Have you determined it’s time to update your SMB’s website? That’s great! If you’re in charge of the digital strategy, design or even set-up of your new website, make sure you have a quick read over our five must-haves for SMB websites. Apart from the technical aspects and choosing a responsive template, there are some other factors to watch out for. The digital experts of relación have been involved in hundreds of website projects and are happy to give you a quick run-down of things to keep in mind to make your new website launch successful.
1. An Actual Strategy
Small websites often are built quickly without putting in too much thought. If you decide to spend the time and money to set up a new website, sit down before you start building it to think at least roughly about what you want to achieve with it. Do you want to use it to generate more leads? Great, then it should contain a landing page template. Will you mostly showcase your work? Okay, then plan to implement a large portfolio section and include a call-to-action on each project page – in case someone likes what you do, it’s as easy as possible for them to get in touch with you.
2. Prominent Call-to-Actions
One thing almost all self-made SMB websites lack are clear call-to-actions. A call-to-action, short CTA, is a combination of an appealing argument line (as short as possible) and a button to where you want the users to go. In most cases for a SMB, this is the contact page. Make it quick and simple for users to contact you, to request your whitepaper or to schedule an appointment and convince them by telling them what their advantage will be if they do.
3. Clear Messages
It should be clear right from the first glance what your SMB is offering. Formulate a catching, expressive tag line and make sure you clearly state what you can offer to the client. Stick to the basic, elemental page structure: A header banner that draws people in and makes them curious, additional text for information, images for illustration, and a clear CTA. Tell people what you want them to do. If you’re a cleaning service, state your key service in a short phrase, explain what makes your cleaning service unique and end with a CTA for them to get in touch with you.
4. Better simple & good than over-engineered & bad
If you don’t have professional help by setting up your SMB’s website, then rather stay on the safe side. Stick to a clear, functional design and opt for rather less than too many elements. Small pages easily get crowded with additional features, images and text added in on the pages, in sidebars, on the footer… until the key message is completely overshadowed. Over-engineered websites are also prone to accumulate errors, i.e. broken links or elements that should be linked but were forgotten. Also, elaborate sections with a great intentions but no one to keep them up-to-date and alive with fresh content always make a bad impression to possible clients.
5. Google Search Console & Analytics
Even if you’re just taking care of a small website, make sure it has the basics set up: Google Search Console and Google Analytics. The registration and setup takes minutes for each and provide you with lots of powerful tools. Google Search Console is extremely important to see if your website is ranking in Google (and for which queries) and if any errors were detected (broken links, 404 pages, broken code…). Google Analytics helps you to get an understanding how users actually use your website. If you ever plan to start marketing activities, the information collected will be very helpful to determine your target group and see how your clients perceive your website.
