The typical small business can do well with relative simplicity in their web design– if they can be found on the web. The purpose of a website for most small business owners revolves around the idea– and the hope, that potential customers will find their products and services on the web and purchase from them.

This means that web design isn’t nearly as important as web exposure. Not only that, but overreaching web design, especially the very crowded arena of Orange County web design, can actually work against the small business owner’s effort to be discovered on the internet by customers. A great looking website that is not oriented toward acquiring new business is about as useful as a Van Gogh on a street corner.

Web optimization is what is important. It’s a mix of formula and art. The formula is straightforward: Analyze, Optimize, Develop and Promote in the words of foremost SEO expert, Steve Wiideman (just type SEO expert into Google- he’s number one). The art is in determining during the analyze phase, just what your potential customers are typing into search engines as they’re trying to solve a problem. Sometimes this is not necessarily the words that describe your product, but rather, the words that describe their problem.

Example: A person is trying to figure out how to build a garden shed to hold his tools. He knows the materials are potentially expensive and he may not have all the tools he needs for the job. He may then type something like “tools for building sheds” into Google, still knowing he may or may not do it himself. A local business has determined that a high percentage of their customers come from the ranks of those who considered doing it themselves first but then decided they’d rather purchase a ready-made installed shed. This business then optimized their “Ready-Made” brand sheds website toward do-it-yourself types with keyword optimization for phrases that are tied down to specific article titles like “Anaheim Shed Building Supplies and Tools Too Costly? Our Ready-Made® Sheds Cost Far Less!” While that is a narrow range of searches, it will catch the eye of everyone who is looking for information on proper tools and supplies for building a shed, especially if they are looking for suppliers in Anaheim, but who may actually be making a decision about whether to build or buy.

Result: The 5 or 10 percent of web searchers on the topic of sheds that find this article are exactly the segment of consumers who are poised to purchase right now.

My specialty is providing this kind of optimization for your small business website in Orange County and elsewhere so that your website design is a design on maximizing profit.

Dave Keys

Orange County Web Design, small business