Designing a Great Small Business Website - 6 Key Steps

Creating an effective website for a small business is essential for staying competitive in the digital landscape. By following these six simple steps, you can design a website that meets your needs, engages visitors, and showcases your business’ products and services.

Define Your Website Goals.

Before you begin designing your small business website, it is important to define what goals and objectives it needs to accomplish. Do you need a site that encourages visitors to contact you? Or do you want to increase sales? Once your goal is identified, the website design will flow more smoothly. Knowing exactly who your target audience is can also help with the development of layout and content.

Select a Framework or Content Management System (CMS).

Choosing a content management system or framework to design your website is an important step. With dozens of options available, it can be difficult to decide which one is right for you and your business. Look for features such as Scalability, Security, and Ease of Use when making your decision. Popular choices include :

• Wordpress,
• Joomla,
• Drupal,
• Squarespace and
• Wix.

Each CMS has advantages and disadvantages so be sure to read up on each to make the best choice for your business.

Design Your Navigation & Structure.

Before getting into the actual design of your website, spend some time thinking about how you want it to be structured and organized. Designing clear navigation will help visitors find the information they need quickly and easily. Think through what pages or sections you need, what links they should include in the header and footer, and even how deep you want to keep the architecture of your website. If done right, a custom-designed navigation structure can provide a simple yet effective way to guide visitors through your business’s offerings.

Get the Look and Feel Right.

When creating a website for your small business, it’s important to consider the visual design elements that will be included. This includes selecting a color palette, choosing fonts and typography, and defining the overall style of imagery you would like to use. It’s helpful to start simple and build from there. Once you have the basic look established, you can start to refine it by adding nuances or accents that make your site feel more polished. Keep in mind that subtlety here is key — too much going on visually could distract from the clarity of your message and confuse visitors.

Focus on Mobile Friendly Design Elements.

As smartphone and tablet users continue to increase, it’s important to consider mobile friendly design elements when creating your small business website. This means making sure all of your content is visible on smaller screens without having to zoom in or scroll endlessly. Stick to layouts that are simple and use clear buttons and navigation so that visitors can easily find the information they need on a mobile device. Employing these techniques will help you make sure your website looks great no matter the size of the screen.