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Why is Web Design Important for Small Businesses?

As a small business, your reach may be limited. You're constantly working hard to promote your business, whether you operate a local coffee shop or an ecommerce store. You know how hard it is to direct new leads and customers to your website, and you've probably come up with several ways to get them there.

Bringing more people to your website may not be the most important thing you need to do, however. If the potential customers who arrive on your website don't like what they see, they may never step foot in your door or contact you. First impressions are everything, and that's what makes the design of your small business website so crucial.

Let's look at a few ways you can improve the design of your site, as well as some best practices that should be applied to web design for small businesses.

First Things First: Go Responsive

In this day and age, those who are looking online for a particular business may do so from their smartphones or tablets. Mobile browsing has drastically increased in popularity as technology has improved, and the number of people who use a mobile device to do research or look at business websites is only going to increase.

What does your website look like on a mobile device? Does it require zooming to read the text, or scrolling to see the entire menu or navigational options? If so, you should invest in a website that is created using responsive design.

Responsive design is a design method that automatically scales up or down the content of your website to match the device on which it's viewed. So for example, on a large monitor, your website may display with a full menu, and images surrounded by text. But on a mobile device, the same website will scale down to show a reduced menu or button to open the navigation, and the images will be the full width of the screen.

You can learn more about responsive design, and why it is so important—for every business—by reading our responsive web design page.

Keep It Simple

From the very moment a new visitor comes to your small business website, they should have a clear path laid out for them. You may want your visitors to view specific pages in order before contacting you over the phone, or you may want them to scroll down a long, informative landing page that ends with a contact form to use. Either way, you need to keep your design clean, simple, and clutter-free to prevent from impeding this journey.

Online browsers tend to get distracted easily. With text messages, emails, and other applications constantly vying for our attention, it's difficult to keep someone on your website for long enough to perform a conversion. But you can cut down on distractions by keeping your design as simple as possible. This means:

• Only having one navigation menu at the top or side of the website, with only the most crucial options included
• Limiting your use of images to a few locations, and only where they are relevant (ex. a photo gallery, as supporting photos within a page)
• Including clear calls to action for the next step in the process on each page
• Using neutral, non-distracting color schemes with vibrant shades on calls to action buttons, links, or elements showing the desired next step in the browsing process

By keeping your design simple, you can keep visitors focused on the important aspects of your website, like your content or navigation.

Make Your Contact Information Visible

How easy is it for someone who is interested in your small business to get in touch with you? Do you have a dedicated page for contact information? Is it highly visible or buried away in your footer links?

Leads are absolutely crucial for your growing business, and it's for this reason that your contact information should be highly visible. This means putting your phone number somewhere on every page, and making absolutely certain that your location and contact methods are just one simple click away from every page.

You should also make it effortless for potential leads or customers to get in touch with you. This usually involves creating a contact form, which keeps visitors from needing to copy and paste your email address into their client of choice. By making the contact process as easy as possible, you can increase the likelihood of visitors getting in touch with you.

These are just a few tips to help improve your small business website. If you're concerned that your site isn't up to par, or isn't attracting as many local customers as it should, why not give us a call? We can help you create a beautiful, engaging website that helps your business grow in ways you never thought possible.

Contact us online to find out what we can do for you. We look forward to hearing from you!