Small Business Design Resources

Professional Website Design: Is It Worth The Investment?

For a small business, every dollar counts. You think long and hard before you spend – and that’s the way it should be. But while there are certainly many unnecessary expenses that you should avoid, or cut from your budget, professional Web design is not one of them. Here are the reasons:

You Need A Strong Online Identity

As a long-term strategy, you want to separate yourself from the crowd and have your own online identity. You should have a unique logo, a unique website, and unique business cards. If you use do-it-yourself Web design templates, you may be saving money in the short term, but you are hurting your business’ chances of leaving an impression. Don’t let your business look just like thousands of other businesses. The right design can make the difference between a struggling business and a smashing hit.

Professional Web Design CAN Be Affordable

Many small business owners mistakenly assume that they simply cannot afford small business website design. But this is untrue. You should find a designer who specializes in Web design for small businesses because this type of designer will be more sensitive to your budget constraints than Web designers who typically work with corporations. In addition, you should realize that you can start with a very small website, which would cost considerably less – all you need are a few Web pages and a strong design. You can always add more pages and functions later, as your business grows and your budget expands.

Built-In Search Engine Optimization

I’ve seen countless websites that were built by their owners using a template and that are not optimized for search engines. This means that no one is going to find these websites! Typically, after a few months, they realize that they keep working on their website, adding content and tweaking the design, but it’s all worthless because their website does not appear in search engine results. A good Web designer will make sure that your site is optimized for search engines, and will also make sure that the design elements are light enough that the site loads fast – people on the Web are impatient with slow-loading sites. In fact, Google has recently announced that it now incorporates website load time as part of its ranking system.

Save Time, Save Money

Your time is worth money. The time you spend on fiddling with your website design could be spent doing something else – something more productive, something you know how to do such as growing your business. You may think that you are “saving” money by not hiring a professional to do your Web design. But are you really saving if it means long hours of working on your site design, hours that never translate into the visual image you have in mind, simply because you’re not a professional? In today’s complex world, it makes sense for each of us to do what we specialize in. For you it means growing your business, and letting design professionals take care of your website design.

The Wrong Website Can Kill Your Business

First impressions are important – I’m sure you’ll agree. And your website is the first impression that people get about your business. The wrong website design can essentially kill your business by driving your web visitors away, causing them to immediately bounce back and go directly to your competition.

Better make a good first impression! But how? Here are a few small business website design tips.

1. Avoid clutter. A cluttered website is confusing to users, who don’t know where to click or what to do and so they tend to click away. This could be good if your goal is to make money from ads on your site, because the path out of a site is often through clicking on an ad, but if your goal is to encourage your visitors to stay and browse, aim for a clean, simple design and make it easy for your visitors to navigate your site.

2. What is your website about? What do you offer? If a visitor can’t answer this question immediately, they will click away. Ask friends and family members to take an objective look at your website and to tell you if they can tell right away what it’s about.

3. Make it fast. A slow-loading website is painful for users. It’s one of the main reasons users give up on a site. Make sure your website doesn’t contain heavy elements that would slow it down, and use a third-party tool to test load time for your site. The fact that it loads fast for you doesn’t necessarily reflect other users’ experience.

4. Content IS king. Yes, this old cliché is true. Your website content needs to offer value to readers. It needs to be well written, free of typos and engaging. Even if your site loads fast and is clean and professional looking, users WILL bounce off if they discover that your content does not offer them any value.

5. Avoid anything that could be annoying or distracting to users, including flash, auto-loading sound or blinking text. Even if you’re trying to make people click on ads, remember that being assaulted by blinking, moving, loud ads will most likely cause people to close the page rather than click on those annoying ads. Ads actually work best if they blend into your content and offer value to your readers, just like your main content does.

6. Minimize clicking. Make navigating your site and getting to the important pages easy. If people have to click through 6 pages to get to what they were looking for, they will likely just abandon your site.

7. Make it readable. Even if your text is great, people won’t read it unless it’s easy to read. Make sure your font is large enough, web-friendly, and space your lines. It’s also important to keep your lines short and to avoid using dark text on a dark background, or light text on a light background.

8. Link correctly: include internal links whenever they’re relevant, so visitors can discover more parts of your site. Make sure internal links, unlike external links, open in the same browser window – users will resent having several browser windows open, all of them from your site. When you link to other sites, do make sure they open in a new window.

If you’re not sure how user friendly your site is, it’s always a good idea to ask friends and family members to take a look and give you an honest feedback. If you’re planning, or hoping to earn money from your site, using the services of a professional web designer is one of the most important investments you will ever make in your business.

Create a ‘Sticky’ Website: Make Visitors Stay Longer & Return Often

After putting time, energy, and money into your small business website, you’re eager to welcome visitors and show them around the place. You know some tips for attracting traffic, but how do you convince visitors to stick around and return often?

Content

• Catch the web browser’s eye with content that is interesting and unique. If visitors see something that piques their interest, they’ll stick around and check out what else your small business has to offer.
• Make regular updates so people have a reason to return. Provide links to new information from your homepage, or offer email updates–returning visitors will appreciate the ease of seeing what’s new.
• Ensure that the people who find your site are interested in your content by optimizing for the right keywords.

Design

• A professional-looking website inspires confidence in your product or services, encouraging people to trust your website’s content and consider browsing your site worth their time.
• Organize your content in a way that makes it easy to browse. Provide your visitors with a natural path through your website, so they continue moving and checking out new pages.
• Avoid Flash intros and other design choices that will make your website load slowly. People often have limited patience and will move on without waiting for your page to load.

Interactivity

• The Internet is growing increasingly social, and people appreciate websites that provide ways to interact. Comments, ratings, and polls all encourage users to become more invested in your site, and can also help you learn valuable information about their experience.
• Include internal links whenever they’re relevant, so visitors keep discovering new parts of your website. Avoid outbound links on your homepage–you don’t want to direct visitors away before they even have a chance to see your site–and have them open in new tabs or windows so your website stays open.

Keep these principles in mind, and you’ll find that your website visitors will stick around longer (a lower bounce rate) and return often, resulting in higher conversion rates and improved visitor response.

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