When you’re running a small business, you need to do everything you can to get your name and products or services out there while also making sure you don’t spend too much money. One of the ways to do this is by designing a successful website. Here are four tips for designing a small business website.
1. Utilize White Space
Web copy is very different from print media. When you design content for a website, you need to make use of white space. Avoid cluttering your website’s pages with too much verbiage or too many graphics, links and other features. Cluttering the page can make your website look unprofessional, dated and difficult to navigate. It also runs the risk of making your website run or load slowly. Ample white space helps your website run smoothly and look clean, well-organized and easy to use.
2. Put Essential Information Above the Fold
One of the most important stylistic standards for small business web design is to make sure information about your business that is essential to customers is placed above the fold. This means you need to design your site in such a way that users can always see your contact information, social media links, business address and other relevant information at the top of the webpage without needing to scroll. You can do this by designing a header that incorporates your brand design and logo with your contact information and relevant links, for example. This way, customers won’t need to search your website to find that information.
3. Use Responsive Design
Responsive design is a vital component of modern web design. Internet access is no longer restricted to desktop computers. Instead, people are able to access most websites via a multitude of devices, including laptops, smartphones and tablets, which all have different screen sizes and resolutions. Responsive design is a design style that ensures a website will be accessible on all devices and screens. The website is coded to recognize the type of screen it’s going to appear on and adjusts itself to fit that screen. Websites that don’t have this design component run the risk of appearing dated and being difficult to access on mobile devices.
4. Make Site Navigation Easy
Not only should your site be well-organized and quick to load, but it also needs to be easily navigable. Qualities of websites that users can navigate easily include search bars, drop-down menus, internal and external links and home buttons. These features help customers feel confident in their abilities to find the things they’re looking for on your site. If your website doesn’t have these features or is otherwise difficult to navigate, customers can become frustrated or discouraged. If this happens, your website will be more of a liability than an asset.
Make sure your website is well-designed and user-friendly. Not only do you need to include all the necessary information about your business, your products or services and ways customers can contact you, but you also need to do it in such a way that customers get an impression of your brand and company culture.
