Whether you’re a journalist, manage a dollar store, or run any other form of small business, having a well-designed website is essential to your success. Having worked on thousands of small business websites, we know what it takes to make them great and interesting for people. When starting a new website or improving an existing one, these steps will help you get started and design your small business website more competitive in the online marketplace.
Tips to design a great small business website
90% of visitors prefer websites that are easy to navigate. Many small business websites lack a well-designed navigation bar, even though this may seem obvious.
To create a user-friendly nav bar, follow these steps.
- Besides the home page, there should be a navigation bar on all of the other pages as well. It’s also possible to keep the navigation bar at the top of the page while a user scrolls down. This is also referred to as a sticky navigation bar.
- The navigation bar should allow visitors to access all of your website’s most significant pages. If you have a lot of pages on your site, you can use drop downs to keep them all in order.
- When a user clicks on your company logo in the menu bar, they should be taken to your homepage. The top-left corner is where you’ll generally see the logo.
Business-friendly design
When designing a website for a small business, it’s important to think about who will be visiting it. For example, the site of a local dentist will seem very different from the site of a local grocery shop.
Most of the time, it’s best to focus on enhancing the customer experience rather than cluttering things up with flashy graphics. Your viewers will be distracted, and your site may slow down if you have too many design components. To be on the safe side, avoid agencies that use the same design for all of their projects.
There are some things you must have on your website if you wish to sell things online: There is a lot of competition in the online industry. Even if your business is small, you cannot stand to ignore eCommerce guidelines and standards if you wish to convert visitors into repeat consumers.
Easily accessible contact information
A surprising number of small company websites fail to offer visitors clear information on how to get in touch with the business they’re visiting. To be comprehensive, contact information should include the following:
- The name of your company
- The physical location of your business (s)
- Contact number (s)
In addition to these three, you should include your email and social media pages on your website. Having this data not only lets your customers get in touch with you quickly but also helps them see that you’re a real business.
Display a detailed description of your business clearly
As a small business owner, you need to make it clear to visitors what you do and who you are as soon as they arrive at your website. Along with a visual representation of your services, provide an introductory text snippet at the top of the page that defines who you are and what you do.
Additionally, ensure that both your primary and secondary navigation menus include easily accessible “About Us” page links so that visitors can learn more about your company in detail.
Choose the best content management system
A content management system (CMS) is a software system or application used to create and manage online content. Most content management systems (CMS) require little to no technical expertise on your part, which makes them ideal for beginners.
WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world. Many useful themes and plugins are available to enhance the functionality of your website. WordPress is available for free and can be set up in a matter of minutes.
The theme determines the look and feels of the website, and thankfully with WordPress, there are thousands of themes available. A responsive design will look great on any platform, including desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets, so be sure to keep that in mind while making your selection. A good theme will take care of all the above steps.
Conclusion
As you can see from this post, designing an effective small business website is not as straightforward as you initially thought. However, if you utilize the tips highlighted in the article, your small business will stand a good chance of success in the digital economy.
