Even if you don’t sell products and services online, having a website for your small business may help grow your customer base. Here are some tips for creating your own small business website.
According to PixoLabo, only 64% of small businesses had a website in 2020. In 2021, about half of small businesses increased their online presence in response to the COVID pandemic, yet 35% of small businesses are unable to see how a website adds value to their operations.
Of those small businesses that have an online presence, almost 80% anticipate revenue growth over the next three to five years. Considering the current challenges facing small businesses, having a website is a necessity that is essential for survival and growth. Here are some tips for how to create a small business website.
1. Identify Your Goals and Expectations
Before you start researching how to create and design a website for your small business, take some time to outline your goals and expectations. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Do you want to expand your small business for online sales?
- Do you want a way to stay in touch with customers?
- Are you looking for ways to expand your market beyond your local area?
- Do you want to increase revenue? Maximize your profits? Improve customer satisfaction?
- What is the unique value proposition of your small business?
2. Tell Your Story
“Tell your story” is one of the best website tips for small business ventures. This is an area where small businesses have an advantage over large companies. Most small business owners start out with a personal passion or interest. Sharing this with your website visitors helps them understand you and your business on a deeper level. A well-written small business story for a website includes:
- Information about the owner
- Motivation behind starting the business
- Values of business operations, as well as goods and services
- Vision for growing the business
3. Create a Customer Journey
An effective small business website design takes a customer on a journey. Think about the customer journey of a website the same way you would as a customer coming into your brick-and-mortar location. Customers visit your website to learn about your small business, find goods and services that meet their needs, gather information, and get help from experts when they need it. When you are creating a small business website, look at the design from the perspective of a customer. Go through the entire customer journey from start to finish, and pay attention to:
- Aesthetics
- Customer flow
- Access to staff for assistance
- Ease of use for purchases
4. Be Mobile-Friendly
Your small business website needs to be mobile friendly. In today’s world, everyone has a sophisticated piece of technology in their pocket. The average user will only wait three seconds or less for a website to load on a mobile device before moving on to another website. Your small business website design needs to load quickly on desktop and mobile devices. Work with a web design professional to ensure that you create a mobile-friendly website for your small business. You can also find resources online that help you build an attractive website on your own, using CMS software (aka: “Content Management System” – the type of software that you use to build a website – like WordPress.) There are also easy website builder software like Squarespace that work like putting together building blocks that have already been designed and you pick the colors, fonts and which blocks to include.
