Did you know that your website design plays as much of a role in marketing your business as content? At nuBranch, we provide some of the most affordable web design Toronto has to offer. Your web design should be an extension of your marketing with all the aspects of your marketing strategy factored in. From basic concept designs to functional integrations, here are eight things to consider when planning your small business website design.
Overall Content Design to Match Your Industry
As you create a content strategy for your business website, consider what type of website design matches the industry that you are operating in. A good place to start is by conducting market research by analyzing competitor websites or market trends to identify the best practices for your industry.
For some industries, a minimalistic website is the best design to effectively communicate with your target audience without overwhelming them. This may include companies offering services such as photography, cleaning, or consulting. A minimalistic website design can be great for websites that are going to be functional across all platforms such as mobile, desktop, or laptop.
Alternatively, some industries require comprehensive website design in order to provide a more informative presentation of important facts. This may include companies in the healthcare or education industries. A comprehensive website can be a great design for companies that are trying to educate their audience or share information.
Colour Scheme and Brand Image
The colour scheme of your small business website should reflect the personality of your company. This may include bringing in the colours from your logo or incorporating colours that reflect your message. Consider the tone and aesthetic of your business and how the visual design of the website relates to that.
For example, a company that is rooted in sustainability may use greens, blues, or browns in their design to connect their website to their messaging. However, it may not make sense to incorporate neon colours into the website. Conversely, neon colors may be the perfect addition to a local nightclub website.
Page Layout
When your customers come to your landing page, you want them to know exactly who you are, what you have to offer, and how to navigate to what they need all within the first few seconds. The layout of how you present this information might differ depending on the products or services you are offering and the priorities of your business.
Factors to consider include your value proposition, brand messaging, and offerings. For example, a car company offering maintenance services will most likely include its offerings, prices, and service scheduler at the top of the page. However, a clinical research facility may include its accreditation, resources, and recent study results or other metrics at the top.
Important Pages to Include
Consider what web pages are important to include to provide both effective messaging and promote your offerings. In general, a functional small business website should include a landing page, navigation menu, contact form, about page, product or services page, and any other relevant pages that make sense for your business.
Functional Navigation
One of the most important things to keep in mind when developing an online presence for your small business is that if your customer has difficulty finding important functions on your website they will go elsewhere. Customers today want functionality and ease of use. As you craft your website, make sure that you create a way for your customers to easily navigate to each page within your website.
Mobile Friendly
Consumers are spending an increasing amount of time browsing the internet on their phones. In fact, in the eCommerce space, mobile accounts for over two-thirds of all revenue. Across other industries, mobile still accounts for roughly 50 percent of all traffic.
In addition, going back to functionality and ease of use, mobile customers are more likely to spend time on your website if it is easy to use on mobile. There are many easy ways to optimize your website for mobile during the design phase.
SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. Helping your customers find your company starts right in the design phase. Over 70 percent of website traffic comes from Google search results with the first five results accounting for 67.6 percent of clicks. This is especially important for small businesses, especially with local offerings.
You can improve your ranking on search engine results by optimizing your website through keywords and backlinks. This can be incorporated into all aspects of your website design from the landing page content to blog articles. This can ensure that you are not only attracting organic traffic from your target audience but also creating credibility that will solidify your standing in the market.
Lead Generation and Customer Engagement
Use your website as more than just a marketplace or advertising tool, allowing the leads to come to you. Begin by ensuring that you have a “contact us” page. This will allow you to form customer relationships, establish customer loyalty, and stay informed of customer issues. Customers want to be heard but what’s more, they respond to engagement.
You can also use tools such as a newsletter, giveaways, or other forms to entice the customer to provide their information. Once you generate leads you will be able to open a line of communication with your customer that will establish your brand in the market and can create a new line of marketing: word of mouth. In fact, word of mouth is becoming an increasingly popular form of credibility with customers today. Customer reviews hold more power now than ever before with almost 90 percent of customers checking online reviews before visiting a business.
If you’re looking for small business web design Toronto services, nuBranch can help. Check out our services to see how we can help you take your web design to the next level.
