If you own one of the 30.2 million small businesses in the United States, congrats! You’re probably wondering, though, how to stand out among your millions of competitors online to increase your sales and exposure.
Whether you’re a new or established owner, having an effective small business website is crucial for marketing online to new customers and providing key details about your company. But when done poorly, your website might even confuse or drive customers away, and you don’t want that!
Luckily, making a well-designed small business website does not have to be hard or expensive. You just need to know which design and marketing fails to look out for.
We’ll tell you all about four common small business website mistakes and how you can avoid them.
1. Having a Poor Design
When choosing a small business website design, you might feel tempted to make it stand out with plenty of images and interactive items. But this can actually overwhelm your customers and distract them from the important information your site is supposed to convey.
Rather than using a flashy and busy website design, opt for a simple layout that avoids huge walls of text, distracting images, and outdated technologies like Flash.
Even better, choose a responsive design that adjusts to fit different devices like phones, tablets, and computers well. This will provide a consistent experience for customers and prevent technical issues that keep users from viewing your site’s important content.
2. Not Seeking Professional Help
You might have just started your small business and don’t have a lot of cash to spare. Building a small website on your own might seem like a great idea – we get it!
Sure, your DIY website might be better than having no website at all. But remember that you need both design and marketing expertise to make a small business website design that grabs your customers’ attention and leaves a good impression.
Seeking a professional web development firm gives you access to effective website layout ideas and marketing tips that can give your site the best exposure. Even if you’re low on cash, you can likely find a professional solution that fits your budget.
3. Forgetting a Call to Action
One of the biggest small business website mistakes is forgetting a call to action to drive your customers to do what you want. You might want them to choose your product or service or contact you for a quote.
Therefore, your small business website design should put a call to action in a prominent location and clearly command the customer to take a step.
You might put a form in the middle of the page prompting the user to contact you, sign up for a newsletter, or have a coupon emailed to them. You could even have an online customer service chatbox pop up to ask if the customer needs help choosing a product or service.
4. Not Keeping Your Site Current
Even if you have a top designed website, you won’t serve your customers well if you don’t update your website when your business information changes.
For example, you’ll miss out on customers if your website displays an old email address or phone number since they won’t be able to reach you. It’s even worse if you’ve moved your business but still show the physical address of the old location.
To avoid this small business website mistake, promptly change your contact information whenever a change occurs. This will keep your customers from getting frustrated.
Now You Know Which Small Business Website Mistakes to Avoid!
You should now have a good idea of how to keep your website updated, seek a reliable small business web design company, and make a clean layout that grabs your customers’ attention in a good way.
Once you get your new website design, try tracking how your sales and website visitor numbers change. Hopefully, you’ll see improvements versus your old site that may have had several of the small business website mistakes.
If you’re looking for a well-established company to create your small business website, reach out to us!
