5 Top Tips for Designing a Small Business Website

Planning to launch a new website for your business? There’s a lot to con­sider when designing a small business website. Have you thought about how its design may affect vis­ib­ility on Google or how people per­ceive your business?

Gone are the days where a free Geocities or WordPress tem­plate could do the job for you.

The com­pet­ition is tighter now, with 71% of small busi­nesses already oper­ating a website of their own. Your site has to stand out amidst the sea of com­pet­itors. Get started the right way with these 5 top tips to create a good small business website:

1 On-Site SEO is a Must

First and foremost, make Search Engine Optimization a pri­ority for everything you do on your site. Whether it’s designing how the site looks to the content you post on the pages and blog, SEO should be a part of the design philosophy.

With that said, focus first on on-site SEO. This means working on a func­tional schema markup and optim­izing ele­ments like title tags and meta descrip­tions to help Google’s crawlers index every portion of your pages.

Most small busi­nesses should also focus more on local SEO to start with, rather than national SEO. It’s easier to gain traction in niche markets like local ser­vices. You can achieve even more with cost-effective digital mar­keting help from a local SEO expert.

2 Be Mobile-Friendly

Since Apple revealed the first iPhone back in 2007, accessing the Internet has never been the same. Now, over 52.2% of all web pages are served to mobile devices.

More people now browse the Internet on a phone than on a desktop com­puter. So, Google’s algorithms now pri­or­itize mobile-friendly sites.

This means your site should focus first on the mobile crowd. Maintain a responsive, mobile website design, pri­or­itize fast loading times, and ensure the design caters to the limited inter­action presented by touchscreens.

3 Have a Clear CTA

Always have a clear Call to Action (CTA) on your site. Make sure there’s a spot for people to sub­scribe, click to your social media handles, and easily find the tab to your Contact page.

Running an eco­m­merce site, with a gallery or bro­chure of items for sale? Make sure there are clear buttons to add those items to their shopping cart. Make sure people can access their cart at any time or alter the items they have in it.

4 Maintain an Updated Blog

Content is king. This remains true even in today’s fast-moving world. Google loves sites that stay fresh with new content, so having a blog is great for SEO, but the benefits don’t stop there. Others include:

• Short, time-sens­itive content is easier to write
• Customers can look forward to regular updates, so repeat visits are more likely
• The option to write content and set it to publish on a regular schedule

You can also use new blog posts to discuss the products or ser­vices you offer. This not only advertises your business but it also edu­cates your customers.

5 Invest in Design

“Design” isn’t all about looks. Whilst artists can create pretty stuff that can improve sales, no-one chooses which website to visit based on how good it looks. Professional web designers study best prac­tices like responsive design and con­version rate optim­isation, based on lots of stats they see across dozens of websites.

You wouldn’t expect an artist to be an architect. Don’t expect them to provide pro­fes­sional web design, either.

So, whilst it can work for non-com­mercial sites, but for busi­nesses, DIY web design has hidden costs. Customers can tell when you’re cutting costs by cutting corners, and it won’t impress them.

You don’t have to overdo things either, though. A full bespoke website design process involves wire­frames, mockups and many rounds of revision. Those things can be important for luxury brands and redesigns, but they can add weeks to design time. If you haven’t already got a live website though, it is better to launch a decent website sooner. Whilst a weak first site can still undermine your business, so can excessive per­fec­tionism. That’s why my affordable small business website design packages are built not just for looks, but for per­formance and flex­ib­ility, too.

Besides, web design isn’t print design. Print design doesn’t adapt to dif­ferent devices, can’t be fixed or improved after launch, and don’t provide much feedback. All web­sites need post-launch updates to stay com­pet­itive. They can also provide lots of ongoing stats to guide those optim­isa­tions and even help improve business models.

So, don’t under­value your own time, or imagine that DIY web design will let you create an effective business website in only a few hours. You’ll be up against com­pet­itors who pay pro­fes­sional designers and copy writers to spend many hours honing the details of each site.

Get More Tips to Design the Best Small Business Website!

With these 5 small business website design tips, your site can rise above the com­pet­ition. You can achieve more traffic, higher con­version rates, and better lead generation.

But why stop your online strategy there? Subscribe to this blog for more tips and tricks about web design, SEO and digital mar­keting. If you’re not sure where to start, let me help your small business site find success.