5 Must-Haves For Every Small Business Website

I’ve put together a list of 5 must-haves that every small business website needs to include. Whether you’re building a website yourself, or have a web designer to do it for you, work through this check list and you won’t go far wrong.

1. Contact details.

OK, it might seem a bit obvious this one, but you’d be surprised how many people forget to add their contact details. Not only must you have your contact details – at a minimum your address, phone number and email address – but you must make those details easy to find. Don’t hide them away in the footer. Make the ‘contact us’ page one of the most obvious ones. Because having a website boils down to just one thing – making more sales. And if your website visitors have a hard time getting in touch, then they’re not going to be able to start buying from you.

2. Map

A bit less obvious, but a must-have which can make a real difference to the number of leads your website generates. The nature of the internet is anonymous – we’re all dealing with companies and individuals through a computer screen. And because of this, the Internet is a scammer’s paradise – it only takes a few minutes to build a website and pretend to be a company. So having a map of where you are adds a real reassurance to your website visitors. It turns a virtual interaction into something more solid, and gives your website visitors the peace of mind that you’re real people living in the real world

3. A Lead capture form

This is the next step on from adding your contact details. Many website visitors want to know more about your products and services, but are disinclined to give you a call or drop you a line. But they’re quite happy for you to get in touch with them. And in order to make that possible, you need a lead capture form. Think of this as a sales assistant approaching a shopper, rather than a shopper going out of their way to approach a sales assistant. A lead capture form allows your website visitors to leave their details and express an interest in you, without going the whole hog of picking up the phone. And since many people surf the web out of office hours, the chances are that the time that they’re actually on your website is a time when you don’t have anyone to answer the phone. Having a lead capture form allows you to give them more information when it’s convenient for you, and lets them express and interest when there’s no-one around to talk to.

4. Photos of you and your staff

This is another great way of reassuring your customers about who they’re dealing with. In the same way that having a map gives your web visitors the confidence that you exist, having your photos on the website creates a personal connection between them and you. It’s so much harder to turn away from a face than a computer screen. Having a photo kick-starts a personal relationship with your website visitors, and makes it much more likely that the visitor will then get in touch. And the added advantage is that not many websites include personal photos, so get this right and your site will start to get head and shoulders over the faceless ones around it.

5. Newsletter Sign up

This option is a good opportunity to warm up future customers. Many people surfing the web for products and services will be in a ‘research’ phase of the buying cycle. They’re not ready to get in touch or start buying just yet, but are still interested in finding out more information. So having a newsletter allows you to start to interact with them before they’re ready to buy. They get the opportunity to ‘taste’ your service and personality, without having to commit to buying from you. You can start having a conversation with them, so that when they do decide to buy that relationship already exists. And as anyone running a successful weekly or monthly newsletter will tell you, it can be the biggest source of new leads for your website. So add a newsletter sign up form, and start emailing news about your company and industry to those signing up, and the customers will surely come.

Small business network storage has progressed from simple peer to peer filesharing with all of its drawbacks through the phase of expensive Intel hardware and complicated Microsoft licensing back to the more realistic SMB NAS device.

The simple truth is, why should you buy more than you need or settle for less than what works?

If you have a complicated Microsoft server in place now and need to keep it, that does not mean you need to spend many thousands of dollars for another expensive box with expensive licenses just because you need more storage or an iSCSI target.

Or, if you are in the situation that my of my clients are in and have an aging Microsoft Small Business server that needs replacing does not mean you need to spend all that money on something similar when there are now other alternatives available.

SMB NAS devices are so flexible that they can either completely replace many Microsoft systems or work in tandem with them.

In the past, many businesses wanted Small Business Server just so they could have Microsoft Exchange with calendar sharing and email. But now, so many are instead opting for a web based or “cloud” solution that they no longer require or want to maintain such a complicated and costly system.

Buy only what you need. Keep the extra money to add to your profits instead of Microsoft’s.

Most SMB NAS devices require very little maintenance or updating, unlike the typical Microsoft Server solution requiring monthly updates at a minimum to maintain security.

So how do you buy the right SMB NAS device for your small business network storage needs?

Start by choosing a device that is designed for business usage. Often I will see a business owner try to save some money by purchasing a home unit or prosumer NAS device that is not intended for consistent high demand access by many users.

If you already have an equipment rack, or have a jumbled mess of network electronics and should perhaps consider an equipment rack, then it makes perfect sense to be looking into rackmount NAS devices. Rackmount NAS units will certainly be built for business usage.

Desktop NAS units will come with either 4 or 6 drive bays, which certainly should be hot swapable. If you think you will need more drive bays than that, then look toward rackmount NAS which usually offer up to 12 drive bays.

If server virtualization is currently being used or you feel it is in your future, then make sure that the NAS device supports the virtualization platform you either use or expect to use. Not all SMB NAS devices fully support iSCSI targets or do so without monopolizing the data volume.

Certainly choose a model that offers gigabit networking, settle for nothing less. Often you will find dual gigabit ports on good small business network storage servers. It does not require that you buy high end products just to get the feature of NIC teaming and failover which can be nice additions.

When you plan for data volume sizing to determine quantity and size of NAS hard drives, determine first which NAS RAID level protection you will be choosing.

In fact, if you want to take advantage of the highly desirable RAID6 with dual redundancy, that decision could push you from a 4 drive unit into a 6 drive unit in the case of Netgear ReadyNAS devices which only offer that feature on 6 drive units and above.

For a full explanation of how these factors affect the SMB NAS buying decision process further, come to the small business network storage section of our website and blog where we explain these topics if further detail.

Find SMB NAS device reviews, comparisons and tips at http://NetworkStorageTips.com.