The first thing you need to know about small business website design is that it doesn’t exist. Small businesses do. However, websites don’t fall into the category of “small” or “large.”
They are classified by type and by design more than by size.
When you are thinking about building or designing a website for you small business you can’t be thinking “small” or “big” or even “corporate.” You need to be thinking the best design for the type and size of my business.
And the website needs to be looked at as more than just a glorified phonebook entry or an advertisement.
Your website can be your greatest marketing tool. It has to be built and designed to grow with your business AND to be used in a way that grows your business.
While you may be able to say that you have a large or a small website based on the number of pages what is more important is the impact of the experience the visitor has when they visit your site.
Some sites have few pages… but great impact.
Others have hundreds of pages (which can attract hundreds of visits) but do not have an impact on many of those that visit.
In order to know if you website design is effective you have to first identify how you plan to use it and then re-evaluate to makes sure that is the way you should be using it.
Then, once you are confident with your decision… make sure you design and build your website for that use.
Some uses of websites:
- A “placeholder” for displaying basic information (like a phone book entry)
- A sales support tool
- A marketing tool
- An advertisement
- An interactive space
- As an online store
- To accept donations
This isn’t a comprehensive list, but it gives you an idea of some different uses. Each use is going to be designed differently. Each use needs to be targeted. A well-designed and well-built website can serve multiple functions.
We have to be realistic though. You need to know how much time you can spend working your website a month and how much time you want your website to be working for you in order to know how to design it. If you want to use it as a marketing tool to grow your business you will have to take more time than if you are just using it as a place to share basic information. A website is just like any other investment in your business… you will only get out of it what you are able to put into.
Just remember to ask two questions when thinking about designing and building a website:
- How much do I want to spend on it?
- How much do I want to make from it?