Eight Features Your Small Business Website Should Have

Other than just having a presence online so your customers can find you in search engines, have you thought about how you can use your website as a tool to benefit your business? With WordPress, it's easy to add just about anything you need to your website, so don't let your website fall short when it comes to the following essential features:

A Class or Event Calendar

If you have classes or events at your store, its easier than you think to have and manage a calendar on your website that all your customers can use. 1. Advanced Tracking of Your Traffic

Do you know how many people visited your site today? Do you know the search they placed in Google to find you? If you don't have tools in place to measure these kinds of details, they are free and can be implemented by anyone with just a little bit of web knowledge. 1. The Ability to Add/Remove/Change Content on the Fly

Some designers put their clients into the trap of needing to return to them for any small change. With today's modern web tools, no one should need to know how to edit code in order to be able to manage their website. If you're in this trap, a small investment in building a new WordPress site could save you thousands over the years. 1. Tools to Connect Your Site With Social Media

Your visitors should have the ability to connect with you on Facebook with a single click. If your website is lacking this simple feature, it may be time to upgrade your website. 1. Email Sign Up and Contact Forms

Content management systems like WordPress have tools that allow you to create forms without editing a single line of code. If you have a WordPress site, creating a new sign up form is as easy as creating an account on any website. 1. A Blog or RSS Feed

The main value of a blog is to continuously add content to your website so you'll be more and more likely to be found in search engines. They also give the opportunity for your customers to interact with your site and give a reason for visitors to come back. Although it doesn't need to be the main focus of your website, having a blog and posting regularly will give you more traffic and user interaction. 1. "Pretty" URLs

Look at the address in your browser when you view different pages on your website.They should look like this: www.mysite.com/contact or www.mysite.com/about-usThey should not look like this: www.mysite.com/?thisisthepage&pageid=987965876

Not only are URLs that are too long with special characters bad for your SEO, but they are also hard to remember, difficult to type, and don't look as clean and professional. This alone is a good reason to get a new website if you're not already running a site on WordPress. **** 1. Basic Search Engine "Friendliness"

If you're not a very web savvy person, this next part will not make that much sense. If you rely on a web designer for your website, ask them the following questions, the answer should be "yes" to all of the following questions in order for your site to start getting noticed in Google.

Does it have a robots.txt file set up?
- Does it have a sitemap.xml file?
- Has the sitemap been submitted to Google and Bing?
- Does every page have a Unique h1 tag?
- Does it have a meta title and description that tell what your site is about?
- Does your code validate and if not, has every fixable issue been taken care of?
- Does the address http://yoursite.com/ redirect to *http://**www.\*_yoursite.com/_ ?

Having all of these issues taken care of is a small but good start for any new or growing website.

How does your site match up with the eight features listed above? Is it time for an upgrade? Check out our pricing for small business websites, you'll be surprised how little a new amazing website will actually cost.