Every business needs a website. While the quality of those sites may vary, having one at all is a necessity for staying competitive in today's digital world. When it comes to design, functionality, and features, how do you make sure that your small business website stands out?
Here are five tips for making a great website for small businesses, from design to execution.
Attractive Design
Ever come upon a business's website and wonder if they are even still in business based solely on the design of their website? Sure you have. Having a website that is outdated and difficult to navigate sends the message of being unprofessional and hurts the credibility of the business.
User Experience
The next step after designing a great site is creating a great user experience —that is, ensuring that the site works well for the types of people who will be visiting it. It's important to keep in mind that not every person is going to be looking at your site with the same level of technical sophistication that you do. They might not understand all of the features or be familiar with how to use them, but they should still be able to get around the site and find what they're looking for quickly and easily. Responsive design is the best way to make this happen.
With more than half of all website traffic coming from mobile devices, responsive design ensures that your website looks great and is easy to use whether it’s being viewed on a big screen desktop or small screen phone. With the rise of social media platforms, we’re accustomed to using our phones for a quick google search to find the answer to anything we need - why wou
ld it be any different when viewing a company's website?
Clear Branding
At its heart, your brand is your story – the promise you make to your customers. It’s so much more than just a logo, your brand is a combination of both visual and emotional attributes that define your company and set it apart from the competition. A strong brand is built on consistency, credibility, and trust-building relationships with your audience - setting you apart as the industry leader along the way.
The best place to showcase your brand is on your website, where you have complete control of everything from typography (i.e. fonts used), colors, and even the tone of voice used.
Good Domain
The trick to having the right domain is keeping it simple. Your domain name should be easy to remember and affiliated as closely to your company’s name as possible.
A little side tip, as a small business, you need to make sure you have an SSL Certificate. This certificate ensures that all of your data is encrypted and secured from any hackers who might try to steal it. Moreover, it protects your customers when they are dealing with sensitive information on your website. They too can be vulnerable to cyber attacks, so an SSL certificate is essential for ensuring their protection as well as yours. To know if your site has been secured with an SSL certificate, look at the URL in the address bar at the top of the page. If it starts with ‘https’ then this means it is secure; otherwise not and you should get one ASAP!
Contact Page
You’ve designed the perfect website, but you can’t turn your website viewers into paying customers unless there is an easy way for them to navigate clearly and contact you easily. Creating a contact page makes getting in touch with you easy - because you would never want to make it difficult for a potential customer to get in touch with you.
So, what's next?
What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word "small business?" It's probably the same thing that comes to mind for most people—a small, single-location, unbranded company with a few employees.
But the reality is that a small business can be anything from a printing shop to a veterinary office to a jewelry store. A small business can be as big as your imagination or as small as your smartphone screen. And it doesn't have to look like any of those images you've seen in the media. In fact, it shouldn't!
When you're starting out, there are just a handful of things that need to be considered: your audience, your branding, and your website. But all of them are incredibly important if you want to establish yourself as an expert in your field and get the word out about what you do.
We all know this is true—but I know that many small businesses don't do it because they feel like they don't have time or don't know how to find someone who knows what they're doing. The truth is that finding someone who understands how to build a beautiful website for a small business is hard because there are just so many options and terms to understand. Fortunately, you don’t have to do it all alone. Our experienced team will work with your brand to create a custom, branded, mobile-responsive and easy-to-use website that is search engine optimized for customers to find you easily.