A well-designed website is one of the best ways to market your small business and get found by customers who are searching for your products or services.

10 Great Design Tips for Your Small Business Website 1 10 Website Design Tips for Your Small Business

These days, more and more people are starting their own home-based service businesses. There are so many things you can do from your home, there’s really no need to pay for office space. But you still need to come up with ways to get your business noticed.

One of the best ways to do this is with a business website. In fact, if you do not have a website for your small business, you are going to lose a lot of business to competitors that do have sites. Here are 10 tips that will help you to create the perfect website for your small business. 

  1. Keep it Simple
    No one wants to wade through stuff they aren’t interested in to get to the stuff they want. Potential customers are looking for certain information, and if they can’t find it right away, they will move on. Keep things simple, and make it easy to find your products and services.
  2. Prioritize Navigation Links
    You don’t need to have a complete index of your website in the menu bar. Keep the main links intuitive, easy to find and use.
  3. Important Content at the Top
    No one wants to scroll to the bottom of a long homepage. Make sure your most important information can be found at or near the top, or above the “fold,” which is anything that can be seen on the page before you start scrolling.
  4. Add Calls to Action
    “If you have a special offer, idea, or something that you really want your customers to see, include calls to action (CTA). This gets them to click on the link, which in turn gives you their contact information. It should be very visible without being overwhelming,” advised Dima Midon, an expert from TrafficBox.
  5. No Clutter
    Don’t be a Homer Simpson and just stick a bunch of things on your site because they look cool. If there is too much going on, it is going to overwhelm potential customers, and they will move on to competitors who have straightforward websites.
  6. Use SEO
    In order to be found and listed by major search engines like Google, your website should follow basic tactics for search engine optimization (SEO). Also, your site should have content that is clear, a sitemap, and keywords that will get you noticed on search engines. Use SEO-friendly content-management software to create and maintain your site.
  7. Be Mobile Friendly
    Sadly, many people create great websites, only to find out that they aren’t so great for mobile devices. You need to create a website that automatically adapts for mobile devices, and make sure that it looks good and works properly on potential customers’ smartphones.
  8. Use Professional Branding
    You need to create a website that has a professional appearance. Colors should match your business logo, and other aspects should remain consistent with your brand. You may want to hire a web design company to make your site look more professional.
  9. Make it Load Fast
    No one wants to sit around waiting for a page to load. You need a website that is not only easy to use, but also fast. You will need the right server infrastructure and bandwidth to support a fast site, and avoid using a lot of graphics that use a lot of loading time.
  10. Provide Valuable Content
    Finally, you need to make sure that you add valuable content to your website. The content should be relevant to your business, and be of interest to potential customers. The better your content, the easier it is to be found on search engines.