12 Website Design Tips for Small Businesses

If you’re running a small business, you’re probably pretty busy. You’re managing a team of employees, generating leads, balancing the books, or simply doing whatever it is that you do best.

Maybe you’re a plumber. Or a piano teacher. Maybe you run a boutique or a roller skating rink. Whatever it is that you do, you know your field of expertise, and website design is not it.

But you have to hire someone to design your site, right? How can you make smart decisions about your website design if you’re not an expert in websites or design?

If you’re a small business owner, it pays to learn a little about the inner workings of the web. If you understand a few basics about website design and online marketing, it will be much easier for you to choose a website designer and work with your designer to build a site that will achieve your business objectives.

Website Design Tips

This guide provides website design tips for small businesses that need to establish a web presence and launch an online marketing campaign but have no background in online marketing or website design. Always remember this: Your website should be designed to further the progress of all these aspects of your business:

1. Define your business

When you started your business, did you write a business plan? If you did, then you have already defined your business. But many people who are self-employed have never bothered to write a business plan because they never required a loan or any type of financing. They just hung up their sign and started selling their wares. Here are a few points you need to clarify before getting a website:

• Company Mission – What is your primary purpose?
• Business Philosophy – What is your business approach?
• History – What are your credentials and how did you get started in this business?
• Products and Services – What are you selling?
• Features and Benefits – How do your offerings improve customers’ lives?
• Customers – Who are your customers?
• Image and Branding – What image do you want to project and what tone do you want to convey?

A website designer can use this information to create a site that accurately reflects your business. Some of this information will be used directly, but mostly it will inform the sensibility that your site conveys. All of it’s helpful — for you, your website designer, and any other web content services provider that you work with.

2. Build Your Brand

A website is really an extension of your brand, especially when we’re talking specifically about website design. Your brand is your image, the tone and flavor of your business. It has a distinct attitude and a message. It’s memorable and catchy. Think about the GE light bulb and the slogan “We bring good things to life” or the Apple brand, which communicates a tone of elegant but functional simplicity and minimalism. You need to define your business personality for a website to be truly effective.

3. Develop an Online Marketing Strategy

Once you finish building your website, what are you going to do with it? You’d be surprised how many abandoned websites are collecting dust all over the Internet. People keep paying their annual domain registration and hosting fees, but their websites have zero visitors on any given day. Why even bother? The goal of your website is to attract traffic and then convert that traffic into paying customers. How are you going to get people to come to your site? That is the question that all good online marketing strategies answer.

4. Create a Content Development Plan

Let’s face it — getting your first website is cool. It’s super cool. Even your second and third websites are exciting. Each redesign is an opportunity to make your business stand out. I myself have been seduced by the awesomeness that is slick website design. The first few websites I designed had absolutely no written content. But I was just trying to learn how to make a website. I didn’t have a business back then.

Every website needs a comprehensive content development plan. On more than one occasion, I’ve been hired to write website copy for a client only to find out that the site design was already commissioned and imposed strict limitations on the copy. “We need a 50-word blurb here, and about 250 words there, a ten-line something or other across the top.” That’s all fine when design is your priority, but as you delve deeper into the project, there are pages where 250 words may not be enough (like on a terms and conditions page).

The written content and the design must work together toward a common purpose: to market your business. All the fancy schmancy designing in the world is meaningless if it can’t hold the message that you want to share.

5. Identify Your Web Content Needs

Speaking of web content development, who’s going to be providing the website copywriting for your site? Have you thought about hiring an online marketing expert to help you draw traffic? Do you have time to manage the site and track its performance or will you be hiring that out as well? Lots of small business owners do nothing more than hire a website designer and then forget about the rest, creating a wide gap between their business’s online performance and potential. If you thought this through while you were writing your business and marketing plans, then great. You’re golden. If not, then now is the time to think beyond the design.

6. Establish Your Budget

You can spend a few dollars on a website or you can spend thousands of dollars. And everything in between. Spend some time researching website designers. Get a few quotes, and then set a realistic budget. Don’t be so cheap that you end up with an amateurish website, but don’t get too extravagant either. If you’re a small business just starting out or trying to grow into your next phase, know that you can find excellent website designers who offer affordable rates and turnkey solutions. You might not be able to get all the bells and whistles, but you should be able to get a solid, functional, and aesthetic design. And remember, you can always rehire your website designer later to make changes.

7. Find the Right Website Designer

If you’re going to hire a website designer, make sure you look at their portfolio before you sign the quote or issue your deposit. Design can be highly stylistic, and if your designer’s style doesn’t align with the style you want for your business, then the project is doomed. This is especially true if your design project will include creating a logo or any kind of illustration. The more complex and involved the design, the more essential it is that you find a designer whose work you like.

8. Understand Your Web Designer’s Services

Website designers often offer services exclusively in design. Website design is a specialty, not an all-inclusive online marketing service. Do you need written content or help with online marketing? Your website designer may offer these complementary services or may be able to refer you to other service providers. You might luck out and find yourself at a one-stop shop that provides the whole kit and caboodle. But do understand that website design is just one of the many services you may need to launch your site.

9. Let The Designer Do The Designing

There’s nothing wrong with injecting a little personality into your site, but overrunning your business site with photos of your pets, your kids, and your car is both unprofessional and distracting. Sure, it’s acceptable to mention a few of your hobbies. Use a family photo in your bio. Customers like knowing there are real people behind a small business. But remember that your website is not the place to hawk your coin collection (unless your business is a coin agency). The same goes for color schemes and other design elements. Florescent pink and lime green may look hip to you, but that doesn’t mean they are ideal colors for your law firm’s website (although there are always exceptions!). When in doubt, consult your designer, and trust their professional opinion since that’s exactly why you hired them in the first place.

10. Promote and Market Your Site

Once your site is done, you’re ready to start promoting it. Make sure you add your website URL to your business cards and other stationary. Add a signature to the bottom of your email with a link to your site. Put links in your social media profiles. Start publishing a newsletter or a blog. Purchase ad space on relevant sites. And launch a full-blown online marketing campaign to start driving targeted traffic to your website.

11. Track Your Website Performance

Once your site is live and your marketing campaign is underway, you should start actively monitoring your website performance. This can be done weekly, monthly, or even quarterly. Website performance reports will tell you whether your site is doing its job well. How many visitors are coming to your site? Where are they coming from? How long are they staying? Are they taking the desired actions? These are just a few of the questions that a website performance report will answer.

12. Perform Regular Website Maintenance

A website is like a car. It needs regular maintenance. Some websites run on a content management system, and when the software updates, so must your website. Browsers also get updated, providing new functionality and sometimes rendering old designs obsolete. Try to keep your site fresh and all software current. This is especially true for sites with a lot of written content. Check regularly to make sure the text on your site is still valid and current.

Summary

These days, a website is essential for any small business that wants to make its products and services accessible and available to more customers. So take your time and take these website design tips to heart. With proper planning, your website will be a smart investment that promotes and grows your business.

Find out how Scribizzy can help you build a more effective website by visiting our services page, or if you know exactly what you need, go ahead and get a quote online.

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