Top Tips for Designing an Effective Small Business Website

Your website is often the first impression a potential customer gets of your company. As always, first impressions are critical. This is why you need an effective small business website.

Yes, today’s world is all about social media profiles and apps and so many other tools, but that doesn’t make small business websites less important. In fact, it makes them more important.

Why? A website is more than just a chance to make a strong impression on a potential client, it’s something you control. With a social media account, app, or local search engine listing, your online presence is at least somewhat in the hands of another company. They can change the layout, features, algorithm, or how your company is displayed at any time and there isn’t much you can do about it. That’s not true with your own small business website. 

When you create your own small business website design, you can brand it the way you want and do with it as you wish. You can represent your company the way you want it to be seen. You can feature your products or services however you’d like. You can include whatever it is that’s important to you and your customers. You’re in control. That makes it significantly more valuable than only using social media platforms.

Another reason your site is important is because many small businesses don’t bother to have great sites. It’s tempting to look at social media and think that it’s free, so it’s good enough for your needs, or that a very basic site without much thought in it is fine. Many  businesses do this and that’s a huge opportunity for those who want to stand out.

Your small business website design is a great way to differentiate yourself from your competitors and build your brand, place to do it. 

So, how do you get a great site for your business? Here are some practical tips for designing an effective small business website.

Here are 10 Easy Website Design Tips You Can Start Using Today

Getting a great website for your business doesn’t have to be difficult. Yes, it can seem overwhelming at first, but one of the keys is to break the process down into smaller steps. 

Here are ten things you can start doing right now that will drastically improve the quality of your company website. 

1. Choose a Reader-Friendly Font 

You may not put much thought into the font you use for your website, but you really should. No one thinks about the legibility of a font when a good choice is made, but you certainly think about it when it’s difficult to read.

Why It Matters:

You obviously want people to be able to read what you’ve written on your website, don’t you? Not only do you want them to be able to read it, but you want them to have an easy time reading it. If someone needs to strain or focus very hard to read your website, you’re putting them in an agitated state of mind, and frustration or annoyance isn’t what you want your visitors to be feeling.

Remember to choose a font that doesn’t just look great on a big computer monitor, but on a tablet, laptop, and smartphone as well. Plus, take accessibility into consideration. Screen readers have an easier time reading certain fonts. 

What makes a good, accessible, easy to read font? It should be clear, of sufficient size, lack confusion, and display properly on a variety of devices and screen sizes.

Some of the best fonts for reading include:

• Arial
• Helvetica
• Georgia
• Verdana
• Roboto

2. Keep Your Color Scheme Simple

Your website shouldn’t be overwhelming. There’s a good chance that someone visiting your site is doing so for the first time. They probably don’t know much about your brand and a site packed full of colors, information, graphics, and much more can be distracting and confusing.

Why It Matters:

People don’t have time to figure out what they’re supposed to be doing on your site. They want a straightforward direction. Too many colors or too much going on could cause someone to leave your site because they aren’t sure what to do.

Instead, just a few colors that go well together, and then use them to highlight your content, your calls to action, etc. Using colors that contrast well from one another will make them stand out better. 

Effectively using white space is an important part of this process. White space is an unmarked area around web design tips elements, such as margins on a page, spaces between text blocks, and negative space around images. Correctly using white space can improve the user experience because it won’t overwhelm visitors. It can even help direct visitors’ eyes to certain areas. 

3. Make It Mobile-Friendly

Having a mobile-friendly website is a must. Today, the majority of web searches come through mobile devices. If your website isn’t designed to display properly on mobile devices, you’re ignoring a significant portion of your audience.

In fact, Google predominantly uses the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking, so you’re also hurting your own search rankings if your site isn’t mobile-friendly.  

Why It Matters: 

Having a mobile-friendly website helps ensure that the largest possible audience is able to easily use your site. As mentioned, people won’t stick around on a website and struggle through it to get what they’re looking for. If they land on your site and it doesn’t display properly, they’ll move on to a competitor. 

Lighthouse can help you determine if your site works well on mobile devices. Bing also has a mobile friendliness tool. 

4. Simplify Your Site Navigation

Once again, users won’t spend time trying to understand your website. If you arrive and can’t find what they’re looking for almost immediately, there’s a good chance they’re going to give up and head elsewhere. 

Why It Matters:

You know your website and your company’s offerings inside and out. However, someone visiting your website doesn’t. Therefore, you’ll need to simplify your navigation so they are directed to one of your main areas. Remember, it’s often true that less is more. Limit the number of main navigation options so someone can easily skim through them without getting overwhelmed. You’ll also want to use clear and concise labels for each menu item so that a user immediately knows exactly what each link represents. 

Always ask yourself: Can a user easily find all the information they need?  

It can also help to include a search box so someone can quickly find relevant information. 

5. Use Only High-Quality Images

Remember, you’re making a first impression, and your site’s look and feel is a big part of that. The quality of the images reflect the quality of your site. If your site looks great, someone will immediately have a positive feeling about your company. 

Why It Matters: 

Great quality images make your website and your business look more professional. Choose images that can function well on a variety of screens, browsers, and devices. They should be in focus, high-resolution, and clear. Websites like Pexels, Unsplash, Shopify Burst, or Freepik to get great images for your site. 

6. Clear Calls to Action

You have something that you want visitors to do when they visit your site, whether it’s downloading a guide, contacting you, purchasing a product, or signing up for a newsletter. Be clear with your calls to action. 

Why It Matters: 

Your site should easily guide visitors toward the next step in their journey. Placing effective calls-to-action (CTAs) will increase the chances of a visitor heading where you want them to head. Be specific. Rather than saying “Learn more” or “Find out more”, explain what they should be doing next. “Contact us”, “Sign up for our newsletter”, “Download a free guide”, or “Shop here” are much more effective. 

7. Design a Tailored User Experience

Personalization can directly affect conversion rates. If you’re able to offer a tailored user experience, you’ll simplify the decision-making process for your visitors and have more success. 

Why It Matters:

One of the main goals of small business website design is to improve sales and engagement. A great way to do this is to reduce the number of steps between a person arriving on your site and them taking action.

If you’re able to provide personalized content, recommendations, and interfaces, you reduce the effort needed to navigate your site. You also make your website more useful and worthwhile, which boosts loyalty and the personal connection felt by visitors. 

8. Tell Your Story

Telling your story is another way to build a personal connection between your company and your visitors. Most people are exposed to so many brands, so much advertising, and so many websites every single day that they all kind of blend together. If you can successfully tell your story, your company will stand out from the rest. 

Why It Matters: 

We live in a busy, often overwhelming world these days. Due to this, customers are looking for a greater personal connection to the businesses they work with. If you can make a visitor feel like they know you, that they share similar beliefs with you, or help them identify with you, you’ll increase sales and build loyalty.

Tell your company story through your “About Us” page, your customer testimonials, or your blog. Design your site to complement your story and strengthen the connection between your company and your target market. 

9. Design With Accessibility in Mind

There’s absolutely no reason to exclude anyone who may want to visit your website and potentially become a paying customer. However, if you haven’t created your small business website design with accessibility in mind, that’s exactly what you’re doing.

Why It Matters: 

It’s quite simple: By neglecting accessibility in your website design and development, you’re losing out on a substantial number of leads and conversions. If someone has difficulty reading or navigating your site, they’re unlikely to become a customer and you’ll lose them (likely forever) to another business that understands this. 

Here’s your website accessibility checklist :

• Text Alternatives:
  • Add detailed and descriptive alt text to all images and accurate captions to videos.
• Keyboard Access:
  • Make sure that your site is navigable by keyboard.
• Readability:
  • As mentioned above, your site should be easy to read. Achieve this by using clear text, appropriate color and contrast, and simple language.
• Predictable Design:
  • Don’t make it challenging for people to find what they’re looking for. Use Consistent navigation and clear headings. 
• Responsive:
  • Make sure that your website works on all devices and screen sizes.
• Compatibility:
  • Make sure your website includes accommodations for assistive technologies and code, such as  screen readers, software for text-to-speech, keyboard emulators, screen magnifiers, and more.
• Testing:
  • WAVE  is a suite of evaluation tools that can help you make your website more accessible. Consider using it to test your site. It’s also a good idea to have real people try your site to make sure they don’t have any difficulties using it. 

10. Trust Signals

There are so many companies and so many sites that all claim to be the best, the most professional, and the right choice. How do you know who to trust?

Trust signals, like testimonials and certifications, help visitors recognize quality. 

Why It Matters: 

Everyone wants to work with an experienced business that has a successful track record. However, it’s hard to convey how great your business is with just your words. Anyone can say they’re the best. This is why testimonials and reviews are so important, especially video reviews. They let people know that real real people have had positive experiences with your business, and will encourage other visitors to become customers. 

Bottom Line

Creating a website that is easy to use, navigate, read, and understand is a crucial part of small business website design. Of course, you also want your site to look great, enhance your brand, and encourage people to trust you and to act.

The good news? Eggs Media can help. We have years of experience in working with businesses large and small to enhance their websites, build customized sites that strengthen their branding, improve their search engine rankings and website content, and much more. Contact us today to learn how we can help you.