It’s a competitive market for small businesses, no matter what industry they fall in. The internet and social media have opened up new opportunities for sharing and marketing businesses, and it won’t take long for those that don’t adopt these tools to fall behind. While most of our blog posts cover topics like cybersecurity and information technology for small businesses, there’s another area that we consider extremely important for businesses of any size: website design.

In this day and age, a strong and effective website is a nonnegotiable for small businesses that want to succeed. Surprisingly, though, nearly 30% of small businesses do not have a website. This is an improvement from 50% in 2018, but it shows that some business owners do not see the value of having a website.

If you are a small business owner reading this, we hope that you are in the majority of businesses. If you’re not, don’t worry. There’s no better time than now to change the trajectory of your business by creating a strong website to promote it.

You may have noticed that the title of this blog post isn’t “Having a Website Can Revitalize Your Business;” it’s “Redesigning Your Website Can Revitalize Your Business.” That’s because having a website is what we would consider the bare minimum. Every small business should have a website, but simply having a website isn’t enough to really boost your business. Having an effective website is what it takes to really revitalize your small business.

Why isn’t having a website enough? Well, 38% of people will stop interacting with a poorly designed website. So if your website isn’t user friendly, you’ll lose nearly 40% of site visitors from the get go, probably before they’ve even checked out who you are and what you offer. This is a loss that no business wants (or can afford) to suffer. And that is why an effective website is so important.

Components of an Effective Website

So what makes a website effective? We’ll break it down below, but an effective website should have:

  • Consistent Branding
  • Strong Messaging
  • Strategic SEO

Consistent Branding

The design of your website should be professional and consistent. This means that the various pages of your website should flow; they shouldn’t look like they belong to two (or more!) companies. The same colors and fonts should be used throughout your website, and everything should tie in with your company’s logo. The more consistent a brand is, the more professional a business looks. Additionally, if your website links to external websites such as social media profiles, the branding should remain consistent there as well.

A user should know by the colors, graphics, and photos that they are in the right place, even if they’ve clicked from your website to your Facebook profile.

Strong Messaging

An effective website will not only look great, but it will also resonate with your target market to help grow your business. If your website does not speak directly to your target market and make it easy for them to use your services, it’s holding you back. The words on your website should be clear and representative of your business. Having too much content can overwhelm users, and having too little content can leave users unsure about your services or how to reach you.

Additionally, your messaging should be professional and grammatically correct so that users aren’t distracted by errors or confusing verbiage. Many website designers work closely with copywriters who specialize in website messaging.

Strategic SEO

A redesigned website is only as good as the audience it reaches. Without strategic SEO, your website’s reach won’t reach its intended audience or full potential. SEO is a critical part of an effective website, although it’s a part that you don’t necessarily see. Optimizing a website for search engines includes things like implementing the right keywords in the right places and structuring content so that it is conducive for search engine scanning. This takes expertise in keyword research, optimizing graphic elements like images, and more.

If you work directly with a web design company, they should offer these services, or at least be able to connect you with an SEO specialist.

So does your business’ website check off the boxes of an effective website, or is it time for a redesign? A website redesign doesn’t have to mean completely overhauling your current site, although it certainly can if you’re looking for a fresh start. When you work with a professional web designer, they can keep the parts of your website that work and redesign the parts that don’t.

Website Design for Small Businesses

CTS proudly partners with Daor Design to bring small businesses the very best in website design services. Whether you need a brand new website or a refresh of your existing website, we’ve got you covered. For a website designed to help revitalize your business, contact Daor Design today.