Losing focus is one of the most common mistakes small businesses are often guilty for. Too many times small businesses are too hooked up with the aesthetics of the web design that they forget to concentrate on functionalities and efficiency of the website.
The problem is, most web designers encourage this approach, as they find it super entertaining to please clients with fancy designs without giving in too much efforts to the functionalities. Designing extravagant and pretty websites mean, the only KPI designers have to worry about is aesthetics with no other measurable outcome.
Now, super fancy web designs aren’t much of a problem as long as they are able to address the functionalities and efficiency as well. But unfortunately, that’s not the case most of the time.
So, while you want to make your first small business web design super cool and engaging, it’s important not to sacrifice the functionality and effectiveness of it. One needs to understand the importance of creating the perfect balance between aesthetics and functionalities, to be able to create the most successful small business website design.
– Confidence is the key to success
The success of any website design lies in mutual trust between client and designer. To be able to achieve a winning design, you need to have complete trust over your designer and if you don’t have trust on the designer, it’s better to move on and find one that can be trusted upon.
Content is art
Perhaps the biggest dilemma of small business web design is the negligence of content creation. Most of the time to save pennies out of their pockets, small business tends to cut short on funds for the content creation and that’s one of the biggest mistakes they made.
Content is and always has remained one of the most crucial aspects of the online industry. The way you tell your story to the audience has the potential to make or break the deal for you. Today, users are exceedingly looking for businesses that are open enough to share their complete business model. Users like to know as much as possible about businesses they are dealing with and a great content is your most potent weapon to hook on to your audience.
Remember: People aren’t really interested in looking at your fancy designs but are more interested in figuring out your business operations and how you can solve their problems.
– Designs aren’t forever
Remember, even the most aesthetically pleasing, vivid and enchanting web design will become outdated in a few years. But what that this mean? This means that you shouldn’t worry much about creating the most majestic web design, but to adopt a minimalist approach.
Practicing minimalism in design, while concentrating more on functionalities and effectiveness of the website will ensure that your small business website will remain relevant even after a long time. Just make sure you are able to offer value to the clients and let them interact with you openly.
– Websites aren’t meant to show off your designs, they are meant to solve problems
When designing your first small business web design, you should keep in mind that websites are meant to address users’ problems and not fascinate them with extravagant designs. The more you are able to offer simple solutions to their problems, the more traffic you can expect to drive to your website.
. Websites don’t start to generate results from the first day
Ok, this is one of the biggest concern that I have faced over the years from small businesses. For them websites are some sort of magic wand that once launched will start driving traffic to their business. The fact of the matter is, websites are more like a marathon and less like a sprint. They don’t start giving results from the first day rather takes a long time and much efforts to reach KPIs. SEO, AdWords, testing, analytics and many other operations are needed to ensure your web design start performing as per expectation and drive traffic to your business.
All in all, one should keep in view minimum 3 months of rigorous testing, analytics, and marketing to be able to see web design start performing.
– Minimalism – the gateway to success
In past, one might argue that the efficiency of fancy designed websites was better than the simplistic design. However, in today’s online industry, the sure shot to success lies in taking a minimalist approach. Don’t clutter your web design with too many elements, rather keep the focus on bottom lines by taking a minimalist approach.
– Glitches are part of the journey
Lastly, one important aspect to remember is that there is no smooth sailing for a successful web design. In my decade of experience working in the industry, I haven’t been able to meet one single client that is completely happy with their web design agency. The point is, you got to take glitches as part of the journey as expect them from the very beginning. The best websites are designed after many testing and modification and only by trial and error you can come up with the best web design that suits your small business.