Small Business Website Fundamentals
Having a great website that follows these small business website fundamentals will play a major role in creating a strong online presents for your small business. It’s a place where your customers can find, learn about and engage with your company. And if done properly, your website can engage your customers interest, generating more leads and resulting in bigger profits
Choose a domain name
Your domain name is basically your web address, and its the first thing your customer sees when searching for your website. So for this reason it needs to make a good first impression, it should be short, to the point and something that’s easy to remember. .”.com” or “.com.au” extensions are usually preferable over “.net” or “.site” type extensions. Also you will need to do a google search to see if your domain name has not already been taken, if it has you may need to be creative to think of something similar that is still available.
Choose a web host
Your website hosting provider is company that “hosts” your website. In other words the hosting provider offers the technology and services that allows your website to be viewed on the internet. This service can cost from $2 per month to $100 per month, but for your typical small business website a hosting provider that charges around $3 to $5 per month will usually suffice. This will be and ongoing cost paid to your website provider and will need to be factored into your website budget. In my experience a hosting provider that is fast, reliable and offers good customer service is very important, Site Ground is my personal favorite provider if the ones I have tried.
Easy to navigate and visually appealing design
Any good website should be visually appealing, functional and easy for the customer to navigate around it. The layout should have a good amount of white space so it doesn’t look too crowded, and the links and buttons should all be functioning properly and they should be clearly labelled and easy to understand so you can easily get to the information your looking for. On the other hand by overcrowding a site with too many pictures, unnecessary information, and over the top designs, you could confuse your audience and risk them leaving your site too soon, also it can cause your site to run slowly and cause errors and bugs to your site.
Structure your website content over 5 pages
A good small business website typically follows a 4 page standard layout. The most common web pages used in a small business website include a home page, an about us page, a services or products page and a contact us page.
Home Page: A home page needs to capture your audiences attention and keep them interested enough to want to explore more of your websites content. It should also give a brief overview of your website and contain buttons and links so your customers can navigate to other pages and learn more about your business.
About Page: Your about page will tell your customers about the people behind your business, who the business owner is and what his or her values. Also you could talk about the companies history, longevity, experience and qualifications, awards and other features that make your business stand out from the competition.
Products or services: This page should detail the products or services offered by your business. You could include descriptions, photos, prices and even packages you offer to showcase your products. You could also include a call to action button where customers can contact you for a quote.
Contact Page: This page is where your customers can find all your contact details. You could list your phone number, email address and business address on this page. You can even include a contact form that allows customers to leave you an email directly from the website.
Conclusion
If you want to reach a larger audience and create more leads to your business a professionally designed website is paramount. By following these basic fundamental for your small business website you will ensure your customers will have a good experience using your site and will want to engage more with your business