9 Elements Every Small Business Website Needs

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Does your website reflect your business? Your products and services are unique, and you need your website to mirror that.

Whether you’re just launching or have been operating for years, having a professionally designed website with  valuable content is essential these days.We know that as busy business owners, your time is precious. That’s why we’ve put together this list of 9 essential elements every small business website needs.

1. A unique domain name

Choosing a unique domain name goes a long way. Keep your domain name consistent with your business for branding purposes and to avoid confusion for potential customers.

2. A description of who you are

Explain who you are, how you got started, and what products or services you have to offer. You can do this in an ‘About Us’ section, or even have it on your homepage.

3. Contact & operational information

Give your customers several ways to reach you, such as phone, e-mail, and a standard contact form, so they can choose the method that’s easiest for them. You should also provide your address with a link to the location in Google maps. Finally, include your hours of operation.

4. Testimonials & reviews 

Your potential customers want to know you can be trusted and have made other customers happy. These can be pulled directly from your 411.ca reviews.

5. Call-to-Actions

Your website shouldn’t only promote your business, but push your prospect to become a customer. Tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do with action phrases like:

• Sign Up
• Apply Now
• Try it Out
• See More
• Tell Your Friends
• Learn More
• Buy
• Get Started

Make them stand out with special buttons, bright colours, and highlighting.

6. Social media integration

The easiest way to do this is through share and follow buttons on your website. These buttons are available for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and more. However, there are many other ways to optimize your social media presence. Hootsuite lists four other ways you can integrate your social media on your website.

7. A simple, responsive design

While valuable content is the main focus of your website, the design is very important. Your website should be clean, professional, and attractive. Some ways to do that include:

• Making sure your design is responsive – built to look good on any screen size – from desktop to mobile
• Designing a unique and simple logo
• Using headers, short paragraphs and bullet points
• Including eye-catching imagery in the background and header images
• Designing all pages consistently
• Using a basic, consistent colour scheme that reflects your brand
• Including eye-catching CTA buttons (as described above)

These days, it’s essential that your website is responsive, which means that the layout of your website will adapt to the size of the screen your visitor is using. Here, Google provides a basic low-down on responsive web design. We can help you get a responsive website quickly  easily.

8. Web optimization

A beautifully designed website is useless if customers aren’t able to find it. Your website needs to be Search Engine Friendly so it ends up in the search results. Tools like Google AdWords can help you find keywords that relate to your business. Use these keywords in your titles, headings, and URLs. You can also improve your SEO ranking by linking to other pages or websites, linking to your social media accounts, posting unique content, and including images and videos. Check out this great list of websites where you can find beautiful royalty-free images to use for your website.

9. A maintenance routine

Be sure to update your business information any time it changes. The last thing you want is a customer coming in saying they saw a different price advertised on your website, or they thought you opened an hour earlier. Posting fresh content on your website is even a way of improving your SEO ranking. 

Still need help with your website?

We don’t blame you! Figuring out the right content and design for your business can be time consuming, especially when you have day-to-day business to take care of. 411.ca offers packages for small business websites. Whether you need assistance with the initial design of your site, edits made to it, or even a dedicated web specialist to maintain it for you, we can help. Get your new website started now.

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