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Determining what to include on your small business website is a big decision. You want to make a good first impression on prospective customers or clients by providing useful information. A comprehensive, well-designed website will help your business stand out and factor in search engine optimization (SEO), so that potential customers can discover you.
Read on for tips on how to figure out your website goals, what to include on your small business website, and how to think through your website design.
Identifying your website goals
The right goals for your website depend on the scope and type of small business you own. If you run a brick-and-mortar business, your website might be used to entice people to visit in person. Someone running a creative agency or photography business might use a website as a place to showcase work to secure new clients.
As part of your goal-setting, it can help to regularly ask yourself: What should a business website in my field include? The answer looks different for every small business, but asking it can help you zero in on the kind of text and information your website needs to have.
For example, if you want people to visit your brick-and-mortar business, you'll want to include information about your physical location, such as the address, business hours, and parking or public transportation options. If you're envisioning the website as a place to advertise services, you might want to include pricing information and a contact form or a way for prospective clients to schedule an appointment with you.
Generally, it's best to determine your website goals in advance, as these will dictate your web design process going forward.
Creating a checklist for your small business website
Compiling a to-do list can help you prioritize what you need to do to accomplish your website goals. To inform your checklist, ask yourself a few questions.
What pages should my website have?
Creating a list of all your preferred web pages in advance provides a solid framework for the design process.
Beyond the homepage, you'll likely want the following key web pages:
An About Us page with background on you and/or your business
A page about your products or services
Some businesses will want to include additional pages that are specific to their industry.
Additional pages you might need include:
Menu page
Ecommerce store page
Appointments page
Gallery or portfolio page
Blog
FAQ page
Customer testimonials page
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What information belongs on the homepage?
Your homepage is among the most important web pages on your site. It's the main way people learn about your small business, and it allows you to communicate your brand and values. Decide which information about your business is most important to share and feature it here. For example, a consultant might want to emphasize their experience and a store owner may want to include high-quality photos and selling points about their products.
What information should my website footer contain?
As part of your website design thought process, you should look at best practices around what to include in the footer of a business website. Typically, businesses include links to social media accounts as well as links to individual website pages, like a frequently asked questions and contact information page. Brick-and-mortar businesses often add their address or contact information and hours, while others might include a newsletter block.
Avoid putting your most important links in just the website footer, however. For any pages that you want to highlight, include them in your navigational header to ensure visitors can easily find them.
What kind of content strategy makes sense for my website?
A content strategy is a road map for your content plan and is just one part of your overall marketing strategy. This includes things like topics you plan on covering in your web pages or a blog, the type of content you're going to post, how often you plan on posting and your goals for the strategy.
A content strategy can be simple or complex and is informed by your business needs. For example, if you are a small business designing a website containing just a few pages, your strategy might not be as robust as it would be if you're implementing a blog or running an ecommerce site.
In the case of a simple website, it could be scheduling a time every month to do a deep dive on your website traffic and analytics, and adjusting your homepage text or SEO keywords accordingly in response to what you find.
Designing a small business website
Having a detailed roadmap for your website design and copy will make creating your website a smoother process. Among other things, this can make it easier for you to choose a website template and decide where to place calls to action (CTAs).
Settling on a website template can feel overwhelming because there are so many available designs and customization options. One-page templates are a good starting point because they cover the basic needs of any new website, but can also be tailored to your specific business needs.
If you’re stuck on what the must-haves are to include on a small business website at launch, just focus on a few key pages.
Generally, your website should start out with a:
Homepage or landing page: This serves as a hub for the rest of your website, including links to additional pages.
About me/about the business page: Share a few paragraphs detailing what you sell or make, or what services you provide, and some flavor about your mission statement and origin story as a business.
Contact page: Give visitors a way to contact you via email and social media, and (where applicable) where your brick-and-mortar store is and its phone number.
Product pages: Create a page to show off your products, and any other important pages for your services. A bakery might have a page for catering orders, for example.
Choosing fonts and colors for your website is another important first step for business owners. These things help you establish your brand and aesthetic, and communicate to customers what your business is all about. Photos are also key to your small business website. However, it's perfectly acceptable to use stock photos at first if you still need to get a photo shoot scheduled. Just make sure your use of the photos falls in line with any stock licensing agreements attached to the images.
No matter what design you choose, you'll want to make sure people can find your website. One way to improve searchability is by optimizing any website copy for SEO and making sure your text contains keywords relevant to the focus of your business.
It's helpful to keep in mind that no website design is permanent. If you design a website and realize you don't like the template or need additional pages to cover business growth, you can change it. Your website design can always evolve as your business needs change.
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