When you're building a website for your small business, it's crucial to grasp the core web design principles that make a site successful. Understanding these can help you understand how to design a website that truly reflects your business goals and branding.
Your web design should be well-planned, prioritize function over form and encourage engagement and conversions. In order to help you achieve this we've put together some top web design tips for a small business website.
10 web design tips for a small business
01. Set a clear website purpose and goals
Before you start designing, know what you want your website to achieve. Are you looking to sell products, provide information or collect leads? Setting clear goals will guide your design choices
Your website should communicate its purpose clearly from the moment a visitor lands on it. A clean design with a clear message helps users understand what you offer and what action they should take. For example, if you provide landscaping services, your landscaping site should highlight this with high-quality images of your work and clear calls to action that include "Request a Quote" or "View Our Services." Clearly state what sets your services apart, as Cross States Landscape does. Whether it's your experience, pricing, or customer service make sure it's front and center.
Your website should facilitate easy communication between you and your customers. This could be through contact forms, live chat support or frequently updated FAQs.
If you're selling products or services from your ecommerce website, the commerce aspect of your site must be secure, straightforward and user-friendly. Features like one-click purchasing and easy-to-find shopping carts contribute to a smooth shopping experience.
02. Prioritize simplicity via navigation and layout
A simple, intuitive website navigation is key to keeping visitors on your site. Users should be able to find what they're looking for without any confusion. This means having, amongst other design elements, a well-organized menu, a search bar for larger sites and a website layout that guides the user naturally through your content.
Consider carefully your website architecture and hierarchy. This should be planned around how you expect users to move naturally around your site to find what they're searching for. This also means setting a hierarchy for your website pages too. Context involves the design and layout that makes your content comprehensible and enjoyable to use. It's about ensuring that users understand where they are on your website and what they can do next. For example, clear headings and a logical structure help visitors navigate your site with ease.
Start by organizing your content into logical sections and then decide on the navigation structure. A sitemap can help visualize how different pages are connected and create a user-friendly experience. Avoid cluttering your pages with too much information or too many images — clean layout helps users focus on what's important.
03. Use consistent branding and design elements
Consistent branding across all pages reinforces your business identity and builds trust with your site users. Your website's color scheme, typography and overall web design should reflect your brand's personality consistently. This includes using your logo effectively and ensuring that all design elements align with the image and message you want to project.
Part of this might also include building a community around your brand can increase customer loyalty and engagement. Features like customer reviews, forums, or social media integration allow customers to interact with each other and with your business directly on the website.
A well-designed website should always connect with other marketing efforts such as social media campaigns or email marketing. Integrating these platforms helps create a cohesive online presence for your brand.
Some top tips for branding consistency in your web design include:
Ensure your logo is prominently displayed, typically in the top left corner of every page, as this is where eyes tend to look first.
Use colors that reflect your brand palette —consistent use of colors helps reinforce brand recognition.
Choose fonts that align with your brand's character—whether it's professional, friendly or modern—and keep font choices consistent across the site.
Use images that convey your brand's values and message. Whether it's product photos or lifestyle shots, they should be high quality and on-brand.
The language and tone used in your content should reflect your brand personality, whether it's authoritative, conversational, or informative.
04. Don't neglect the user experience
At the heart of user-centric web design is UX. Your site should be easy to use, navigate, and understand. Users should find value in what your website offers them, whether it's information, products or services.
How to offer the best user experience on your site? Don't be afraid to listen to your users. You can collect feedback through surveys, user testing or analytics tools. Then, use this information to make informed design adjustments that enhance the usability and appeal of your site. This might include moving buttons, to make it easier for users to commit to an action on your site. Or it might mean changing the layout of a product page to make it clearer to see what you're selling and the price.
Offering personalized experiences can also set your small business apart when it comes to your website UX. Customization could mean allowing users to set up their own profiles or providing tailored product recommendations based on browsing history. Tailoring the user experience to individual needs can significantly boost engagement. Personalization can range from customized product recommendations to remembering a returning visitor's name.
A user-centric website is also a high-performing one. It loads quickly, functions properly on all devices and doesn't leave users waiting.
05. Make sure of accessibility for all users
Your website should be accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities. This means designing for various devices, potentially designing a responsive website or making your site more mobile friendly.
It's important to consider things like color contrast for readability and alt text for images. Designing for accessibility not only widens your audience but also demonstrates social responsibility as as mall business owner and brand. It's the right thing to do.
"As soon as the user makes their website accessible, the door to the population of people with disabilities, which includes about a billion people, opens. There is tremendous business potential here, alongside the creation of a space that everyone is welcome to take part in and enjoy." - Nir Horesh, head of accessibility at Wix.com
06. Plan high-quality and relevant content
The content on your site must be relevant to your audience's interests and needs. It should provide value, whether that's through informative blog posts, product descriptions or helpful how-to guides related to your industry. Keeping content fresh and updated is also important for engaging visitors and improving your SEO.
Focus on writing and including copy and visuals that engage your audience. Remember the importance of relevance and clarity in communicating with your visitors. Visuals can make or break your website's appeal so use high-resolution images that reflect your products or services in the best light. At the same time use your content to guide users towards taking action with clear CTAs like 'Buy Now,' 'Learn More' or 'Contact Us.'
You might also want to consider starting a blog or checking out these 7 things you can do in 30 seconds using Wix’s AI image tools.
07. Use professionally designed website templates
Using website templates to design and build your site can be a time efficient way to design website, especially if you're not a web design and have no web design experience.
Use a website builder, like Wix and you can choose from hundreds of pre-designed templates for your site. Choose from:
08. Hire a web designer, if necessary
Hiring a web designer might be an option to consider, depending on the complexity of your site and web design plans. A web designer can help with creating custom designs and optimizing for accessibility. They might also be necessary if you're hoping to combine custom web design with advanced site functionality.
However hiring a web designer is not necessarily essential when it comes to making a website. Most website builders make it easy to create a stunning, functional website with little to no design knowledge.
09. Optimize for search engines (SEO)
A well-designed website should always be optimized for search engines. Think clear structure, relevant content and fast loading times – these factors may influence SEO ranking.
Great content is at the heart of SEO and a key element of your web design. SEO-optimized longer. Keep your content fresh and monitor your website's performance, including rankings and traffic sources, to stay ahead of the game.
According to Mordy Oberstein, Head of SEO Branding at Wix.com
Leveraging SEO and integrating it into the website creation process is vital. Various studies have shown that organic search is the single greatest provider of traffic to websites - with that being even more pronounced within the B2B context. To that, traffic from organic search, when done correctly is essentially built to last (with proper maintenance over time, of course) and forms a crucial part of a site’s long-term growth.
You don't have to be an SEO expert to make sure that your web design is SEO friendly. Plus the SEO assistants that come with some website builders, can help you make sure your site has its basic SEO optimizations in place.
10. Test, test and test your website
Website testing, both of how it looks and works is something that should happen throughout every part of the web design process for your small business. You need to know how your target audience will react to your branding, the UX of your site and its functionality.
You can do this through focus groups, using external auditing tools or by inviting groups of potential users to test for you either for a paid amount or in return for a product or service trial.
Sometimes even the best planned websites, fail in testing or issues arise that can be caught once a site is fully up and running.
Web design tips for small businesses FAQ
How often should I update my website?
Regular updates keep your website fresh and can improve SEO. Aim for minor updates every few websites and a more significant review quarterly.