Website Design

9 Must-Haves When Designing a Website on a Budget

Written by Selina Chen

A catchy website for your small business will help you attract customers and land more business in the long run. Small businesses are usually on a budget when they design their websites. Below are some tips, tricks and essential features of a cost-effective website that will increase awareness and drive up interest for your small business.

1.      Choose an appropriate colour scheme

Colour is one of the most important aspects of your webpage and is also one of the first things that customers notice. The psychology of colour is very important. The colours you choose to use should reflect your business’ values and specialties. It is important that you do your research and list out what you want your website to tell your customers upon first glance.

For example, Alleviate Health Supports (AHS) utilises the colours blue, green and white as their brand colours to represent their business as an NDIS provider and their role as helpers to the disabled community. In this context, the colour green evokes feelings of relaxation and health while the blue represents loyalty and truthfulness which are all positive traits for any caring business.

2.      A clear call to action

Once customers have been attracted to what your business offers, whether it be goods or services, it is important that you take advantage of this! Place your contact information or enquiry boxes visibly on every page, so that your customers don’t have to dig for this information. Also, by including a call-to-action, your website’s visitors and potential customers will have a clear goal of what they should do next to best utilize the services offered by your small business. There can even be multiple calls to actions on the page if your business has various different paths that the customer can take.

3.      Display positive testimonials, examples of work or case studies

Visitors to your website are more likely to choose to do business with you if they see positive reviews from previous customers. This will provide them with a sense of comfort and stability, as it reflects well on your business. Customers tend to trust the words of other customers over marketing collateral.Testimonials also act as brand advocates.

4.      What makes you different from competitors?

Let’s be real. There are probably many other small businesses trying to sell and advertise goods or services that are similar to yours. To truly stand out from the crowd, you must ensure that some part of your business design or message differentiates you from the others. Your point of difference can be your ability to connect with potential clients on a personal level, or having an amazing marketing strategy that cannot be ignored. Whatever it is, as long as you attract more customers, you know it’s working!

5.      Ensure you have an ‘about us’ section

An ‘about us’ section allows you to connect with customers personally by sharing your vision, story or beliefs as to why your small business is impacting society. This helps your potential customers connect to the ideas behind your business if it is an idea or concept that they strongly believe in too. 

6.      Make your page SEO friendly

Ensuring your page is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly means that the traffic on your page will last longer, helping to boost your website’s ranking in Google search results.  If your page has a higher ranking in Google search results, it is likely that more potential customers will click on your link. The more visitors your page receives, the higher the chance of a conversion, which is when visitors turn into customers.

7.      Mobile responsive

As the next generation is extremely tech savvy, it is important that your website looks great on mobile phones, laptops and tablets. If your website is not optimised for mobile phones, you could lose the business of customers that browse on the go, including on the train, on their lunch breaks, or as they wait for their food at the shops or enjoy a coffee. In 2019,  63% of visits to websites came from mobile phones.

8.      Fast loading speed

A fast-loading speed increases the quality of a user’s experience, because it allows visitors to quickly navigate their way through what your website and services have to offer. If your website takes too long to load visitors may click away and look to other, faster websites to meet their needs.

9.      Security

Installing an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is crucial. This will protect your website’s visitors’ data from hackers and scammers. Without this SSL certificate, your site visitor’s data is at risk.

An extra tip to consider when creating a website would be to create a high-quality landing page. This is the first thing that potential customers see when they visit your website, and it should be attractive.

What Do I Do Now?

Now that you have all the basics of how to create a website in your pocket, start by making a list of all the key points and ideas you want your business to encapsulate. From there, you can start getting into the specifics of designing a killer website.

“The opinions expressed by BizWitty Contributors are their own, not those of BizCover and should not be relied upon in place of appropriate professional advice. Please read our full disclaimer."

About the author

Selina Chen

Selina Chen is the founder of eSharp Digital.
Ground Floor, 66 Talavera Rd, Suite #1007, Macquarie Park, NSW 2113
Email Address: selina@esharp.com.au
Phone Number: 02 8054 0697