Website Design for SMB
The internet has become an indispensable tool for many small businesses all over the world, and a well-designed website can be the difference between a successful business and a struggling business. Websites have the capacity to increase exposure to a wider target audience. Depending on your business outcomes, this may lead to more product sales or customer interaction. The following tips can help small business owners create an effective website that customers will want to come back to time and again.
Know what you want
This might sound obvious, but it is important to know what you are aiming to achieve with your website. Knowing your goals will help you to focus your website design and make it more effective. Some websites are built to increase product sales, others are focused on providing contact information for customers to make enquiries, book appointments or provide customer feedback. Keep in mind your target audience, and plan out your website to be attractive to that audience.
Scout around for ideas
To get a feel for what works and what doesn’t when it comes to small business websites, look up websites for businesses that are similar to yours. Imagine yourself as a customer, noting down what you like and what you don’t like. If there are any that stand out for you – either for good reasons or bad – bookmark them, to refer back to when designing your site. Pay attention to layouts, colours, graphics and fonts.
Building your site
Many web hosting services offer free templates for web design that will provide the layout and colour scheme for your website. However, if you want greater flexibility and control over your website design you may wish to start from scratch using a web development application such as Dreamweaver. You can also write the coding for your website in a plain text application such as Windows Notepad.
Plan your website using a site map. This should include the basics, such as:
- Home page
- About
- Contact information
- Products/services
- FAQ
Include any other pages you intend on creating. This will help you to organise the layout and formatting of your site, including links and navigation bars. It is a good idea to create consistency between your web design and product design, using similar fonts and colours. This will give your website a professional edge and give customers a sense of familiarity with the product.
Outsourcing website design
For various reasons, you may not wish to build your website yourself. In this case you might invest in a good website designer, who will consult with you on your website design and content.
