Small Business Web Development Tips Your Company Needs
As of 2015, up to 59 percent of Canadian small businesses didn’t own a business website. However, this is gradually changing as businesses are starting to embrace online marketing techniques.
Small businesses want a share of the online gold mine, too. They’re pushing to compete on the same level with big business. One of the ways they’re doing this is through setting up their business websites to improve their online presence.
Before rushing to develop and launch your new site, you need to understand that there is a certain way it needs to be done. In this post, we’re going to share some small business web development tips.
Read on to learn more.
Responsive Design Is Critical
With the growing numbers of mobile users, Google is pushing webmasters to make their websites mobile-friendly.
As such, consider ensuring that your web design is responsive. It should work seamlessly on different devices, including desktop, mobile, and tablets. Start with a small website that gives users all the relevant information instead of a massive site.
The site must load quickly on all devices; under three seconds. Having a responsive web design is typically leveraging CSS and HTML to enlarge, shrink, hide or move web content to make it look good on any device. Also, the images must be flexible, and you can use your CSS to create a rule for maximum width.
Your developer should test it on different screens and browsers to ensure the design is consistent and intuitive.
Good Website Speed Matters
A slow website can drop your sales numbers. Visitors also tend to abandon sites that take more than three seconds to load.
So, when embarking on small business web development, you want to pay close attention to the speed of your site. For example, if you’re using WordPress to power your business website, you can use caching tools, such as W3 Total Cache, to improve the serving of requests.
Also, there are other ways that you can speed up your website. These include:
- Minimize HTTP requests by cutting down on-page components
- Reduce your server response time to less than 200 milliseconds
- Enable compression to reduce bandwidth of your pages
- Enabling browser cache to reduce HTTP requests
- Minifying your CSS, HTML, and Java Script resources
- Reducing the number of plugins on your website
- Optimize images and other visual elements
You can also speed up your site by using a Content Delivery Network (CDN). It simply works by storing your files on different servers across the globe. So, requests get served based on the proximity of the user to a particular server.
Use Powerful Call-To-Actions (CTA)
As a small business owner, lead generation is important if you want to boost your sales and revenue. But it can only work if your potential customers complete all the steps of your sales funnel.
It all starts with a single click of the CTA button, which can be “Buy Now,” “Sign Up,” or “Get Access Today.” This leads the client to a landing page, where visitors can get more information about a product, package or service. Be sure your small business web development uses powerful CTAs that prompt users to take action.
Ideally, the essence of CTAs can be to invite users to sign up for your newsletter, demo or free trial. Normally, you will use a simple sign up form for them to fill in their email and name. In exchange, you can give them access to exclusive information.
If you can’t offer an incentive for signing up, you can still use CTAs. For example, you have the button direct your leads to a page where they can contact you. Keep in mind that all your CTAs must be visible and clickable if you want to attract the right customers.
Make Use Of Visual Content
Your website is not complete if it lacks visual elements. Content is great, but it works well when coupled with two or more images. Keep in mind that a single image is worth a thousand words.
Google’s emphasis on quality content seems to be working out well. Most businesses seem to get it right. Sadly, many are missing out on the media part. A picture can sell your service better, and it can also make your piece of content more attractive.
For example, if you run a restaurant, taking and uploading a few pictures of your menu items can make people crave your food. Law firms can use their team images to help build trust with potential clients.
If you’re selling products on your website, pictures are even more important. Lack of pictures on your product listing can prevent a prospective customer from adding the product to their shopping cart.
Being creative with images can make your business stand out in a crowded market.
Ensure It’s User-Friendly
A user-friendly paradigm simply means that your website is designed with the end users in mind. That’s what your development team should aim for.
Improving the usability of your website involves proper planning and structuring. A typical end user view usually features text, images, videos and other graphics. How you organize all these elements to create a flowing and easy to understand pattern is critical.
You want to pay close attention to your main navigation, too. Don’t complicate everything in an effort to make it appear cool. A basic navigation featuring the main items will do just fine.
Ensure your navigation is clearly visible on all devices. Make sure the whole site architecture is planned and organized. Your categories, sections, and information should be easy for your visitors to find. Also, use headings, sub-headings, lists, paragraphs, and bullets to make your content scannable.
It Should Be SEO-Ready
This is one of the most important considerations when it comes to your small business website. If you want to achieve your marketing objectives, then search engine optimization is a necessity for your website.
After launching your new website, you’ll be undertaking new campaigns to help boost your site’s search rankings. One key point to note is that most of these campaigns depend on SEO-readiness of your website. Your on-page SEO must be tip-top for the other components to work.
If you’re not going to use SEO plugins, such as Yoast SEO, you must ensure that the coding is clean and correct. You’ll need some coding skills to carry this out.
If possible, avoid the use of flash elements as they might affect your rankings. Plus, they’re not always user-friendly. Your URLs should also be user and search engine friendly. Avoid using too much JavaScript to make it easier for search engine bots to crawl and read your site.
Make It Easy For Customers To Contact You
It’s important to note that your contact page is one of the most important pages on your website. It provides your visitors all your contact information and physical address. Plus, it’s a way of establishing trust with visitors once they’re on your website.
You can add a business telephone number prominently at the header and footer of your business site. That way, it’ll appear on every page. Your footer can also contain your address and email address. On your contact page, add hours of operation, forms, directions, and a map if possible.
Integrating your social media accounts with your web design also provides visitors ways to reach out to you.
Experts recommend giving customers a reason to contact you. A great business website focuses on the results you’ll deliver to your customers or provides solutions to the problems they have.
Give It A Personal Touch
This is especially important if you bought a predesigned theme to use on your new website. In this case, other businesses can purchase the same theme and use it for their projects. If you don’t make any changes, you could end up having a site that looks like another site out there.
Strive to give your website a professional look that matches your brand. Choose a unique colour, preferably one that matches or contrasts your logo colours. Pick one or two main fonts that you’ll use consistently through out your site.
All the images and graphics should be complementary and should leave a professional impression on your visitors. Don’t use the pictures that came with the theme. Instead, take photos of your business, team members or products.
Your overall web design should tell a personal story to make customers feel more connected to your business.
Conclusion
These are some of the most important factors to take into account when developing your business website.
Bear in mind that the site is for your customers to use, so you want something that will appeal to them. Don’t forget to create original and useful content that informs visitors about your business, services, and products.
During your website development, don’t limit yourself. Think about your future growth by choosing a platform and design that will meet your business needs for many years to come. Also, remember to get a reliable hosting service.
