This Week in The Biz Bite, Entrepreneur Coach Whitney Keyes lists her Top 10 Small Business Technology Resolutions. Three of them especially caught my eye. I believe that these are major things every business should do all year long every year! Here’s an excerpt:

10. Work the Web. Ask yourself if your website (you do have a website, right?) still fits the needs of your business. Is it time to upgrade to an e-commerce solution so you can sell your products or services online?

I agree. I suggest getting a professional competitive analysis to see how your website stacks up to your competition. You will then get personalized recommendations for the most cost effective ways to expand your online presence and increase your website ROI.

7. The Search is On. Do you know what SEO is? Search engine optimization improves your rank on sites like Google and Yahoo! A few keywords can catapult your ranking in only a few months.

I continue to see small business websites that have not yet tapped into this opportunity. Step out into the search engine spotlight by investing in SEO. Consult with an SEO specialist to determine how you define your organization/products and how to capitalize on your strengths while  attracting new customers.

6. Be Smart and Social. Do some social media due diligence to find out if your industry cares about tweets, friends or followers before you invest valuable resources in social media.

Have your web designer do research on the viability and potential for social media. Do a test run to see the results. Be bold, think outside the box, and you might just be surprised!

In addition to Ms. Keyes recommendations, I also strongly suggest that small businesses put in place a regular web analytics schedule. This will enable you to see how well or poorly your website is performing monthly or quarterly. Then your web designer will suggest simple, practical improvements to increase the effectiveness of your site.

When developing or re-designing a website, many small business owners wonder if they should install a content management system (CMS). A CMS is a tool designed to help non-web designers create, edit and manage website content (like articles, videos, images, etc) more easily.

To give you an example, ever heard of Wordpress? Wordpress allows you to select the look of your blog, write blog posts for the world to see, accept or reject comments, categorize your posts, and more. All without any knowledge of web development or design. Get the “techy” definition of a CMS here.

Wordpress is an example of a Content Management System for blogs.

Reasons why you might need a Content Management System:

• You plan to update your site very often (like every week or every day)
• A non-web designer will be doing the updates to your site
• You need to make updates from a place other that your office
• You sell many items
• You have a blog
• You need to make changes or publish things sitewide quickly

Before Choosing a CMS, You May Want to Look For:

• Seach engine friendly URLs (not reallly long strings of gobbledy-gook text)
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
  • are there specific tags describing each page, product, heading, image, etc
  • is the page code minimal and not a jumbled mess (check with your web developer)
• Ease of use (for your staff and your customers)
• Speed (some load more slowly than others)
• Marketing/advertising options (if needed)
• Multiple payment options (if needed)
• Accessibility (can people with physical disabilities retrieve your information easily, for example using a screen reader)

You should research and try out several Content Management Systems online before you install.

How much will it cost? Prices vary, and some are available for free. You will probably need to enlist the help of a web developer or designer to decide which CMS is right for you. He or she will be able  to install and configure your CMS for you, and can train you to use the software to manage your website on your own.

Does your company use a content management system? Leave a comment and tell us which one you use and why. Does it meet all your needs and function well?

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