Small business website development is the real key to the success of small and medium business enterprises that crowd the web world today. The companies do not have the resources to go in for sophisticated, high-end, fully software-loaded websites that big Corporates and business conglomerates indulge in usually. SMEs have to confine their websites within the frameworks of their budget and objectives. There is no money to splurge on fancy websites. Here the purpose of the website is to declare a web presence and also to promote the marketing activities of the companies, utilizing the potential of the internet world. Customer friendliness is the watchword here. Small business website has to increasingly depend on Customer service which is increasingly seen as one of the most valuable uses for a business website. The website should be available on a 24 hour, seven days a week basis.
The basic rule for small business website is that every page of the website should be written from the visitor’s point of view and not from that of the web promoter. The ten fundamental rules for effective small business website development are:
1. Always Be accessible. Show very clearly on your site all the ways that your customer can contact you – including e-mail, phone and fax numbers, and your office hours.
2. Return every e-mail or phone call in the same day, as far as reasonably possible. This may sound simplistic, but a recent experiment with the top Fortune 100 companies showed that nearly a third failed to respond to e-mail sent through their website within one month!
3. Acknowledge all orders. Send e-mail confirmations (this can be done very effectively with autoresponders), and if you’re shipping actual products, give tracking numbers and expected delivery dates. » Read more: A Write Up on Website Development for Small Business