Planning a new website for your small business

Your small business has been getting by with a Facebook page or a Geocities site built in 1998. You’re still in business, and things are going well. Do you really need a new website (or a website at all)?

If your “website” falls into one of the two categories above, the answer is yes. A website is the modern-day business card. It’s where prospects, clients and hapless Googlers end up when they want to figure out who you are and what you do.

They can read up on your story, check out your products or services, and get a feel for ethos and mission. In a world where brands are increasingly differentiated based on storytelling and branding, an informative, compelling website is a must.

Here’s why you (probably) need a new website.

A website is one of the most powerful pieces of branding you can create. It’s your digital home – a central repository showcasing everything customers need to know. A well-crafted website not only allows prospective customers to check you out, but it pulls in a host of new users who are simply searching for terms related to what you do.

Here are some of the benefits of an up-to-date website:

• It’s a low-cost, key piece of branding collateral
• It provides credibility and visibility
• It showcases what you do and who you serve
• It allows simple communication with customers
• It’s available 24/7 – especially with chatbots
• It lets you sell products/services
• It lets you capture new leads without lifting a finger

To figure out whether you need a new website, ask yourself the following:

• Is my website compatible with today’s browsers?
• Is my website adaptive (i.e., works well on mobile and tablets)
• Is my website up-to-date and representative of what I do?
• Does my website contain broken links?
• Does my website meet web accessibility standards?
• Does my website let users find or buy my products/services?

Maybe your website is perfect as-is, and you don’t need to update just yet. That’s great! Just add a note in your calendar to revisit this in 6 months or a year so that you can be sure that you’re still ahead of the game.

If you are in need of a new website, here’s what you need to get started.

Finding (and landing) that perfect .com address.

If you already have your own website, you can skip this step. If you’re upgrading from your Google Business or Facebook page, this one’s for you. Before you can build a website, you’ll need to find and buy a domain name. A domain name is the part that goes before the .com in a web address.

At this stage in the game, most names have already been claimed, but don’t worry. If YourBusinessName.com isn’t available, go with something like WeAreYourBusinessName.com or YourBusinessNameIndustryName.com.

There are also different types of extensions available you can try – .io, and .ly are currently popular.

(Tip: avoid naming your business after your domain name. The world only needs so many BusinessNameIO companies.)

Most people won’t be typing in the web address from scratch – they’ll be coming from Google, clicking a link, or using autofill or bookmarks. So don’t worry if your domain name isn’t a perfect match to your business name or if it’s a bit longer than you’d like.

To get your domain name, you’ll need to go through a domain name registrar like Google or GoDaddy. Note that you’ll also need to set up hosting – your domain registrar can usually provide this for an extra fee. Amazon is another popular hosting provider.  You may also find, like we do, that working with a local company for hosting is your best option.

Building a website that checks all the must-have boxes.

Unless you’re a massive eCommerce giant or a digital streaming service, your website is probably going to be pretty simple. It will generally contain the following:

• A snapshot overview of who you are, what you do, and how to get in touch.
• About us. Where you tell the “story” of your company and show your human side.
• Products/Services. Where you showcase what you do – and encourage people to pay for it.
• Contact Us. Usually consists of a contact form, address details and social media links.

You may have slightly different site requirements depending on what you do. For example, a design firm may feature a portfolio page showcasing case studies and examples of creative work. A tech company may include an FAQs page explaining product details and answering common questions. A public speaker or business coach may have a blog page regularly updated with informative posts.

Don’t forget that your website is your online business card. It’s there to help you do business, so make sure it works for you.

Here are a few tips for website success:

• Keep it clear, informative and on-brand
• Make it fast-loading and compatible with all browsers
• Include a newsletter sign-up to capture user details
• Use engaging headlines and keep text blocks to a minimum
• Make sure that every page actually does what it claims

Costing out your website (without breaking the bank)

Asking how much a website costs is a bit like asking how long a piece of string is. There are websites that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. There are websites that cost millions! And there are websites that cost a few hundred bucks…and still look great.

Really, the cost of your website depends on your needs (and your budget). If you’re a huge website serving millions of visitors daily, you’ll need to invest some money to make sure that your website can handle that kind of traffic. If you need expensive animations, videos and custom graphic design, then you’ll pay a premium.

But for many businesses, a customized version of a templated site can be the way to go. Providers like Squarespace let you spin up a great looking website for rock-bottom costs. Choose from templates suited to businesses spanning music, hospitality, tech and more, and use their drag-and-drop functionality to add images or text.

If funds are limited, opt for the template approach and budget some money towards custom graphic design or copywriting (or even just copyediting). Hiring a pro to give your site a quick once-over, or to add some custom pizzazz can take your site up a notch.

We have opted to work with a local small business that focuses on marketing for other small businesses.  DuroMedia provides attractive, modern, easy to navigate sites with reasonable price points.  They have built many sites for our clients (including this one!) and we often serve as the liaison between them and our clients during the design and build stages.  They work in WordPress which makes the sites simple to maintain whether our clients take on that task or allow us to help with those tasks.

Telling your brand story in a way that captivates.

You’re more than a company: you’re a brand. And today’s consumers want to connect with brands that have a story to tell and a mission that they can get on board with. Brand stories create trust.

If you were wondering why our recommended site layout had a whole page dedicated to “About Us”, this is it. Believe it or not, the About Us page is likely to be the second-most visited page on your site – so make it worth the trip!

What’s a brand story? It tells the tale of how you came to do what you do – and why you do it. A great brand story is much more about the “who” and the “why” than the “what” of your brand. It’s your purpose and your mission, and done well, will pop up in some way across your whole website. A great brand story gets consumers to buy into what you do – and become fans instead of just customers.

When writing your brand story, consider:

• What was the “a-ha!” moment that made you start your company?
• What’s your solution, and why is it so great?
• What were your setbacks and learning moments?
• What’s your mission – what do you want to achieve?
• How do you want your customers to see you?

When building your About Us page, use a friendly, inclusive voice. Make it about your customers, not just about you – you want them to connect with you! Get personal by including natural, engaging photos and videos of the people behind what you do. And above all, keep it simple.

Optimizing your site for SEO (ie, Google’s bots).

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and basically refers to how easily search engine bots can find and

index your site. Good SEO can bump your site up in the search engine results for your niche – bringing you an audience of people who might not have otherwise heard of you.

SEO is a powerful tool for brands, and adhering to good SEO practices is a great way to give your website a branding boost.

You can rank better in search engine results by:

• Using headlines and subheadlines that feature relevant keywords in title and header tags
• Filling in your site and page metadata – the “snippets” that show up on Google
• Writing content featuring targeted keyword phrases
• Writing easy-to-read content and using short paragraphs and sentences
• Linking to relevant internal pages using rich anchor text
• Adding metadata and descriptions to images and videos
• Using descriptive “slugs” for your page addresses
• Building a site that’s fast to load and usable on mobile
• Building a site that meets accessibility standards

Google is the arbiter of all things SEO, and it’s worth staying up to date with their algorithm changes to make sure you rank as highly as possible in search results. You can check out their SEO guide here.

Note: it can be tempting to fill your website up with vaguely related keywords in order to bring in more traffic. But this is a bad idea.

Why? First, Google knows all about this kind of behavior, and will penalize your site for it. Second, this kind of traffic is generally low value. Maybe you’ll get more eyeballs on your site, but they’ll leave once they realize that you’re not actually what they were looking for. Keep your target audience in mind, and write for them.

Making the most of your site’s heavy-lifting elements.

All parts of your website are important, but some pieces are the tour-de-force of your content. These include things like headings, calls to action and checkout pages.

Let’s take a look at the parts of your website that do the heavy lifting – and how you can make sure that they are.

• Hero text (and image). This the one-line intro that a user first sees when landing on your site. It’s a short, punchy tagline-esque description of who you are and what you do. Make it count! The same goes for any headings on your site. If a user reads anything on your site, it’ll be the headlines.
• Calls to action. These are the holy grail of user responsiveness. Instead of making visitors guess what they’re meant to do, tell them. Phrases like “Download now!” “Sign up to our newsletter!” “Get in touch!” are all calls to action. They inspire your user to take action and get involved. Use them on every page, and make them powerful.
• Search snippets. This is the short block of text that appears in the search results when a user searches for a keywords or topic. It’s drawn from the metadata from your website or a given webpage. Snippets can be the difference between whether someone clicks through or not – so optimize them.
• Checkout page. If you’re selling something online, this is your meal ticket, so make sure it does the job. Make it fast, simple, secure, trustworthy and informative. Here are some tips for making your checkout page work like a dream.

Maximizing eyeballs with analytics and testing.

These days we’re all about data. And with good reason. Data gives us what we need to make informed decisions that drive better business – and ensure happier customer interactions.

By embedding a service like Google Analytics into your website you can learn valuable information about your visitors, including:

• Where they’re from
• How they arrived on your site
• How long they stay on your site
• How they use your site
• What browser/device they’re using
• What links they click on

This kind of information lets you adjust your site to ensure that you’re meeting the needs and expectations of your users. For example, you might have a page that gets much more traffic than anticipated. Clearly this is meeting a particular need – one that you didn’t know existed! Using your new-found data-based knowledge, you can build out this page to encourage it to capture even more traffic.

On the other hand, if a key page has a high level of “bounces”, something is missing. Maybe it isn’t loading properly, or maybe it’s not giving people what they expect. You can update this page accordingly to meet customer expectations and encourage them to stick around.

A powerful way to see whether these tweaks are working is to use A/B testing. Maybe you’ve changed a headline. With A/B testing, you can show some users the new headline, and some users the old headline. If the ones who see the new headline stick around for longer, it’s a good sign that you’re on the right track, and can implement the change. You can keep testing and tweaking until your pages are perfectly optimized for your users.

Enough reading: it’s time to get building.

As you can see, a lot goes into building a powerful business website. Fortunately, with today’s plug-and-play options and automated tools, most of the hard work is taken off your hands.

We’ve worked with plenty of customers through their website builds in our time, so if you have any questions about getting your new site up and running, feel free to get in touch!