Small business owners may not have the resources to invest heavily in their web presence and finding solutions to problems can be like finding a needle in a haystack. You know something’s wrong but don’t have the faintest idea how to fix it. Is it a technical issue? Are your ads not performing well? Don’t know what kind of traffic you’re getting? You maybe should keep reading if you want how to improve your website.

1) The first problem that most run into with their business online, is generating traffic. Just because you spent a good amount of money and the site looks really good doesnt mean that anyone knows how to find it.

Announce it to the world by submitting it to reputable directories and sharing your useful content with others on social bookmarking sites. You can even do some link exchanges just to get your site crawled early on.

You need to start by building quality content, and generate incoming links from other sites to help maximize your efforts. After you have completed this you will need to monitor progress through web analytics software. This will allow you to analyze your traffic to and from your site.

2) Setting up your site for failure can sometimes be a bit easier, then setting it up for success. I say that because most sites that are generated today for most businesses already have someone, somewhere, out there doing it already. So if the content on your site, and the product you provide, doesn’t set you apart from your top competitors then you are setting yourself up for failure.

Take the time to beef up your content. Be innovative – don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Use the top competitor in your field as a measuring stick.

Then of course you have to remember to have some sort of “call to action.” This is where you make the potential prospect make a decision. However, make them decide whether or not to purchase the product or sign up for a newsletter. If you only get the latter, at least you can still have contact with them. Just make sure you’re not confusing the visitor on where to go next or they’ll end up on someone else’s site.

Use your web analytics software again to find out what pages visitors are landing on first. If your home page gets the most traffic, make sure there are clear links to your sub-topics. If inner pages are your most popular landing pages, find out if the traffic is targeted.

The bottom line is to always make clear why, and how, visitors can buy your product. Don’t get too cute with multiple steps, options or convoluted language.

4) You have generated traffic but have no sales. This is a good thing up front, because you cant have sales without traffic, and since you have traffic now you need to figure out how to be unique. Before taking the steps needed to be unique make sure that the traffic you are generating is relevant. Learning how to analyze your site with where, when, and how long people visit your website is key to helping you generate sales. So make sure you find out what keywords they are searching, and what content they are viewing.

5. You’re getting relevant traffic but no sales. This problem could signal a technical error or navigation problem with your site. Make sure you thoroughly test all functionalities on various web browsers and systems. Submit test forms. Do a link check to spot possible broken links.

Making sure you have relevant traffic, a unique product, and making your site user friendly are just a few ways to set yourself up for success. Moving away from the web site problems, make sure you also investigate any part of the sales process taking part away from the website as well.