Your company’s site plays a significant role in attracting more customers. If you want to better yours, be sure you read our top small business website tips.
Your website acts as a first impression of your business, which is why it’s so important to make a good one. To create the best online experience for your potential customers, use this list of our favorite small business website tips.
Stick with a Simple Design
You certainly don’t want to overwhelm your visitors, do you? To avoid bombarding them with too many elements, select a pre-made theme that looks clean and minimal. WordPress is the most popular content management system. Each website based on WordPress uses a template or WordPress theme with features and styling available for standardizing and leveraging your website across multiple pages. WordPress plug-ins offer extra features for website — internally or externally for your viewers. Gravitate toward colors and fonts that accurately represent your business. You can also hire a web designer or, if you have the expertise, you can design the site yourself.
If your business requires requires multiple online features, consider using a second or third WordPress theme so that your main site remains simple and is not confusing. The original function of most WordPress themes involved blogging (its original purpose when first created), but abundant new themes have been developed that include media galleries (e.g., photographers’ showcases), online stores, traditional mailing lists and forums, online education/training or learning management systems (LMS), membership sites, and even social media templates with Facebook-like functions without dependence on Facebook or the control or limitations of Facebook.
Avoid Over-Consuming Tech Resources
Avoid bells and whistles that slow down your users’ devices — especially on a front page or introductory page. Sometimes features, such as overly large photos, scrolling tickers, rotating displays bog down users’ devices, which could slow down the loading of your website. If a viewer immediately perceives that your website is extremely slow, the viewer may immediately leave your website. If you need high resource-consuming bells and whistles, don’t put them on the front page. Instead, refer to the online bells and whistles in a sub-section.
Maximize Mobile
Your website needs to serve desktop Mac/PC and mobile users on smartphones. You may have some features that are only functional for Mac/PC users, such as wide tables. However, you may find that 60-80 percent of worldwide users are mobile users using small screens when they visit your website. Most WordPress templates are built for both worlds (and this is the trend), but sometimes attempts to please both worlds with one template limits users on the small screens and the large screens. It might be necessary to use a specialized mobile template, such as WP Touch, so that mobile users have the best functions for mobile use, without diminishing features for Mac/PC desktop users. With a specialized mobile template, you can divert mobile users to a more optimal mobile view without limiting the layout that desktop or laptop Mac/PC viewers see.
Write Exciting Content
After you decide on how your site will look, state exactly what you do. To effectively gain more visitors, many businesses strive to be relatable. Write about how your company started as well as how you can meet your customers’ needs. People may identify with your story more than you realize! Also, consider introducing your team to your users; this is a simple act that’ll make a huge difference in how they view your business. Don’t forget to regularly update your website, too. Keeping content current could be one of the most important things you do for your website.
Add Polished Photos and Videos
Remember to compliment your content and testimonials with stunning visuals. Professional photos and visuals generally attract more attention than stock images and footage. They’re unique to your company, and users are less likely to become bored and bounce from your site. Seek a photographer and videographer who can help you make your products come to life. For best results, use YouTube or Vimeo to display embedded videos that are designed to handle traffic. Avoid uploading video files directly to your own website.
Include Calls to Action
Not only does your site have to look pretty, but it should be functional, too. Users should be able to buy your products in seconds, and they need to know how they can best contact you. Place calls to action throughout your site, which will aid users in navigating from one page to another.
Think About URL Structure
Messy URL structure can negatively impact how search engines discover your site. Before launching your site, be sure each main page has an easy-to-read URL. For example, a security business that sells security services or security cameras should have a simple web address that is easy to remember for the camera section, such as companyname.com/cameras or companyname.com/securitycameras. This is convenient for your customers and is good practice, unless you have a specific reason that you want to encourage your customers to always visit your front page (companyname.com) first. Even after your site goes live, periodically check back to see if there are any detrimental broken links. Install Google Analytics to view a variety of statistics for your website, so that you know which pages are most popular and when your site is most often visited, etc.
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