Websites for small businesses – This is what you need to know!

A professional website is just as important for entrepreneurs and startups as it is for corporations.The online presence carries out a crucial role in customer acquisition. A good website appeals to the respective customer target group, presents the offered services of a company and ideally radiates an attractive corporate design.

But what should small-scale businesses consider when creating a website and what are the options available to them? You can find out in today‘s Watermann Media Guide.

Why is a website so valuable for small businesses?

The number of small-scale and micro enterprises in Germany in 2017 was around 3.4 million, most of which were in the retail sector. How many of them maintain a website is difficult to determine. However, it is a fact that a total of 66% of all German companies owns a website – and the trend is rising. This is not a surprise, as the Internet already has an irreplaceable value in society. Small and medium-sized ventures use it, among other things, to acquire customers and employees or to find business partners. Global companies communicate almost exclusively via the Internet with their shareholders and lenders. 

The value of a website is therefore considerably high for most small companies – regardless of the industry and their own goals. If you’ve missed the trend so far, a little research will show you that most competitors already maintain a website.

Even the companies in typical offline industries (e.g. carpenters, movers or florists) require an online presence in most cases. This represents the extended shop in front of the 21st century and appeals to customer groups that would otherwise never have come across a company.

A website also provide the following advantages: 

• Provide a brief overview of a company.
• Offer a professional impression.
• Make it possible to stay in touch with customers.
• Appeals to people who rely on the internet to get information.
• Facilitate the initial contact, as it gives potential clients the most significant information.

How should a website look like?

As we mentioned earlier, a website may present a professional impression.But it can also achieve the opposite and discourage potential customers. The key is a clean web design and a professional text draft. Responsive design, i.e. the presentation on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, fulfils a key role in this regard. It is vital optimizing your site in a to allow customers to navigate your website thought mobile browsers and ensure that will your site found in search engines later on.

Given the size of the company, it usually makes sense to hire a professional partner such as Watermann Media to help you achieve your marketing and design goals.

The following elements and aspects should be considered in any case:  

Addressing customers in a target group-oriented manner

There are so many meaningless websites on the Internet that assume that a visitor already has a certain basic interest in the company. However, small businesses should assume that their website will be seen to a large extent by people who have not yet been confronted with the company name. Therefore, website content should be focused on the value of the product. After all, most visitors are interested in finding out how they could benefit from an order or purchase. The following guide explains what needs to be considered for successful product communication.

Inspire confidence 

Due to the many websites on the Internet, consumer confidence in providers is continuously declining. Therefore it is crucial to inspire trust in a visitor through the customer approach and web design. This is done through strong references and thorough content that takes away the visitor’s fears. Good web design alone is no longer enough to make a professional impression. It is far more important to demonstrate that there are competent professionals behind the small business.  

Contact information 

A website without contact information is an incomplete website. Therefore, you must make sure that your telephone number and e-mail address can be instantly noticed by the user. Strategic positioning of calls to action is therefore essential. This is particularly relevant for small businesses and micro-enterprises, as they are usually less well known.

Search engine optimization(SEO)

Search engine optimization is the often most important aspect of small business websites. Essentially, this aims at a high Google ranking. As a result, information-seeking interested parties can access the website as directly as possible. There are many aspects relevant to good search engine optimization. This entry from Ryte tells you what SEO is and how this extensive topic can be implemented for small businesses.

Privacy policy and Legal notice  

The two points are self-explanatory, but must not be forgotten if you do not want to risk warnings. We recommend smaller websites to use the partly free imprint and data protection generators. However, if a website is to be larger and more extensive, it is advisable to hire a lawyer or data protection expert to create it.

Of course, these are not the only components of a successful website. However, these aspects can be described as basics for small businesses that are thinking about having their own website. Here you will find more comprehensive requirements for the content of a website.

Making a Websites: What options small businesses have? 

One advantage of the fact that the majority of German companies have a website is that it is now much easier to access. In general, companies have two possibilities to create a website.

1. Creating the website yourself

This may well be worth doing, depending on how tech-savvy a company really is. Often website builders such as Squarespace, Wix or Jimdo are used, where you can create the rough layout of a website in a few clicks. The disadvantage of these website builders is that they are often technically incapable of creating large websites with a deep page structure. In addition, the finished websites are often slower than their professionally created competitors. The advantage, however, is that simple designs can be implemented quite easily.

With the appropriate technical knowledge, WordPress can also be used as a convenient CRM solution or a completely self-programmed website. The fact is, however, that no website texts have yet been created with the technical implementation. SEO is also a topic that should definitely be taken into account.

2. Get help from an expert 

For most small businesses, this option makes sense, as creating and maintaining a professional website requires expertise. Usually, most service providers will either do the technical creation or the copywriting. Digital agencies often offer the option of getting texts, websites and a marketing plan from a single source. The individual components are thus coordinated and usually represent the better solution for companies. Moreover, they only have to coordinate the cooperation with one service provider and thus save time and effort.

Website, content and marketing concept – from a single source. 

With Watermann-Media you get a reliable partner for the concept, design, technical implementation and copywriting of your website. If you wish, we can also take care of the development of marketing concepts, content production and technical maintenance.

Are you ready to talk about the concept of your new website?

Then simply send us a message, and we’ll get back to you within a few hours with a concrete offer and an implementation plan.