Your website is the online hub for your small business. It’s the place your customers go to about your services, get pricing information and so much more. It’s also the very first introduction a prospective client has to your business. First impressions matter and you want your organization’s website to shine. It’s impossible to imagine that any small business wants to poorly showcase themselves online, but it’s clear that many struggle.
If you are thinking that your website might be more meh, than magnificent, we’ve put together a list of 5 easy ways to get your site back on track. Check them out below, and get inspired to tackle your online woes.
Almost half or more of traffic that a website receives is from people viewing the site on a mobile device. If your website template isn’t optimized for mobile, it’s failing your clients and other visitors more than half of the time. Aside from a complete redesign, there are still plenty of easy ways to create a better mobile experience. Some easy mobile-friendly website design changes are enlarging the font size to 14 or 16 pixels, using clickable buttons instead of linking individual words, and breaking up dense paragraphs into bulleted lists.
All of the items on our list are musts, but this one is a definite no. Please, please stop annoying your visitors by automatically playing a video with sound at full blast the second they land on your website. While this is thankfully becoming unusual, trust us, there are who remain guilty of this website “crime.” Multimedia is one of the best ways to engage your readers, but let them be in control of deciding if the video or audio should play.
Last year may have been absolutely amazing for your small business, but it’s now a new year. And, it’s time to take down all info related to special events or promotions from 2017. It’s okay to tuck those pages away or archive them, but if they are on the homepage – it’s time for them to go. Keep your homepage forward-looking, and remove all out-of-date information. The focus instead should be on actively spotlighting upcoming topics.
This one is a little tricky. It’s a fine line between keeping your clients in-the-know and having your homepage feel messy, disjointed and simply overloaded with just too much stuff. Your goal is to strike a balance the needs of current and prospective clients. By working with a website designer who understands the needs of small businesses, the end result is a homepage that gets this delicate balance just right.
Yes, we know it’s hard to source great photos, but, trust us, it’s worth it. A great small business website begins with great images. These photographs serve as the foundation and a strong foundation equals a strong website. You may want to consider hiring a professional photographer for assistance or sourcing high-quality images from a provider like Adobe Stock.
If your website is guilty of any of the above, try not to feel overwhelmed and frustrated. Start by making small changes – removing blurry images or stop auto-playing videos – before moving to bigger and more strategic updates – like the content on your homepage. We encourage you to try these suggestions and breathe some fresh air into your site. You might be pleasantly surprised with the results.
Contact us and see how we can help. When we build a new small business website, we build it with these things in mind. Let’s get started on building your business a new, useful, and engaging website that your clients will actually want to visit!