One thing about business website design that small and ambitious firms often don’t appreciate as much as they should, is that you can’t simply throw anything and everything at it to make it a success. Triumph or failure with your business website is subject to a formula, with rules.
While a Pablo Picasso or Jackson Pollock abstract painting may be a masterpiece to marvel at in a gallery, your website can’t be designed according to an “abstract” approach that skips components your target customers – and by extension, you – will need.
Nor does the below list cover everything that may turn out to be a ‘must-have’ for your business website design; nonetheless, these elements are some of the most crucial.
1. Compelling branding
Branding and logo design is a key service of ours here at PENNInk Productions, and with good reason; it’s key to setting the tone of your website and affirming your organisation’s broader values.
In practical terms, that should mean your logo being instantly recognisable and a natural reflection of what your business stands for, as well as the colours being consistent across your website, much as they should be across other marketing channels like your print materials and social media pages.
2. Captivating content
Sure, the content on your website may not be in the field of business website design, per se. However, it should certainly be a natural fit for the rest of your site, in addition to serving your audience’s expectations and needs.
Like your logo and branding, your business website’s content ought to be discernibly yours. That should mean it has a distinctive voice that helps to differentiate your brand from rivals, instead of simply coming across like an edited or breathed-on version of a rival’s content.
3. Engaging imagery
In an ideal world, the images on your website would be no less unique than its content. That would mean not using stock photos, or at least minimising their use and trying to select images that go beyond the stereotypical smiling team of generic customer service staff.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be too difficult or expensive these days to have professional-looking images created of your team and business operations. Our graphic design services, meanwhile, can help to ensure your site’s non-photographic imagery is well-aligned with what you wish to project about your brand.
4. An informative blog
Blogs have become ubiquitous across even the most modest small-business websites in part because of their very real search engine optimisation (SEO) benefits; they represent a useful platform for the continual production of relevant and engaging content that search engine spiders love.
But it isn’t just the search engines that will benefit from such blog content; so will the human visitors to your website who will appreciate the stream of news, updates, how-to guides and listicles that might come to make up your blog, much like ours on the PENNInk Productions website.
Putting together a compelling business website design isn’t, then, about producing something outrageous or unprecedented that has never been seen before; indeed, that might be the very last attitude you should have. Instead, it’s about getting the basics right and then building on them, so that visitors can quickly and easily find the products, services or information they require from your site. That, in turn, will be great for your business’s immediate and longer-term sales and growth.
So, don’t wait any longer to call PENNInk Productions on 020 8144 7931 to learn how we could work together to get the best out of your small business website design in 2020 and beyond.
Edward Solomon has over 30 years’ experience in project management, technical education, computer networking, web design and development and is a Digital Business Consultant for PENNInk Productions Ltd.
