When it comes to small business marketing, a great website can be one of the most effective and cost-effective marketing channels. This allows you to create a visually appealing website that represents your business in a unique way.
1. Keep the design simple, fresh and unique. The first thing potential customers see when they visit your website, the home page is usually the most important part of a small business’s web design. Make sure your home page answers the critical questions new visitors will be asking, including who you are, what your business is, and what they can do on your site. Consider the impression you want to make and the message you want to convey to your customers and potential customers. The trick is not to clutter your homepage, which can be distracting and confusing for customers. Limit yourself to no more than 120 text words.
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2. Keep in mind that your visitors may be visiting from laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. Avoid designing pages for a large monitor or pages that use more complex features such as Flash animation or navigation. (Flash is not supported on the Apple devices.) Keep it simple and concise so your site is optimal for any device a visitor might be using.
3. Present your products and services. Make sure your home page clearly presents the product or service you are selling. Most small businesses can benefit from adding professional or stock photos or videos. It is important that product photos or graphic images and descriptions are clean, clear and appropriate. You can have a great website design, but if your product photos look awful, your potential customers will think twice about buying your products.
4. Consider the loading times of the website. Users are often impatient when browsing websites, and slow loading times can decide whether users are ready to buy your products or services, or learn more about your business. Make sure you regularly review your site’s performance by checking load times, site speed, correct formatting, and continuity with text and images.
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5. Make your website easily accessible. Remember that people with certain disabilities (e.g. color blindness) will visit your website and plan your design so that they too can learn about your products and services. Also, consider how people with slower internet connections view your site and what you can do to improve their experience.
6. Organize your website to provide a great user experience. Remember that when your potential customers visit your website, they are usually looking for specific information. You will rarely read full pages, and most people will scan pages quickly. A well-structured website that presents information in an orderly and organized manner will be far more successful than one that appears chaotic or is not laid out intuitively.
7. Content is critical. Poorly written content can quickly cause a visitor to leave your website. Don’t neglect the importance of well-written headlines; They can be very powerful and make the difference between a visitor reading the rest of the content or deciding to leave your site. Ensure content stays relevant – fresh and up-to-date material such as updated product information, business hours, price changes and new articles and white papers keep users engaged and active.
8. Don’t forget Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEO and SEM are highly specialized fields and require a significant investment of time to learn. But SEO and/or SEM campaigns can give small businesses great leverage and should not be ignored. There are literally thousands of qualified professionals who can help you with this and executing your SEO/SEM strategy well will have a major impact on the success of your website.
9. Turn to creative crowdsourcing for your design and written content. Crowdsourcing is the process of outsourcing tasks through an open call to a large group of workers such as designers, writers, musicians or filmmakers. An online creative crowdsourcing marketplace allows business owners to post their creative projects and name their own price. In return, creative suppliers submit their concepts from all over the world and the buyer simply chooses the one he likes best. Bottom Line: Creatively crowdsourcing a website design is faster, cheaper, easier, and offers a much wider range of design concepts.
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What are your website design tips to create an effective website?
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OPEN Cardmember Michael Samson is co-founder of crowdSPRING, www.crowdSPRING . com, the world’s largest marketplace for creative crowdsourcing.
Photos from above: iStockphoto, Thinkstock
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