This post is for the non technical business owner to cover the basic information you need to know about a small business website. We’ll discuss the main purpose of the website, the elements it needs, and the best way to get it setup.
Why does my business need a website?
I’m going to assume you know why you need a website for the most part since you are reading this, but just in case you are still on the fence.
The main reason a website can help is it makes you look more professional. This is potentially less important for certain types of work, but it can never hurt.
**Free tip, make sure you also use professional email matching your website domain!
Additionally, it is a must if you want to do digital marketing. Maybe you do not plan on it now, but having a website in place earlier will help the process go more smoothly if that changes.
What to include on your small business website
What EVERY small business website needs
There are a lot of formats you can use for your site. Anything from a single page with different sections to go over your business, services, and contact information, to a site with different pages for each. There are reasons to do each. No matter what format you choose here is what any site should have at a minimum.
- Information about your business
- Information about your services
- Contact information
- And a way your customers can get in touch with you directly through the site
- You can have a contact form that will automatically add a user to a list on an email marketing platform and have it send them a welcome email.
Additional features that many businesses could use
There are many things that could belong on your website. Here are some common things.
- Customer reviews (often called social proof)
- About us section
- FAQs
- Specific information about products or services
- Blogs or articles
Tools and integrations
There are many ways to extend the functionality of your site. There are MANY possibilities so I’ll just cover a few examples.
- Integrated forms – you can have forms automatically add new contacts to a list and email them automatically using email marketing software like Brevo or Mailchimp.
- Credit card processing – you can take payments for products or services
- Various Tools – you can have plugins to help with many different tasks
- Speed up your site
- Help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Analytics – know what pages are being viewed
Need advice on how to incorporate something on your website? Ask if we’ve created an article already. If we have, we can send you the link and if not, maybe we can write one.
How to get your small business website found
For your website to be useful, people need to get there somehow. There are a few methods for this from just including it in your business cards and email signatures to proactively trying to get your site in front of the right people.
Direct linking (or someone actually typing in your URL but that is rare these days.
This would be if someone clicks a link you give them in an email or directly searches your business name.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is a big topic by itself but basically this is anything where you pay to have an ad or post show up for your prospective customers. You can use Google or other search engines, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or a variety of other sources.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This is another big topic, but in summary this is anything you do to make a search engine more likely to show you in results for searched that are relevant to you. Click here to learn a bit more about SEO.
How can I get a website for my business?
There are essentially two ways to get a website. Either have someone build it for you or build it yourself. There are some obvious pros and cons to each.
It is oftentimes quite expensive to have a professional designer do it for you but most business owners don’t have the time, money, or knowledge.
Doing it yourself is much cheaper, you only have to pay for hosting and the domain name, but it is time consuming and requires technical AND design skills.
Click here to get more information about doing it yourself vs. having it done for you.