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Nottingham's Small             Business Specialist

Web Design for Small Business

Website Design for Small Business

A small business website is an investment. Like any other it should do at least one of these things:

  1. Make you money
  2. Achieve your objectives
  3. Save you time
  4. Make your life easier

Your Fresher Website will be particularly good at all three.

Benefits for Small Business

Whether you're selling a product, service or expertise, Fresher Websites can increase your sales through an intelligent website design designed and built from scratch for your business.

Our content management systems are particularly quick and easy to use - allowing you to update your website in minutes - an essential requirement for any small business owner.

If you plan to sell products, our e-commerce plug-in is customised to make fulfilling orders as quick, easy and cost effective as possible for you. Adding and updating products is a doddle too.

Good Web Design for Small Business

What constitutes good web design for a small business?

Here are just a few of the things Fresher's website designers consider when perfecting your small business web design:

  • Google - Getting Found

Keyword selection can be very important - Fresher's expertise and research will ensure that the right people find you for the right reasons.

  • Google - Getting Chosen

What makes people choose your site over the many others that Google presents?

  • Professional & Consistent Web Design

Missing pages, jumpy designs and other website errors can undermine confidence when people are planning to spend cash with you.

  • Simplicity & Ease of Use

Boring. But it means that less web-savvy visitors will know how to use your website, how to get the info they're looking for, what to expect next... and generally feel comfortable spending their cash with you.

  • Your Company Style

Does your website's design, styling and features reflect the qualities of your company, product or service?

  • Quality & Quantity of Information

Exactly what and how much will be unique to your small business - but generally speaking tables, images and lists are preferable to blocks of text.

  • No Flash Thanks

Websites completed in Flash can be stunning to look at and a pleasure to use. Unfortunately they're expensive to produce, difficult to update, and they might as well not exist as far as Google is concerned.

 

 

User Psychology

psychedelic looking graphic of scientific study psychedelic looking graphic of scientific study
psychedelic looking graphic of scientific study psychedelic looking graphic of scientific study

The images above demonstrate just one example of psychological research informing good website design.

The colours show how website users typically scan a page. The pictures are taken from different studies but all indicate a clear pattern. Users tend to scan across the top and down the left hand side for the information they require.

This can inform the positioning of links, title headings, advertisements and images.

7 Ways to Boost Online Sales

The following 6 factors enhance website sales and / or instances of enquiry.

  • Less Is More

Concise and considered wording can do wonders to generate service enquiries and leads but....

  • More Is More

...lots of clear accessible information is king when selling products on your site.

  • Create a Comfort Zone

Your website should be user-friendly, consistent and free from off putting pop-ups, errors, adverts, etc.

  • Familiarity

Display of familiar logos (brands, professional associations, etc) has been shown to increase sales by between 10% and 140%.

  • No Nasty Sup rises

Hidden P&P charges, endless spam (sorry we mean newsletters), pop-up windows and advertisements... all ways to stop your visitors from returning ever again.

  • Informed Design

Colours, shapes and wording all affect the way your website visitor feels. And that has an impact on sales.

  • Authentic References

Some will assume that you've made them up - but many will recognise sincerity if it's there. Perhaps unsurprisingly, women have shown that they're 4 times better at it than men.

Web Design Objectives for Small Business

The Fresher Websites checklist for small business web design:

  • Simple to navigate and easy to use - for all
  • Standards compliant - looks good in all browsers
  • Content & layout is interesting / sticky
  • Compares favourably with your competition
  • Accessible for users with poor eyesight, screen-readers and other accessibility equipment
  • Clearly highlights the benefits  / unique selling points of your product of service
  • Customer focused
  • Encourages enquiries & feedback