Internet literally spells success or failure. Bottom line: Onlin...

 Have you ever visited a website and were absolutely bored out of your mind?Unfortunately, way too many websites are just big, fat sales brochures yapping on and on about every excruciating detail about the company – right down to a 500-word history on when and why the company was founded. Uggg!Always remember that your website needs to be about your customer, not about you. Your customer doesn’t give a hoot about when and why your company was founded. All they ca...

 Businesses are always seeking innovative ways to communicate efficiently and effectively with customers in order to maintain good customer service and to increase sales. While postal mailing, phoning, and most recently emailing have been utilized as methods of communication from businesses to its customers, a new communication star is emerging, known commonly as “text messaging” and also known as short message system (“SMS”).Text messaging has typically been ut...

You probably know some businesses who are doing phenomenally well without a website. I do, too. But I often wonder how much better they could be doing if they took the time to invest in one. Here are just a few benefits that come along with creating a usable website for your small business. 1. You stop being invisible.I’m not trying to be flippant, but by creating a website you stop being invisible to the people trying to find you online. More and more studies are telling us abou...