When you’re starting a small business in 2022, you should be prepared to think of its website as the face you’re presenting to potential clients and customers. A website has long been an important component of businesses of all sorts, but this is truer today than ever before. Accordingly, we wanted to go over a few key considerations you’ll want to keep in mind when the time comes to set up your small business’s site.
Table of Contents
Pick The Right Platform
The first big step you’ll take in designing your small business website is choosing a platform to build it on. And these days, there are more options than ever, thanks in large part to the simplification of web design in general. For instance, companies like Wix and Squarespace have become enormously popular in recent years on the basis that they can help beginners to set up functional and attractive websites.
While those represent some of the easiest options for beginners though, we have recommended WordPress specifically for small businesses for several reasons: It’s safe and secure, SEO-friendly, and easy to learn (particularly compared to how it used to be). We’d stand by that recommendation, but it’s a good idea in general to do your due diligence and find the right platform for your needs.
Perfect Navigation From The Start
As you set about crafting your website, it is of the utmost importance to consider navigation at every turn. A piece at the Jimdo blog called the navigation bar the roadmap to your website, and frankly that might be the best way to put it. This is the tool, in effect, that site visitors will turn to in order to see what the site has to offer, and how to get there. It absolutely must accurately represent the contents of your site and provide clear directions.
Even beyond the main navigation bar though, be sure to keep navigation in mind at each little interval. Is there a “home” button clearly accessible on each page? Does a piece of written content wrap up wit ha “back to top” command? These are the little questions you should never stop asking as you build your site.
Build In A System For Edits
When you have full control over a website, you’re always free to make whatever edits become necessary. They might concern something as simple as typos or something as complex as implementing a whole new digital marketing strategy – but you can make them as needed.
The only trouble is that most ordinary web design processes make it somewhat difficult to perform all but the simplest edits and updates without having to sift through code or make larger changes. For that reason, we’d suggest building in a system in advance for making these kinds of adjustments down the road, particularly given that there are now software tools that exist to serve this precise purpose. For that matter, Updatable reveals that a simple app can enable instant updates to any part of a website, when installed and used properly. If you have a system like this at your disposal from the outset, you’ll be setting your site up to be adaptable, which is always a good thing.
Attach Social Media Platforms
The notion that a small business needs to be active on social media already feels somewhat tedious. It’s been a nonstop recommendation to people interested in business for many years now, to the point that it can come across as too obvious to mention. However, it’s important not to fall into a lull in which you stop recognizing the importance of social media in growing companies. Just a couple years ago Business.com reminded us of some key social media benefits – most notably the ability to communicate with visitors and keep tabs on customers – and they’re important to keep in mind.
In addition to maintaining social media though, it’s important to attach links to your channels to your website. Social media tabs should be prominently displayed where they can be seen on every page, such that site visitors have a way of connecting to you and your business if and when they want to.
In the end, far more than a few key points go into designing the ideal small business website. Adhering to these ideas will help you get off to a good start though, and allow you to build in other features and focus on other points as needed.
