Small Business Website Design

Apart from fundamental web design principles there are four main principles you should consider regarding small business website design.  Pay attention to these four things when you build your small business website and you should end up with an effective website that works for your around the clock to help to grow your business.  However, ignore them and you’ll most likely end up wasting time and money on a website that doesn’t perform.

The four things you need to consider are:

1/ What exactly are you selling and how can you showcase it online?
You may be selling a product or a service but, whichever it is, you still have to figure out how you can best present it to your online prospects.  Photographs and even other media such as audio or video may be necessary or helpful in highlighting the best features of what you offer.  The internet is a multi-media medium so use it to your best advantage when presenting your offering.

2/ Who is your market and how will you reach them?

It’s no use having a website if people searching for what you’re offering can’t find it.  As part of the small business website design process you should think about just  who your target market is, what appeals to them and how you plan on getting them to come to your website.  There are a number of ways you can get people to visit your website using both online and offline methods.  Be aware that there can be a cost involved so make sure you take that into consideration in your budget.

3/ How is your website going to contribute to your business?

An effective small business website will do a lot more than just act like an online brochure, instead it will actually generate leads and sales for the business.  Do you want people to buy online directly from the website or would you rather they got more information from you before they purchase?  You need to consider which features or functions you will need on your small business website in order to provide what it takes to make sales or generate leads for your product or service.  If you plan on selling directly from the website you’ll need to at least incorporate an online payment processor and possibly a shopping cart.

4/ How are you going to handle customer support?

Just like offline customers, online customers will sometimes require support or want to ask questions.  With your small business website you can leverage the internet to make customer support easier by incorporating things like an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page so you don’t have to field a lot of calls or emails all asking the same questions.  You can even use help desk software to minimize the customer support workload.

Having carefully considered each of these four keys to effective small business website design you’ll be in a great position to begin building your website on a solid foundation.  Once built, your website should function as a valuable asset to your business.  It will showcase your business online in a professional way as well as reduce your workload while helping to increase your sales.

About the Author

Megan Roberts is a web designer/developer with qualifications in business and marketing.  She is the Director of Bellbird Web Solutions which caters to the online marketing needs of
businesses that want to harness the potential of the internet to grow their profits.  Visit
http://www.BellbirdWebSolutions.com.au/ if you’d like to find out more about small business website design.

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