Many small businesses struggle to establish a web presence. A lack of resources or knowledge about web development often keeps small businesses offline.

For small, local businesses, a website can serve as digital storefront, proving to consumers that the company is reliable, trustworthy, and can provide them with the information necessary to purchase the product or service being offered. The Internet now serves as the core of marketing, combining all other forms of advertising including print, Internet Yellow Pages, mobile, search engine optimization (SEO), video, reputation management and e-mail/direct mail.

There is no excuse for businesses not to have a website these days. There are a variety of options for businesses to quickly and cheaply create their first website and utilize SEO to better promote their site.

The last thing a business needs is for an Internet user to type in the name and location of that business and not find a website. Today, any credible business is expected to have a website.

Once the website is built, it must be regularly updated with fresh content in order to be successful.

It is important to make sure that all content on the website is always accurate and up-to-date. This includes everything from store locations, contact information, types of payment accepted, store hours and detailed product, service and pricing descriptions.

The key to any successful venture is good customer service and the same applies to a business's online presence.

Whether it's a new customer with questions about products or services, or an existing customer who has a complaint or inquiry, it is important for a business website to have the tools available to easily assist those in need of help. These tools can include direct phone numbers, regularly monitored e-mail addresses and comment forms, as well as links to social networking pages. It is important that businesses respond to customers directly and as quickly as possible.

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Whatever a business's 2011 online marketing strategy is, the goal is probably to attract more people and convert them into new customers, new leads and new opportunities. However, most businesses will not achieve this goal if their website is turning people off, instead of turning them on.

One of the most common mistakes that small business websites make is the failure to include a clear conversion path for their customers. If businesses want customers to take a certain action, they need to create a funnel that will guide them. Simply stringing together a number of content pages won't necessarily do the trick.

A conversion path may be as simple as a solitary landing page paired with a call to action, or as complex as an entire microsite. Either way, a flow is necessary.

Creating a clear conversion path not only helps customers feel more comfortable, it gives business owners clear data to track user behavior. The more data that a business collects, the better it can find ways to attract new customers.

However, a small business website needs to first attract users.

If customers aren't interacting with a website at all, there are a few questions that a business needs to ask. Is the website accessible? Is it properly optimized? Is it easy for users and search engines to find the website's content?

Using the right keywords, linking properly and making sure that the site can be crawled by search engine spiders is a must for success.

Also, if a business wants to attract people, it has to give them more. A business must stand out from the crowd and its online presence should show visitors something that they will want to align themselves with.

Businesses should take a look at their website and the experience that is being created for visitors. Businesses must use their site to set themselves apart and talk to customers in their own language.

Copyright 2011 dzine it, inc. web design company All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Most small businesses have embraced the basics of digital marketing and recognize the importance of an on-line presence. However, most businesses put a lot of time and effort into their plan, but don't consider the sub-conscious questions and expectations of their customers.

Companies often focus on the design of their website, but don't consider the broad range of tools that are available for online marketing.

A website design, though it should be visually pleasing, is secondary to function. Having thousands of on-line 'hits' means nothing if the company is not receiving any inquiries about its product or service.

Small business owners must put themselves in their customers' shoes and test their website.

Small business owners should visit their website from the perspective of someone who doesn't know the company. This is the easiest way to find any problems or gaps. Most of the time, these problems can be corrected without hassle or high expense.

This is the perfect time for businesses to take advantage of new digital media which not only includes website marketing but also social networking. Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, all offer opportunities for businesses to create and expand network contacts.

The more people who know and trust a business, the more they will recommend that business. Plug in to social media, be authentic and show the business's personality and the rewards will follow.

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Some people prefer a website that is efficient, while others search for beauty in design. This is the core of the constant battle between search engine optimization (SEO) and design.

Most website designers take a minimalist stance when it comes to content, but for SEO experts, more content is the way to go. Meeting somewhere in the middle is one of the biggest challenges that developers face and is the best way to ensure a website's success

Nobody wants to look at a page full of text, but pretty pictures won't improve a website's search engine rank. This is where techniques like adding keywords in <alt> tags and captions become important. On the other hand, traffic doesn't mean anything if it doesn't lead to conversions.

There are very few website visitors that are willing to read a dissertation to understand a company's brand message. Of course, the target audience should be considered. Art galleries and photography studios may rely more heavily on graphics while technical sites will provide more opportunities for SEO optimization. Business owners must remember, however, that although pictures are said to be worth a thousand words, they may not be worth 1,000 visits.

Unique content is the best SEO strategy and the key to making successful content is promoting the common aim of combining good SEO practices with good design. This is the best way to create content that people want to use.

Churning out lots of content for the sake of a web presence and hoping that it generates something is a technique that is doomed to failure. Creating elegant, succinct content, geared toward the company's target audience, is the way to go.

Good SEO will lead traffic to a website, but if the site has terrible design, the effort will have been futile. On the other hand, a perfectly designed website is meaningless if nobody visits it.

SEO and design should support each other to create a successful website. The idea is to find a website design firm and SEO specialists that work toward a common goal, not wage a turf battle.

Ideally, finding both under one roof can eliminate the potential for this problem.

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The changes that a growing business faces can be difficult to manage. Whether a business is expanding operations or venturing down new avenues, such changes can often lead small business owners into situations where they suddenly have a rush of business, but no clear plan to handle that rush.

Planning the structure of a company's website and hosting package in advance of these changes can often help business owners to better cope.

For most business owners, a top priority is keeping efficiency up while keeping costs low. The best option is to select a shared hosting package with a reputable service provider.

Businesses should do an online search for various host providers, read customer reviews and investigate the types of products they have to offer.

Businesses should never select a free hosting package. Often such packages have limited customer service and support and do not allow customers to upgrade when needed.

A good hosting provider should have entry-level packages, as well as more advanced packages that a business can migrate to when necessary.

One of the most important aspects of a hosting package is customer support. A quick phone call to the support desk will quickly show how knowledgeable the support staff actually is. Start by asking them about the packages they offer.

One of the factors that should determine what type of hosting package a business chooses is the amount of data or bandwidth that the business requires. Starting out, the website will probably be quite small, unless the business is going straight to an ecommerce, platform.

Of course, businesses can always choose an all-in-one website design and development firm that offers its own hosting services. Chances are if the customer service is top-notch, its hosting support will follow suit.

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