The debate over the importance of website design for small businesses is long over, and we decided to jump straight to the point. Website design has so many tricky parts that, if not addressed properly, it can massively diminish the effectiveness of your website. We compiled a short list of details that deserve your attention. The list is not graded and there are no parts that are more important than the others.
Branding
When you create a website for your company, you are basically creating a window into the core of your business. You need to create a strong and recognisable image and display it with consistency on your portal. That means everything needs to be consistent: colours, fonts, images, logo design, etc… Failing to achieve this will result in your website looking like it was made by an amateur.
Development
This is an ambiguous word but in reality, it really says your website needs to work flawlessly, all the time, on all platforms, everywhere in the world. All visitors hate slow loading sites and ones that have errors of any kind. You might think this is not a job for a graphic designer, but you would be wrong. Creating elements that will work, especially on different platforms is a challenging task and these details must not be overlooked. Just think about it this way: all things being equal – if your site does not work flawlessly, the competitor’s will.
Keywords
People discover sites by looking up phrases relevant to them. Your website needs to contain keywords and phrases that will make it recognisable by search engines. If you sell kitchen appliances and don’t use the phrase once on your website, you are basically invisible to the people looking to buy kitchen appliances. But you cannot just drum up a bunch of words and hope for the best. A good designer will know where and how to use the keywords in order to get the best results and increase the visibility of your site.
Contact
Your website is like a business card, TV commercial, sales catalog and presentation all bundled in one package. You need to have multiple points of contact on your portal so that everyone is able to get in touch and deal business with your company. Make sure you have email, phone, address, social media links and other types of options that the visitors can use. Make it easier for them and it will directly impact your results.
Call to Action
A website can only do so much and you cannot rely on it to accomplish everything. That’s why you place call-to-action segments that encourage people to contact you and take action. Make them simple with a direct message:
- Buy Now
- Learn More
- Visit us (with map location)
- Make an Appointment
- Call Now
- Sign up
- Request a Presentation
These will engage your audience and give you a chance to approach them on a more personal and direct level, which will ultimately increase your conversion rates.
There are other details worth addressing and listing them all would make this article a bit dull and overly long. Website designers are familiar with all of them and investing into this area of your small business is crucial to the success of your website, and ultimately, of your brand.
