Small Business Web Development: How to Build Your Website on a Budget
As a small business owner, you know that you could benefit immensely from having a website. Getting started can be confusing, and if you’re on a tight budget, you need to navigate your options very carefully.But don’t worry. If you use the right tools and know what to expect, you’ll be setting up your company website in no time. In this guide, we’ll share everything you need to know to build a great website for your small business.
We’ll cover:
- Web design and development basics
- Basic costs you can’t avoid
- How to design your website, step-by-step
Let’s dive in.
Small Business Web Design & Development Basics
Web design is a complex discipline. Becoming a web designer takes years of training and daily effort to stay on top of new tools, trends, and needs. But to craft a revenue-generating website for your small business, you just need to follow a few basic principles:
- Stay on-brand.
- Be user-focused.
- Keep it simple.
- Don’t forget about SEO.
- Design for mobile use.
- Use the right tools.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these principles.
Stay on Brand
Your small business website should be on-brand. When designing your site, use the same colours, fonts, and general style as your social media presence, your physical store, and your business cards. Your brand should be unique and distinctively yours.
Think About Your Clients’ Goals
A website is not just something your clients will just observe. It’s a tool that they’ll use to achieve a specific goal. This could be purchasing your product, booking an appointment, or finding valuable information about your area of expertise.
You should keep this in mind when thinking about your website’s structure (and each page’s structure). Make sure your site is easy to navigate and use. Ask yourself how easy it is for clients to fulfill goals on your website, and if there’s any friction, reduce it. Better yet, eliminate it.
Keep It Simple
While animations, effects, and interactive components may make your site visually impactful and fun, it’s easy to go overboard. And, if you’re handling all these moving parts without code, these plugins and integrations can make your website heavy.
Don’t Forget About SEO
SearchEngineLand defines search engine optimization as “the process of improving your site to increase its visibility for relevant searches. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract prospective and existing customers to your business.”
Like web design, SEO is a multifaceted discipline. Here are some easy-to-implement best practices that will do wonders for your site’s usability:
- Keep your website light and optimize it for speed.
- Make sure every page has a clear goal expressed through its content.
- Make your content scannable and easy to read.
- Add alt-text to all your images to make sure your website is accessible to the visually impaired, as well as SEO-friendly.
Be Responsive
According to the 2020 Adobe Digital Economy Index, mobile visitors account for 40% of eCommerce sales. You’ll want your company website to be as functional and sleek on mobile devices as it is on computers.
Use WordPress
Using a Content Management System (CMS) helps you easily manage and edit your website without touching code. WordPress is one of the most stable and most used Content Management Systems in the world.
Some of the perks to WordPress’ include:
- Robustness. It’s open-source software, maintained and updated by thousands of developers worldwide.
- Versatility. Your standard WordPress blog can be turned into anything from an online store to an e-learning platform through plugins and themes. Most of these tools are free.
- Smooth learning curve. The WordPress admin dashboard is incredibly easy to use. As if that weren’t enough, there are hundreds of thousands of available tutorials.
- It’s free. No subscriptions and no payment tiers. You just have to pay for hosting.
If you want to learn how to develop a high-quality company website with WordPress, check out our Small Business Web Design Guide.
