What Makes Website Development for Small Businesses in West Palm Beach FL Actually Work?

Build Pages That Answer Customer Questions

Homepage: What services do they offer, and who is it for? If the customer knows what they’re looking for, they may head to the relevant service page, but many visitors will be looking at options on a shorter timescale and won’t be convinced to continue looking if they’re not sure what type of business it is or what kind of service is on offer.
Service pages: A small business should have a page for each of the services they provide. These will be more detailed and will allow customers to compare similar products/services offered by competing companies. These are also important from an SEO perspective, as it’s clear what the business is about and what it does.
About: Some visitors will be reassured by visiting the About section, so make sure there’s enough information here to give a credible overview of the business.
Testimonials / Case studies / Portfolio: Particularly relevant for service-based companies who rely on repeat business or referrals. Customers will be impressed to see evidence of previous projects and may be able to draw conclusions about the type of people / projects the company deals with.
Contact: The main focus of a small business site will be getting customers to make enquiries, so make sure there is a simple and obvious way for them to contact the company.
Call to Action: It’s important to consider what the end result should be. It may be an invitation to request an estimate, schedule a visit, or ask about availability. Whatever the next step, make sure it’s clear and repeated throughout the site. It’s much easier for a customer to make a decision when they know what to expect.
Easy-to-use forms: Again, think of yourself as the customer when designing forms. How long does it take to complete the enquiry form? Are all of the details actually necessary? Usually all that’s required is the visitor’s name, email/phone, preferred method of contact, and a brief explanation of what they require. If there are optional items that could be filled in, these should be labelled accordingly.

Test the Site on a Phone

Chances are most of the site’s visitors will be viewing it on their phone, so make sure it’s responsive and loads well. It’s tempting to check on a browser on a desktop, but it’s much better to view on an actual device.

The following are some common problems:

Poorly defined buttons/links that are too close together and therefore difficult to tap on a screen – allow a minimum 44 x 44 pixel area for links/buttons.
Forms are not optimized for phone use, for example, an email field should bring up an @-friendly keyboard, and numbers-only fields should have a numbers-only keyboard.
Difficult to interact with the page – it’s much easier to reach links/forms, etc., that appear towards the center/lower half of the screen when browsing with one hand. It’s annoying for users to scroll up and down the page just to click on a call-to-action link.

Service Pages Should Explain the Next Step

A common issue with poorly designed websites is that it’s difficult to work out what happens next. A common example of this is an enquiry form, which asks, “What are you looking for?” but the options are vague and uninspiring, such as quality service, customer satisfaction, or industry-leading solutions. A thoughtful approach from Studio 47 Web Design can help businesses structure these pages and forms around the questions customers actually have.

It’s far more helpful for a customer if the enquiry form is a drop-down option of the relevant services on offer. Similarly, on the service pages there are not always clear next steps for the visitor.

For example, if a plumber’s website has a Fix a Burst Pipe page, it will be beneficial to include information about the process – who to contact, what happens when they get to your house, what happens when they find the source of the problem, do they need to get any parts, and what happens if they don’t carry that part? This type of information is valuable and helpful to a customer and reassures them about the process and avoids them having to pick up the phone to clarify.

Loading Speed and Trust Shape First Impressions

If your business is competing with other businesses in West Palm Beach, FL, then you’re going to lose business to a competitor whose site loads faster than yours. Large images and excess scripts and videos that play automatically all have an effect on site speed (see more) and should be optimized wherever possible. A slow-loading website reflects badly on your business and can hinder your goals.

It’s important that your website inspires trust in your company. This can be done by including accurate credentials, customer reviews, guarantees, testimonials, affiliations, clear policies, case studies, and more. You should sprinkle these validation points throughout the customer journey, not only at the final stage of the process.

Regular Maintenance Keeps the Site Reliable

Once the site is live, it’s helpful to carry out regular checks. Are all forms still directing enquiries to the correct place? Has the site been hacked? Are there patches or updates needed to keep it safe? Are regular backups being taken? Having a maintenance schedule (https://www.name.com/blog/what-is-website-maintenance) helps the website to function correctly, prevents security threats, keeps the content up-to-date, and reassures the business that everything is working.

More importantly, don’t think of your website as something that can be designed and launched and then forgotten about. It should be an integral part of the business and be referred to constantly.

So, hopefully, this post has given you a few pointers on the sort of information and functionality to include on a small business website. Obviously, every website is different, but the common thread is to consider the visitor and try and imagine what questions they might have. Providing them with easy-to-find answers will make it more likely for them to use your business.