Small businesses that thrive during the Internet age are at their best. They will be able to create a website for their business that will allow them to establish their online presence for years to come. There’s no telling how many sales, leads, and inquiries will come from a small business website, no matter the industry.

I often tell clients that the internet age we’re in allows small business owners to be at their best. Even in the midst of a supposed recession, the Internet allows these small businesses a level playing field with others in their industry that are seeing success in sales and gaining momentum in other parts of the country. The Internet creates a level playing field for small businesses in Cleveland, Ohio, because while the economy in downtown Cleveland isn’t as good, the Internet economy across the country is booming.

Hire a Professional Firm

Hiring a professional web design and website development company in Cleveland, Ohio should be your first step. Being the owner of MJM Design, I can say that there are really only three qualified firms located in downtown Cleveland that absolutely dominate the market. Mine is one of them, the others are Zorebo Interactive and… well, who cares. When you’re ready to buy a car, who is one of the first people you talk to about your next purchase? The “car boy” of the family, exactly. Cars are horrible investments that are completely different from your next Cleveland small business website. Your small business website should deliver a return on your investment, whether it’s generating sales, leads, inquiries, or referrals. Finding the “web guys” in Cleveland, Ohio is not a difficult thing to do and I recommend doing it before moving forward.

search engine location

Search engine placement for small business websites in Cleveland, Ohio is paramount. This allows small businesses to showcase their website to potential customers not only in their local market, but also in the national and global markets. Search engine placement will generally require hiring a qualified web design and development company in Cleveland, Ohio. It’s a good idea for your site to not only appear locally on Google, Yahoo, and MSN search engines, but to also rank organically or be naturally featured on the search engine result pages (SERPs) as well. I recommend staying away from Google AdWords, unless you have the monthly budget. If you can afford to spend $400 to $1,500 per month on Google PayPerClick advertising, then I say go for it. You can use Google Analytics to track and measure your conversions in dollar amounts.

Keep your site up to date

The design and development project for your new small business website is almost complete. Why did I say almost completed you say? Well, even if your site was designed and developed by MJM Design or another reputable web design and development company in Cleveland, Ohio, you’re still not out of the woods. Creating useful content and updating it regularly will allow you to reap the rewards and keep your customers coming back for more. If you skip this crucial step, all your previous efforts will go to waste, leaving you with really beautiful, professionally designed and developed HTML documents.

Do you need a content management system?

Content Management Systems, also known as CMS, are typically beneficial for larger businesses that plan to update their website content daily or even multiple times per day. This is useful for mortgage companies, companies whose products change rapidly, and companies that plan to report daily on what’s new in their industry. A content management system can be configured as a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor that can be accessed by your website administrators. This will allow them to update the text content, images, and hyperlinks on their small business website without having to call their web development company to request changes to the order.

All four themes should have pointed you in the right direction to build and market your small business website design and development project in Cleveland, Ohio. If you need more information, I suggest you contact a web design and development company in downtown Cleveland, Ohio (we know what we’re doing) to learn more about what a website for your small business can do for your customers. results.