To make sure your business is competitive, you probably need a website. And not just any website. You need one that’s functional, well-designed, optimised for conversions, optimised for search engines… the list goes on.

In this article we’re going to talk through some website tips for small businesses. But first things first…

Do small businesses need a website?

Yes. Yes they do. Now, obviously we’re biased. But we think small businesses absolutely need a website. In today’s era of technology, the internet is the new Yellow Pages.

Website tips for small businesses

Whether customers are looking for a new mattress, a plumber, a local restaurant, or anything else, the first place they usually turn is Google.

As a business owner, you need to capitalise on this. Having a website is one of the easiest ways to ensure potential customers/clients/visitors find you.

Without being dramatic, if you don’t have a website, to some people you simply won’t exist.

The importance of your website

Now that we’ve cleared up whether you need one, we’re going to get into the finer details.

Having a strong and effective website is essential for small businesses who are competing to capture their target audience.

With the right website you can:

• Engage existing customers
• Attract new customers
• Increase sales
• Boost brand awareness
• Communicate with the world
• Differentiate your business from competitors

But to do this, your website needs to be visually appealing, engaging, full of valuable content and flawlessly functional.

With these guidelines in mind, we’re going to start talking about practical tips for you to put in place.

Step 1: Choosing a domain

For the purpose of this article, we’re going to start from the beginning and assume you don’t have a website at all. If that’s the case, one of the first things you need to do is to choose a domain name.

A domain name is kind of like an address, but online. Our domain is greenlights.digital. We also have greenlightsdigital.com. When someone types that into a search bar, they come straight to us. Like typing a physical address into a map.

You need to think a unique, custom domain name that’s related to your business name. Once you’ve chosen your domain, you need to buy it. You can look on sites like GoDaddy and Namecheap for this (they’re the domain equivalent of real estate agents).

Step 2: Choosing a platform

Choosing a platform to build your website in is the next step.

For simple websites, platforms (also called content management systems/CMS) like Wix, Squarespace and WordPress are perfect website builders. If you’re especially tech savvy, you should be able to use these platforms yourself. They’re designed to be user-friendly and intuitive. They have drag and drop editors, loads of layout options and set design themes that you can edit.

We’ll get into this more later on.

Step 3: Choosing a host

If you’re completely new to websites, this is something that can be a bit confusing.

A website host is a company that stores your website files on a server, so that it can be accessible on the internet. This is different to your domain. You ‘rent’ space on the server and the host manages storage/access.

It’s a bit like paying ground rent on a property, even though you’ve already got the address and own the property itself.

Step 4: Starting the build

As a small business, you probably won’t want to spend months researching branding, creating wireframes and testing out a million color pallets.

More likely, you’ll work on the design and build simultaneously, on the go. There’s nothing wrong with that!

Picking a theme/template

Once you’ve chosen your builder (Wix, WordPress, Squarespace), you can start looking at themes/website templates. These will guide the overall look, feel and layout of your website.

Theme: Bosa Plumber

If you want an ecommerce website, you’ll need something a little different. Look for themes that have e-com focused features and functionalities built in. Again, you can change all of the headings, typography and animations at a later date. The theme is just your foundation.

Theme: Signify Ecommerce

Theme pricing varies so shop around and find one that fits your budget but that also come with all the features you need.

Customizing and building

Once you’ve chosen your theme, you can start customizing it and building your pages.

At this stage, try not to get too carried away. Every page should serve a specific purpose, and you shouldn’t add anything you don’t need. You should use unique, relevant and engaging content, and ideally, bespoke imagery.

Web design tips for small businesses

Whilst you’re building away, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Use consistent branding

As a small business, investing in extensive brand guidelines is probably not high on your priority list. But that’s ok!

You can still create a professional website without brand identity guidelines. Just pick a few key colors, a couple of key fonts and then stick to these. Also, try to maintain a consistent brand voice. Don’t jump around from super professional to super casual.

Just remember the age-old saying, consistency is key.

Use white space

This is another important (and relatively easy) website design tip to keep in mind. ‘White space’ means the empty space on your website. It’s space that doesn’t contain any images, text or content.

It can seem weird to leave white space on your site, but white space is a web designer’s secret weapon. It makes your site more visually appealing, and it can make your site’s content stand out more.

Just remember the other age-old saying, less is more.

Prioritise CTAs

CTAs (call-to-actions) are your key to conversions. They’re buttons or links that encourage users to take a specific action. That could be:

• Signing up to marketing emails
• Making a purchase
• Filling out a contact form
• Requesting a call back
• Making a call
• Using an online booking system
• Leaving contact details

The list goes on. CTAs should be clear, compelling and strong.

For example, instead of ‘Submit’ on a contact form, the button could say ‘Get your free quote’. This is much better for user experience as it lets the customer know exactly what they are signing up for.

Just remember this saying that we made up, never neglect your CTAs.

Step 5: Going live

Once you’re happy with the content on your site, it’s almost time to hit that go-live button. Here are a few things for you to check.

• Is your navigation (menu) all linked up correctly?
• Have you used the right contact information?
• Have you checked all your forms work?
• Has someone proofread your website copy?
• Have you got consistent typography?
• Are you social media links (Instagram, LinkedIn etc.) all linked up?
• Is your site optimized for mobile devices and tablets?
• Have you got an SSL certificate?
• Have you checked your site speed and optimized this?

Once you’ve answered yes to all of these questions, you should have a small business website that’s ready to go live.

Step 6: Surprise… SEO/getting on Google

Ok your website is live. You’re happy with the pictures, the copy, your CTAs sound great, you’ve got plenty of white space. Brilliant. But why aren’t you getting any site visitors?

Probably because of search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO is a digital marketing tactic that helps search engines understand your content, which then helps users find your site. The goal of SEO is to rank on the first page of search results pages (SERPs), so you can get more website traffic.

There are so many different ways to optmize your site for search engines, some of them are easy, some of them are very technical. We’re going to touch on some of the easy ways below…

Page speed

Slow loading pages can harm your website’s ranking. Make sure all of your pages are optimized to load quickly. Compressing images can help with this.

Backlinks

Backlinks are brilliant for SEO, they tell search engines that you’re a trusted source. As a plumber, listing your website on third-party sites like Yell and Checkatrade can help with your back-linking strategy.

More great sites for link-building

• TrustPilot
• TripAdvisor
• LinkedIn
• Reviews.IO

Internal linking

Internal links help search engines navigate your site, boosting your site’s ranking. You should link between the homepage, blog pages and service pages using relevant anchor text each time.

For example, if you’re a plumber who has written a blog about ‘Common causes of blocked drains‘, you might want to link to your ‘drain unblocking‘ service page.

Refreshing content

Keeping your content up-to-date is key. Rankings don’t last forever, so you need to stay ahead to stay on top. You should revisit your site’s content every 6 months or so, adding updates to ensure your articles are still relevant.

Finding low competition/long-tail keywords

This is probably our hottest tip when it comes to SEO. Unless your business is super unique, you’ll probably find yourself in an incredibly competitive space. If that’s the case ranking for ‘plumber’ alone probably isn’t going to be possible (yes, we’re still using the plumber example).

Instead, you should look for longer keywords that are more specific. Whilst the search volume (number of people searching that term) won’t be as high, the competition will be much lower. So, you’re more likely to rank.

Instead of ‘plumber’ why not ‘drain unblocking for kitchen sink‘, ‘clogged drain in bath tub‘, or ‘toilet cistern not refilling‘. Keywords like these are much easier to rank for, and much easier to write content for too. You know exactly what the searcher needs help with, so you can create content that ticks all of their boxes (and search engines love that).

Optimising images

Using unique images is great for SEO. Instead of relying on Shutterstock and Pexels, try to use your own images. Google loves original content, especially original images.

It’s also important to label your images correctly, as this helps Google understand that it is looking at. Use alt tags and image titles to tell Google what your image is about.

Need help with your website?

If this article has left you scratching your head, don’t worry. We help small business owners, online stores, entrepreneurs as well as bigger companies.

Whether you need a simple homepage and some basic features or an all-singing, all-dancing site, we’ve got you. Get in touch to see some of our small business website examples and to see what we can do for you.