For many users, the website helps in creating the first impression of your business. Also for many users, it is a platform where your users interact with you. Having a website is very important in this competitive digital space. However, to stay relevant and competitive in the market your website needs to be responsive. So whether you’re building a new website or redesigning an old website, you should make sure your website is well-designed and optimized.
Small businesses should have an effective website to reach their target audience and remain relevant in the industry. With correct website design, small businesses can engage effectively with their customers attract potential users, and enhance their ROI. Your website should be usable, functional, optimized, responsive, and credible to stay relevant in the industry. Apart from working on the design of the website, you should also focus on the content of the website.
In this article, we’ll learn why small businesses need a website, what makes a small business’s website more engaging and attractive, and much more!
Why do small businesses need a website?
Every business, irrespective of its size and industry, needs a website. However, shockingly only 64% of small businesses have a website. This also means that the remaining 36% are missing major benefits such as increased brand authority, enhanced visibility, and more potential leads. Whenever people are searching for a service or business related to yours or want to contact you for more information, they turn to a website. According to a report, 76% of consumers who searched for “near me” visited the business within a day.
Having a website helps in adding credibility to your business. It provides you an opportunity to showcase your products and services and convince the user to make a purchase.
You need a website also because it helps in attracting potential customers and markets at a low cost. It also gives you a competitive edge, by using the correct keyword and strategy you can rank higher than your competitors.
Stages of web design for small businesses
The following are the stages of we. Designing for small businesses
- Research: This is the first step in designing a website for a small business. It involves understanding the business goals, competitors, target audience, etc. You should understand what the objective of your business is. Whether you want to increase business leads, increase your visibility, etc. Also, you must know who your target market or audience is. Understand their needs and where to find them. This will help in creating a user-centric website. Study what your competitors are doing or what strategies they are using.
- Designing: In this stage, you will work to achieve your objectives. Create a responsive web design and plan out the basic structure and layout of your website. A responsive website ensures that your website fits all screen sizes. Once you are done with it, invest time in styling it. Selecting appropriate colors, images, fonts, and other design elements. Make sure your design elements align with your brand’s identity and philosophy. You can apply web designing principles for small websites here such as keeping the design simple, effective use of white space, etc. Build websites using coding languages such as CSS, HTML, etc.
- Test: Before your website goes live, you must test it to ensure that your website is usable and functional. Test the website with real users to identify issues with navigation and functionality. Monitor the website’s loading time and make sure it works well on all screen sizes and devices. Once you have done your research you must resolve the issues or bugs you are facing that could interfere with user experience.
- Management: Frequently regulating, monitoring, and managing your website is also important. Add relevant and engaging content to your website. Make sure all plugins and software are well-updated. It is part of a web designing service for small businesses. You can also use tools such as Google Analytics to monitor your website. Take data-driven decisions to enhance user experience.
Example of a small business website
Once we have learned the stages of web designing, let us explore how some of the small businesses have designed their websites.
- Standard Bots: Standard Bots website shows us how professional photography can uplift a small business’s website. It is a robotics startup site that contains high-definition images of its product against a well-balanced background. CTA also contrasts well with the image and attracts the user’s attention. The website also includes a table that compares their products with their competitors. It is ideal for pricier products, especially the newly launched ones that are competing with the well-known alternatives.
- RISE Athlete: The RISE Athlete is a fitness website. It includes relevant information on the landing page, a navigation bar with nine items, all-caps hero text stating “Your new home for functional fitness”, a background image of a trainer working with a client, and two CTAs. However, what makes them stand out is their effective use of white space and the typography. It ensures smooth reading and doesn’t clutter the page. The paired CTA throughout the website targets the audience at different stages of the sales funnel. The white one is for people who intend to make a purchase and the dark one is for those who are still in the evaluation stage.
- Good Garms: Good Garms is an online clothing store. It offers a range of browsing options on its user-friendly e-commerce website. Interested users can search by category, gender, cloth material, etc. which guides them through their shopping experience and make it smooth. The product pages include sufficient information about the clothing item such as size, fabric used, reviews of customers, etc. Their website also includes a style guide page.
When it’s about web designing, partnering with a professional service can help in achieving your goals faster. At Lumia 360, we will help you create engaging, responsive, and functional websites. We ensure that your website is visually attractive and user-friendly. We have a wide range of web design services that meet our unique needs. You can also witness our work by checking our client’s website. We use the latest tools and technologies to ensure that your website is not inky beautiful but also functional. We also provide digital marketing services to enhance the ranking of your website.
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