No matter how small your business might be, everyone requires a professional website these days. We have to recognize that getting started can be quite intimidating for those who’ve never dealt with a website before. A website can be an essential part of your business as your potential customer will interact and engage with your website long before they contact you or a member of your team.
If you only accept the fact that most purchase decisions in the business world start with an online search, you can also appreciate the fact that having a well-prepared website not only helps searchers locate your business, but also encourage them to engage with you. If you don’t have a website -how will they ever find you? When planning your business website, consider the following:
Keep your site simple, yet captivating
Your small business website should be both simple and captivating. Indeed, searches arriving on your site will be looking for content that can help them. Keep in mind that too much information can be overwhelming for the viewer. You’ve probably experienced this a couple of times when a 5 minutes search suddenly turns out to be more than 10 minutes simply because you couldn’t find what you need due to many options or a complicated design.
Captivating and straightforward web designs also send a message of professionalism. Additionally, to your website, every piece of content you create should have its own URL and target a specific keyword, so you’ll have more opportunities for the online medium. Don’t forget that the more quality content you produce on your website, the more organic traffic you’ll get, but make sure you allow your website to breathe and provide your users with a pleasant viewing experience so they can return.
Google should be able to find your site easily
As previously mentioned, a clutter-free website, decent content, URLs, relevant keywords, and a sitemap will allow search engines to find your small business more quickly. For small businesses, being located online is a big deal. When you don’t have a site or your current website isn’t optimized for terms and keywords your business does, potential customers and interested parties will have difficulties reaching you. As stated, Google uses around 200 criteria to sneak, and index websites, and here your website keywords play an integral part.
By looking after most common words used in your titles, contents, and meta tags, Google can learn what your small business is about and place it among related search results. Where should you start? Pay close attention to the keywords you use as they can make or break your website. Whenever you’re looking after relevant keywords, make sure you’re doing it with your niche, business location, and your audience in mind.
Don’t Overlook Meta Tags
Even though meta tags no longer have an impact on your website ranking, they can help maximize the CTR or Click Thru Rates. Using meta tags will help people understand what the content is about and why they should click on the results.
Consider a simple and unique design
No matter if you’re planning to design the website on your own or investing in web design services, your main goal should be to develop a website that reflects your brand’s best features. It goes without saying that your website’s first impression is always the most important and will either repel or attract potential customers. If you want your website to create an impact on your viewer’s mind, make sure you avoid ordinary templates so it can stand out from the rest of the results and make viewers come back for more.
Like any other website, the homepage is what clinches the deal for your business, so ensure it becomes an essential part of your website that will catch everyone’s attention. When it comes to viewers’ attention, nothing discourages a visitor then a noticeably bad website design. And, you know very well that everyone is looking for smooth navigation from one point to another without having to deal with god knows what obstacles.
Branding should be professional
When planning your website, make sure you focus on a professional look that is suitable for your brand. Use vivid colors that will frame your brand logo and make people curious about what you have to offer. In case you’re in doubt about your current logo design, hire a professional website design company to give your business a more professional look. Additionally, make sure you don’t use more than two fonts and that your images and graphics are always in sync with the rest of your website.
Mobile Friendly
With an abundance of smart mobile devices and people avid to obtain information, services, and products from every corner of the world, it would be a shame not to have your small business website mobile approachable. That means you’ll have to adapt and rearrange your website so everyone can access it on mobile devices. But again, this requires further work since you’ll have to make sure your website provides everyone with a user-friendly experience no matter the device they use. Getting a fast & local website host is crucial to enhance the website’s mobile experience. For example, if you’re based in Canada then these Canadian website hosts are the way to go.
Contact details should be easily visible
This might sound unnecessary, but many small businesses tend to overlook this factor. Your business phone number and email address must be continuously displayed on your website and, if possible, at the top and bottom of every page. We recommend you create a “contact” at the end where you not only expose your contact numbers and emails, but also the schedule, a map, and the physical address of your company.
Investing in your small business website design is the best thing you can do at the moment if you haven’t already. No matter if you’ve just started your business or you already have some experience, configuring your website correctly and making it appealing enough so that people want to return, you will quickly generate sales leads and revenue.