Small Business Website Design Advice: 10 Tips

These days, every company, no matter how big or small, needs a professional website. However, for those who have never built their own website before, starting out may be quite intimidating. A website is one of the most essential components of a firm’s marketing strategy, allowing customers to trust you and turning away prospective consumers.

Building a small business website can be one of the most difficult tasks that small company owners face. A website designer’s primary objective is to build a site that can bring more relevant and valuable visitors to your business, as well as generate higher volumes leads and make the process of contacting you as easy and straightforward as possible.

Because in 2022 a company without a website is unimaginable, they are an integral part of any business’ marketing strategy, and are more often than not the first point of contact a potential customer has with your business.

The following 10 suggestions are aimed to help you develop an effective small business website to help sell your services and products.

1. It Should Be Free From Clutter

A small company’s website should be simple, free from clutter and interesting. A website which is too complicated with poorly laid out information might overwhelm the visitor. A clutter-free design also conveys a professional image. Allow your website to breathe and make your visitors’ experiences pleasant.

2. It should be simple for Google to find your website.

Small business websites that are uncluttered, well-written, have proper URLs, a sitemap, and relevant keywords will be indexed with ease by search engines like Google. Website design for small businesses should include at least basic SEO. Many website design companies don’t fully understand what SEO is, here at Evolution Media we specialise in building small business websites with solid SEO at their heart, our Director Andy Morley has been a professional SEO consultant since 2005, read more about Andy here – www.andymorley.co.uk.

3. IT Should Be Mobile Friendly

The majority of searches performed in Google are performed on a mobile device, it’s almost unheard-of not to have your small business website mobile-friendly in 2022. Especially after Google’s announcement of a mobile-first index back in 2019. Being mobile friendly simply means that your site will adapt it’s layout automatically when viewed on a mobile device. But merely having this does not guarantee that your website is accessible on all devices. You must ensure that your website provides an easy-to-use navigation structure, no matter the platform or device that it is being viewed on.

For a full in-depth explanation of how Evolution Media can help your business with a mobile friendly website please visit our mobile website design page.

4. Generate Leads

One of the most essential tasks of any small company’s website is to concentrate on generating relevant leads. People generally like to shop around before purchasing a product or service, but they are not necessarily ready to purchase immediately. Having a professional looking website which is easy to use will help to convert them into a lead, enquiry or sale.

5. Contact Details Should Be Easy to Find

This may seem like the most obvious thing to do, but website design companies occasionally overlook it. On your website, make sure your phone number and e-mail address are prominent. If possible, include them at the top and bottom of each page as well. Including a ‘CONTACT’ page will also ensure your potential customers can find your phone number and email address with ease. Including a contact form on this page is also recommended as they make contacting your business extremely easy.

6. Professional Brand Image

Avoid any superfluous items on your small business’s website and concentrate instead on giving it a professional appearance that matches with your brand. Use the colours from your company’s logo. If you want a more formal look, consider hiring Evolution Media to create a website for you. Make sure that all of the graphics and images you use are professionally taken, if you don’t have your own images stock images can be used. We would recommend looking at Big Stock Photo, they are much cheaper than other stock image companies and have a wide range of images available for any business sector.

7. Keep It Simple

Whether you’re creating your website on your own or hiring a small business website design company like Evolution Media, the aim should be to develop a website that reflects your brand and provides adequate information about your services and products. The first impression is crucial and it should entice your site visitors into contacting you or making a purchase.

Nothing can be more off-putting to a user than seeing a poorly designed website. Visitors want to go from A to B quickly and painlessly, without having to deal with visual or other impediments along the way. Making your site easy to use and simple to navigate will help them find the information they need quickly.

8. Effectively Showcase Your Services & Products

Small businesses with outdated websites may struggle to effectively display their products or services, especially if their site hasn’t been designed to be mobile friendly. Keep in mind that you only have seconds to impress a potential customer before they leave your site and return to the search engines. So make sure your website’s first impression is professional and your services and products are easy to find. The structure of your website is essential, so spend time planning this out before you begin building your website.

9. Fast Loading Sites

If a website takes too long to load, viewers become frustrated and are likely to leave, returning to the search engines, finding a competitor’s website instead. When building your site and planning the structure you should consider load speeds. In 2022 a site should aim to load its pages within a maximum of 3 seconds. There are many factors which can affect the time it takes for your pages to load, primarily these include the size and number of images used on your pages and also the technology used by the server hosting your website.

10. Well Written Content Based on Keywords

The last point to consider is whether or not your small business website’s content is relevant to what your potential customers are searching for online. In order for search engines to index your site, this is an essential factor. Planning your website content should be the first thing you do when building your site. Understanding what people are searching for before building pages is essential, it helps you to understand the different topics related to your sector that you need to cover.

If possible you should always perform keyword research before writing any content for your site. This will identify keywords which should be included within your pages, giving you a much better chance of attracting traffic from the search engines, increasing the chances that your website ranks well within the search results.

Conclusion:

A poorly designed small business website may have a detrimental effect on your company. You might not only fall behind the competition, but you could also miss out on potential connections and interactions with customers if you don’t have a well planned and well built website. Customers want to know and understand more about your products and services before making a purchase or enquiry. Your content should be planned to be easy to read and be focused around what your customers are actually searching for online. Your site should be mobile friendly as the majority of searches are done on mobile devices, because of this your site needs to be quick to load. If you’re not sure where to start or how to improve your small business website design, contact Evolution Media today.

If you would like any further advice related to website design and digital marketing please read our other blog posts. Alternatively if you would like a professional design agency to take care of building your company website then please contact us today.