Website Design for Small Businesses: A Beginner's Guide

If you’re a small business owner, then you know that web design is essential for your success. And if you’re reading this, then you’re probably considering building a website or redesigning your current website. Congratulations! Having a website is one of the best ways to reach new customers and grow your business. It’s the first impression potential customers will have of your business, and it’s important to make sure that it’s a good one!

In this blog post, we’ll discuss why web design matters for a small business, how to select a web designer, examples of great website designs, and frequently asked questions about web design. We hope that this information will help you create a site that represents your business well and helps you achieve your goals!

As a small business owner, you might be thinking that web design isn’t a major priority for your business. After all, you’re just starting out and you have other things to focus on, right? Wrong!

Every business from law offices to construction companies needs a website. Customers use the internet to research businesses before they make a purchase, and if you don’t have a web page, they may not even know that your business exists.

Plus, a well-designed website can help you stand out from the competition. In a sea of generic, cookie-cutter websites, a beautiful and unique website will help your business stand out and make a lasting impression with customers.

And last but not least, having a website is just good for business. Having a professional website shows you’re serious about your brand and your customers, which makes a good first impression and helps you build trust and credibility with site visitors. If it looks amateurish or like it was put together in a hurry, they’re going to assume that your business is the same way.

This is one of the most important aspects of web design, and it’s also one of the most often overlooked. Customer experience refers to how easy it is for visitors to use your website and find the information they’re looking for. By creating a website that is easy to navigate and provides all the information customers need, you’re making it easy for them to do business with you. This positive customer experience will help keep your customers coming back!

In addition to making a good impression on potential customers, web design is also important for search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of making your website more visible in search engine results pages (SERPs) like Google.

There are a number of things you can do to improve your SEO and overall web design like using keyword-rich titles and descriptions, adding alt text to images, and using effective headings and subheadings.

Web design can impact your search engine optimization efforts in a few ways, but the most important is mobile responsiveness. You can also improve your SEO by making sure your website is fast, and easy to use. A website that is not mobile responsive will not rank as high in search engine results because mobile traffic is a priority. To learn more about what search engines prioritize, check out our article on how search engines work.

Now that you know why web design is important, you might be wondering how to go about choosing a web design company. Everyone wants to work with the best web design companies, but finding the right company can be tricky, so it’s worth taking the time to do your research. Here are a few tips when choosing a web design company:

Before you start looking for a web design company, it’s important to have a clear idea of your goals. Consider, what are you trying to achieve with your website? Do you want to increase sales, generate leads, or build brand awareness? Once you know your goals, you can start looking for a company that specializes in helping businesses like yours.

It’s also important to set a budget for your web design project. Don’t be afraid to ask the web design company how much their services cost and what you can expect to get for your money.

Every web design agency is different, but make sure they offer all the services you need not just web design. Services like hosting, SEO, and website maintenance can be essential to the success of your website. You don’t have to work with the same agency for everything, but it will often make your life easier if you can find a company that offers all the services you need.

Don’t make the mistake of selecting the first web design company you come across. Meet with several agencies and get quotes from each one before making a decision. This will give you a better idea of what services cost and how different companies approach web design.

Some companies might focus heavily on the aesthetics of your website, while others will prioritize functionality. The right company for you will depend on your specific goals, which is why setting them is so important.

Whatever your business needs are, you want to be sure that the web design agency produces quality content, has a good understanding of web design principles, and can help with your unique digital strategy.

Coming up with a great design for your small business website is tough. It can be useful to look at more successful websites to help you brainstorm ideas during the design process. To help you, we have created the following list of 28 excellent web design examples.

This web page focuses on social media management. Their web design is clean, simple, and easy to navigate. They make their product free trial easy to access from their homepage, which helps maximize conversions.

This site focuses on social media management, analytics and offers other digital products. Their design is modern and sleek. They use a lot of white space, which makes their site easy to read and navigate. Accessibility is becoming more important business websites and Hootsuite’s design makes text easier to read by using the right amount of contrast.

This web page focuses on email tools. Their web design is clean and simple. They use a lot of negative space, which makes their homepage easy to read and navigate.

This web page focuses on email marketing. Their web design is clean, simple, and easy to navigate. They also use a strong CTA on their homepage to sign up for their marketing services.

This web page focuses on email tools for marketing automation. Their web page is easy to read and navigate. What sets them apart is their use of humor on their web page, which makes them more relatable and approachable.

This web page focuses on marketing through email. Their design is clean, simple, and easy to navigate. They use a strong CTA on their homepage, and also include a live chat feature, which is important for website visitors to get help if they need it.

This web page focuses on accounting and bookkeeping. Their design has a lot of contrast, which helps with reading. Visitors can easy get started with their software right from the homepage making navigation a breeze.

This web page focuses on invoicing and billing. Their design features a simple homepage with accessible buttons to help with navigation. They offer a free trial of their product, which offers visitors a more hands-on experience with their software.

MailChimp is another email marketing service website. Similar to other email tools, they offer a quick sign up to get started right from the homepage. Their menu’s are clean and easy to read which greatly improves the user experience.

This website focuses on accounting and bookkeeping. Their web design is modern and sleek. They make good use of contrast for easy readability and navigation. They also make sign up a simple by featuring their sign up form at the top of their homepage.

This is another web page that offers a lot of helpful information related to inbound sales and marketing. Their design uses a lot of moving visuals, which helps draw the user’s eye and keep them engaged.

This website focuses on accounting and bookkeeping. Their design features contact information that is easily accessible from the navigation bar. They also display their product features in a simple tab format for easy reading.

This is a website builder that offers templates that visitors can use to create a web page for their small business. The site is very user friendly with a great headline to draw visitor’s attention.

This web page focuses on accounting and bookkeeping. Their web design is modern and sleek. They use a lot of white space, which gives their site a clean appearance.

This is a website with a great design and focuses on the digital experience. This company shows top designers on the web, helps those looking for jobs and those with projects they need completed. Their web page is clean & simple. They also do a great job using color to draw the user’s eye to buttons.

This web page focuses on accounting and bookkeeping. Their web design is simple, but easy provides an easy to use platform. They also offer a free trial of their product prominently on their homepage. Lastly, they make great use of customer testimonials to help generate trust in their products.

Perhaps the most well known accounting software available, Quickbook’s site features an excellent design. Their site is clean, simple, and easy to navigate. They like Dribbble, they make great use of color to draw the user’s eye.

This is another great site that offers search engine optimization tools. Their design is modern and clean. They also prominently feature large customers to generate trust with new visitors. Another great design element to take note of is their use of graphics to help breakdown everything their tool offers.

This web page focuses on accounting and bookkeeping. Their web design is very typical of software websites and easy to navigate. They make good use of white space and contrast for better web accessibility.

This is another web page focusing on accounting and bookkeeping. Their design is a bit more complex than some of the other mentioned above. They offer a sign up option, in addition to a demo, at the top of the homepage to maximize conversions.

SEMRUSH is another search engine optimization tool. They make getting started easy by placing their search bar at the top of their homepage. This allows visitor’s to try out their tool immediately without delay, greatly improving the user experience.

AccountEdge focuses on accounting and bookkeeping. Their design is modern and complex. They don’t use a lot of white space, which makes their website stand out from others listed here. They also layout their homepage with right aligned text, which is quite uncommon in web design currently.

Carrd.co helps build one-page websites for their customers. They are the only one-page example we choose to include since typically this isn’t ideal for small business website design. It has a very simple web design but their landing page is very aesthetically pleasing.

Social Media Examiner offers website visitors helpful information about how to use social media to promote their small business website. Their design is more cluttered than many of the sites on our list. However they do a great job featuring customer sign ups prominently, which helps maximize conversions.

Shopify focuses on ecommerce web design for small businesses. Their design easy to navigate and they make great use of pictures featuring their service. In addition, they made their navigation straightforward and easy to use considering they have a ton of content.

This site also focuses on accounting and bookkeeping. Their design is modern and blocky. They use white space and color to keep user’s attention. They make good use of unique graphics to help catch visitor’s eyes, which also helps deliver information about their service in a simple manner.

Our final site focused on accounting and bookkeeping. LessAccounting’s design is simple and clean. They make good use of compelling copy without creating a “wall of text.” They make it simple to schedule a demo or start a free trail right from the homepage.

Last but certainly not least, Canva is a well known digital design tool. Their web page is one of the best because it immediately takes users to their design portal. From the homepage users can quickly select what they want to create and be started within minutes.

These are just a few examples of great website designs that could help with planning your small business website. When you’re ready to start your own web design project, keep these tips in mind to ensure you choose the right agency for your needs.

Now that you know why web design is important and how to choose a web design company, let us answer some of your burning questions.

As with any service, there are a lot of factors that impact the price of web design. The size and complexity of your site, the experience of the web design company, and the services they offer all play a role in setting the price.

One of the main price drivers is the amount of time it takes to design and build your site. A complex website with a lot of features will take longer to design and cost more money.

A basic website will usually cost between $500 and $5000, while complex web designs can cost anywhere from $5000 to $50,000 or more. Remember, you get what you pay for when it comes to web design.

Yes, you can create your own website using a website builder like Squarespace or Wix. However, we recommend working with a professional web design company to get the best results.

Website builders are easy to use and allow you to create a basic web page quickly and cheaply. However, they have serious limitations in terms of design customization and functionality.

Many business owners also end up in a frustrating situation when trying to migrate their website or make changes to their website builder subscription. This is because many of the website builders own your web page and won’t allow you to take it with you if you decide to cancel your subscription.

Overall, we recommend working with a professional web design company rather than using a website builder.

Although there are many important things to consider when building a website, the most important elements for a business website are:

• Clear and concise design
• High quality content
• Optimized for search engines (SEO)
• Easy to use navigation
• Mobile friendly design

Keep in mind that these are just a few of the most important elements for a website. Every website is different and will have its own unique needs. Be sure to consult with a web design firm to make sure your website has everything it needs to be successful.

The best content management system (CMS) for small business websites is WordPress. WordPress is easy to use, has a ton of features and plugins, and is very affordable.

Most full service web design agencies will offer comprehensive WordPress support from design to web hosting and site maintenance. In fact, 608 Media offers exactly that to our customers. Many of our customers find that they can save a lot of money by using our WordPress hosting and support services.

It depends on the specific type of hosting your designer offers. If your website is going to be on a shared server, then it is probably best to find your own hosting. However, if your website is going to be on a managed hosting program or dedicated server, then it might be best to host with your designer. This will ensure that your website is always up and running without any problems. To learn more about hosting options be sure to check out our article on where website are hosted.

Website design is one of the most important aspects of any small business. It can impact everything from traffic to sales. In order to make sure your website is great, it’s important to select a web design company that fits your needs and budget, and has a lot of experience in website design.

608 Media is a full service digital marketing agency! We help our clients with website design, web hosting, seo services, and much more. To learn how 608 Media can help your business, check out our services page.