6 Key Steps to Building a Great Small Business Website
Whether you are a freelancer, photographer, event planner, or even a real estate company owner, you need a business website to boost your revenue ad acquire new customers. With 67% of users admitting to window shopping from their smart phone, this fact illustrates the growing ubiquity of online shopping. But e-commerce is only one aspect of why websites have become a non-negotiable part of every small business’s digital identity.
It shows that the digital world is rapidly growing and adapting robust, innovative methods to satisfy online consumer needs. In this dynamic and digital world, it's necessary to have a business website regardless of your field of work. The only thing to understand is that most buyers have shifted from physical to online shopping, and COVID19 has accelerated this process. Unless you build a website for your business, surviving in current conditions might become challenging in the future.
Anyhow, there are several things to consider when building a business website, which includes both functional and aesthetic components. So without further delay, let's uncover the six key steps to building a great small business website.
Building a Great Small Business Website in 6 Key Steps
The internet is populated with search terms like "how to build a great website," but there is no content available that can serve as a guide. With that said, we are sharing our six key steps to building a great small business website that will serve as a guide and elaborate most crucial aspects of website design.
1. Acquire a Good Domain Name
The first step of the web design and development process is acquiring a good domain. However, it's not as easy as it may seem because most domains are either in use or purchased by people as assets to be sold to the highest bidder. There are a few guidelines for finding the best domain name for a business website, for instance:
- The domain name should be less than three words
- It should contain a core keyword
- It should be relevant to the content on the website and niche
- The domain shouldn't contain words that Google can potentially ban in the future.
- Check traffic against the keyword you have shortlisted for the domain
- Make sure there are no typos in the domain
- Choose a domain relevant to your country of business. For instance: if you live in the USA, but your website caters to the UK, make sure your domain ends with .co.uk.
- Avoid using numbers and hyphens; they are difficult to type and remember for the visitor
- Add your location to the domain, for instance, "best shoes in New York" these are SEO-friendly domains and rank faster than others
So for example, if you are a real estate company, you should choose your domain name based on that. There are
Real Estate Web Design Agencies that will help you choose the right domain name, as well as a good hosting service that suits your business needs, which we will talk about next.
2. Buy a Secure and Reliable Hosting Service
It's not necessary to buy a hosting service from the same website you bought your domain as both are different entities. It's usually better to find a different hosting platform. Currently, the best and the cheapest hosting for business websites is Amazon Web Services, offering the lowest rates in the market. However, there are plenty of other options just a Google search away. The important thing to remember is that your host should be secure and scalable.
3. Integrate Conversion Optimized Design Elements
Now that you are done with domain hosting and other services, it's time to start building a business website. The first thing to remember is that small businesses don't need an overwhelming website that might drive away potential sales. Therefore, only conversion-optimized elements should be used in the web designing process for small businesses. For instance, visual cueing is an excellent psychological technique that drives massive conversions. It involves placing pictures throughout the website to influence the users' buying behavior.
4. Display a Clear Information About Your Business
It is essential to let people know who you are and what you do so they don't get confused when they visit your business website. To do this, make sure your home page banner has a picture that clearly explains the nature of your work. This is because the home page banner is a visual representation of your services and web visitors tend to notice the web banner before any other elements on the website. Moreover, integrating a hello bar makes your website look lively and adds a subtle premium feel. Lastly, make sure your website footer and header have the about us page linked prominently. Otherwise, customers won't trust your business.
5. Create an Engaging User Interface
If your website doesn't have an exemplary user interface, it will be challenging for you to generate business. Moreover, a well-designed user interface helps in SEO, which means that Google prefers structured web pages. On the other hand, an engaging user interface will make it convenient for web visitors to your site and place an order.
It's relatively easy to make a user-optimized website by keeping a few things in mind:
- Make sure you use light colors
- Be consistent with fonts and font size
- Less is more
- Make sure all internal links lead to their designated pages.
6. Optimize Your Site for SEO
Once everything is done and dusted, all you need to do is optimize your site for SEO. You can start by hunting keywords and finding backlinking opportunities. However, bear in mind that it takes around 3-4 months of hard work for your SEO efforts to come to fruition and your website to rank on Google. Otherwise, you can always pay Google to boost your business.
However, if you prefer to rank organically, you will need to add blogs and articles to your websites targeting relevant keywords. Moreover, you can make social media page for your business and share your blogs for backlinks, more exposure, and increased engagements.
The Bottom Line
Creating the best website for your small business is essential if you want to grow your business. In addition to the climbing trend of online shopping across the globe, COVID19 has accelerated digitalization with more people joining the online world. In this situation, it's mandatory to upgrade your business website to the latest tools or build a business website from scratch. Regardless of which option you choose, you can rely on Antares Systems to add value to your business. Moreover, you can also find social media marketing and messenger marketing services as well at Antares Systems. So you can contact us now for a free consultation.
