Top 12 Website Design Tips for Small Business Websites

Building a business website does not guarantee increased sales. Worse, if the website isn't well-designed, it may drive customers away. Here are the top 12 small business website design tips to help you turn your website into a powerful marketing tool.

Business websites are, without a doubt, vital for today's small enterprises. The Internet is the first place a consumer goes when they are ready to buy a product or service or need information to assist them in deciding what to buy. And, if they meet someone through networking or social media, they're more inclined to check out the company's website before buying.

The impression that the website makes – or the lack thereof – impacts how consumers and prospects perceive the company. A website that is appealing to the eye and simple to navigate helps build a sense of professionalism and trust. A website that doesn't do those things or a website that doesn't exist can turn away potential customers.

Let's discuss the small business website design tips:

What does it take to turn your small business website into a marketing powerhouse? There are other elements to consider, but the following list illustrates some of the most important tactics and best practices for designing effective websites.

1. Use a unique title tag for your web page

Every web page has a title bar in the Windows style. What you put in the title "tag" in the HTML code for the page determines the title that displays in the title bar, and it's vital for SEO (search engine optimization). You or your website designer may be tempted to make your company's name the page's title, or at the very least to put your company's name first in the title. After all, even if it's just on the Internet, it's good to see your name in "lights." even if it is just on the web.

However, this is a bad idea. Search engines highly value the words in the title bar. The more closely your title bar text matches the term a web surfer is looking for, the more likely your site will appear when that text is typed into a search engine. Please don't include your company name at the start of the title bar on your home page or other pages on the site unless it's well-known or includes a descriptive term (also known as a keyword or key phrase) that people search for. Use it at the end of the title bar instead. Also, make sure that each page on your website has a unique title tag. Each title tag on a page should be representative of the content on that page.

2. Make sure your website is well-designed

Take a hard, cold look at your site, or get the help of a friend or a professional company who will be brutally honest. Does it appear to be professional? Are the visuals of good quality and legible? Is the color palette on your website appealing and acceptable for the content? Is the use of fonts, font sizes, and font colors consistent? Or does your site have design problems like these that immediately identify it as a low-budget effort:

• Photos that have been squished or stretched beyond their natural proportions
• Multiple blinking, bouncing, scrolling, or turning in circles objects on the page
• Headlines and body text are written in a variety of font styles.
• Background images or textures with colors or textures that make it difficult to read the type Background visuals that are out of place with the site's content
• Alignment issues with text blocks
• First impressions are necessary on the Internet, just as they are everywhere else. And your website's first impression should be one of professionalism and relevance to the markets you serve.

3. Don't make your homepage just an image or an out-of-date Flash presentation

The text on your pages is fed to search engines. Although photos are vital for attracting a visitor's eye and may appear in image search results, the page must include enough text for visitors and search engines to understand what the page is about. Although image "alt tags" (language in the website coding that describes the image) are helpful, they do not replace the necessity for relevant text. Most web browsers no longer support Flash; therefore, if your site is old and has a flash presentation, it may be blocked, preventing users from accessing it at all.

4. Make your home page and product pages about your customers, not about you

Focus the home page and product pages on your customer's interests, not yours. Don't run a lengthy description of your business accomplishments on your home page with a big photo of yourself, your building, and your employees. Instead, focus on what you're doing to help your customers.

Use benefit-oriented headlines and language to capture visitors' attention and interest. What you do that will suit their wants should be apparent in the headline and subheads. "Fast, Accurate Medical Transcription," for example, or "Phone systems that scale with your organization."

However, don't toss out the corporate information. It does belong on your website, just not on the front page. Once you've piqued the customer's attention, they may want to learn more about your firm before deciding whether or not to do business with you. If the goal of your website is to sell your products or services, make the company information a menu link or tab on the home page rather than the main focus.

5. Customers and prospects should be invited to join an email list

Just because someone visited your website once doesn't ensure they'll remember it or come back to it. Ask clients and prospects for their email addresses so you can stay in touch with them. This will help them remember you and your website. Offer them something valuable as an incentive to join your email lists, such as a free monthly newsletter, a special report, coupons, or information about new items. Because email marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing tactics for small businesses, you should do everything you can to increase the number of individuals who subscribe to your email list.

6. Avoid a congested appearance

You want to be able to find all of your products if you sell a variety of them. If you're being charged by the amount of "pages" on your website, you might want to cut expenditures. However, don't try to cram hundreds of photographs or product descriptions onto one page. The page will appear cluttered, making it harder for visitors to locate the products or information they are looking for. Instead, on the home page, provide short photographs of a handful of your best-selling or most representative products, as well as links to other products in your catalog. Divide the connections into logical groups.

7. Reduce the size of your graphics to ensure that your site load quickly

Photos and other visual pictures add attractiveness to your site while also illustrating what you sell. As a result, they must be included. However, if you have a large image or many images on a page, it may take a long time for the page to load (i.e., become visible) to visitors.

Format (change the size of) your images to match the size of the content holder (space permitted) in the page template you're using in your content management system to avoid pages loading too slowly. If you're unsure, consult your web developer or browse through the support files for a DIY website builder.

To avoid an image looking distorted, make sure the size is proportional. Any image you upload to your website should have a file size of less than 70 KB. Smaller file sizes load more quickly on larger websites. Use one of the free image compression sites before submitting it to your site if your file sizes are huge.

8. Make sure you've included all of the necessary details

You'll want to present enough supporting information about what you sell to make web surfers feel comfortable buying from you to convert them into consumers. For example, if you sell software, you'll need to know what platform it runs on, whether it's compatible with other items, what system requirements it has, and if there are any links to press reviews. If you're selling graphic design services, you'll need to offer a portfolio of previous work in your "supporting information."

If you give consulting services, case studies describing customer difficulties, what you did to solve them, and how they benefited as a consequence are excellent ideas to include. (Be sure to obtain permission from the client before utilizing their name in this manner on your website.) It's also a good idea to have a page with customer testimonials.

9. Make sure placing an order is simple

Consider how aggravating it would be if you hurried into the supermarket to get a gallon of milk and couldn't find the checkout desk. Visitors to a website are no exception. If people have to browse up and down or side to side to find a location to order from you, they will become irritated. Keep pages short and include a buy now button or link in the same spot on every page to avoid the problem. A decent place to put any product or service is directly below the paragraph that explains it.

10. Make sure that your contact information is easily accessible

Customers want to know what you sell and who you are and how to contact you. They may have questions regarding the products you sell, want to know if there is a problem with their order to whom we should contact, or would rather speak with a "real person" than order online. Include your phone number, store location (if applicable), and email address on every page to avoid losing business.

11. Add a link to your website to all of your social media profiles

Ensure to add the website name and link in all of your social media profiles once you've put up the site to look appealing and encourage people to sign up for your mailing lists. If prospects enjoy what you're saying on social media, they'll probably glance at your website before picking up the phone or sending you an email for further information.

12. Share your website's URL with other networks and communities

Even in the Internet age, though, who you know is still as important as what you do in business. So talk to people that run businesses that sell items and services that aren't the same as yours but serve the same market. By exchanging links and referring to each other, you can help each other get their pages found.

To summarize, Taking the time to implement these tips on your website can result in significant improvements in the performance, experience, and customer conversion rates of your website; however, once you've implemented some of these tips, you might think that the more significant project at hand is to redesign your website. If you are looking to start your new website or want to redesign an existing one, contact us at sales@ambab.com