My 8 Rules about Websites for Small Businesses

A website should be a continuously evolving part of your marketing - you should regularly fine-tune it to keep up with market trends, new product launches, and the direction of your business.

I’ll be honest with you. My websites are far from perfect. This is because I use a template-based service (www.Squarespace.com) that doesn’t always do what I would like it to do. So why do I use it? Because it gets the job done and then I can move on. I’m a firm believer in content over design.

That’s right, I said it. I’m probably going to ruffle a lot of feathers saying this because design is what is always hyped-up for marketing purposes. It’s all about getting the visitor hooked, and eye-candy is the best way to do that right? Well, I disagree; and this is why I decided to write this article.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love a well-designed site with awesome photos and graphics. I believe that should still be the end-goal. However, this is not where most of us start off. Most small businesses do not have the time or resources to design perfect sites, they are too busy running their businesses, so the web design has to be put on hold.

Good design is also expensive if done right. This brings me to the main reason for this article: cost. Small businesses are called small because they also have small budgets and this includes marketing budgets, of which a portion goes to that website. If the cost of maintaining a website concerns you, then this article is exactly what you need.

So here are my 8 rules for website success for small businesses.

1.       Websites still matter

Yes, social media exists to generate views, clicks and followers. Once you have them, though, where do you want them to go? That’s right, to your website. This is where you can sell them your product or service. Even if you are a non-profit, it’s where they find out what you do and why.

We’ve all heard people who say that they conduct their entire business on Facebook, Linked In, or Instagram. The reality is that very few do so without a website. Think of the website as your home base, the place where you want everything to land.

The reason you want everything to land there is because then you can capture it all for yourself. Let me explain. One of my favorite quotes is by billionaire publisher Felix Dennis:

“Ownership isn’t the most important thing; it’s the only thing!”

His point is that you want to own as much of your business traffic as possible. The more you own, the more you control, and the more you profit. With social media, ownership is shared. Sure, you still own the content while it is fresh, but there are just too many things you give after you post. With your own website, you own the content you post. As your business grows and you need to control your messaging, this will become even more important.

2.       Content is more important than design

I’ve already hinted at this in the intro, but it deserves its own bullet point. Even if your website has terrible design, the content is what matters because you can always redesign it. Content, is more difficult to change, because that requires you to also change your business.

As your business grows and you are able to allocate more funding to design, it will be easy to apply new designs to the content. That’s the whole point of hiring a designer – they will take your content and make it look better. However, if you have poor content, even when hidden by beautiful design, the work to improve the website will be much greater.

The bottom line is that small businesses are not expected to have amazingly great designs. You are a small business and your customers and clients are looking to the content first – they will forgive generic designs, but they won’t forgive bad content, because that betrays a lack of substance.

3.       You should only have one product/service on your home page

This is one of the most common mistakes small businesses make. They offer up every product, and every variation of each product on their home page. This confuses your visitors. Think of it like a shoe store with too many shoe styles, colors and sizes. Chances are they won’t sell as many shoes as boutique stores with smaller selections. This is simple psychology.

So, what if you are selling hundreds of items or you have a plethora of services? Then you need to think about what ties them all together. What ties them together is your actual product. Instead of selling each individual item, you should be selling an experience.

For example, I helped a very talented trainer who taught people how to present. He offered many different services from one-on-one classes, to small group sessions, to company training, to project-based consulting work, all the way up to speeches in front of large audiences. Each service also had different options for travel, different emphases, and even guests speakers/trainers. All of this was listed on a home page that just went on and on – for mobile users, it didn’t seem to have an end. Needless to say, visitors to his website were overwhelmed with all the options.

After some discussion, it became clear that all his services revolved around his main philosophy about presenting. So, we redesigned the home page to only be about that. All the services and options were still available, but they were a click or two deeper. The home page was now selling his presentation philosophy. Interest in his services increased dramatically.

4.       Customers and clients stay longer than a few seconds

Everyone has heard this said in one way or another: “You only have a few seconds to convince visitors to stay on your page, after that they lose interest and leave.” I call B.S. on that assessment. Now, there may very well be a large number of visitors that land on your home page and then quickly leave again. It even has a depressing name: it’s your bounce rate.

Here’s what you want to remember about that: Are those your customers and clients?

The fact is that most of these visitors are not looking for what you are selling. Maybe they stumbled there by mistake, maybe they clicked on the wrong search link, or maybe they were click-baited. In any case, they are not going to be buying your product or service, so why worry about them?

Your real customers and clients made a concerted effort to find you and they will click around a bit before they leave. You have some time to convince them that your site is where they want to find what they are looking for. So, relax and don’t worry about the bounce rate – it’s probably something one of those search optimization companies is using to sell you something you probably don’t need (see below).

5.       SEO importance is fading

This is probably something else I’ll get flamed for saying (especially from those SEO app sellers). The fact is that you can’t fool Google’s algorithm, you can’t crack the formula anymore, and most importantly, there isn’t anyone out there who can significantly improve your search engine rankings.

A few years ago, Search Engine Optimization was all the rage and everyone and their mother promised to improve your SEO. Well unless they have a couple of Cray supercomputers in the basement, they are exaggerating their worth. Google and Amazon have warehouses full of supercomputers manned by armies of engineers that have been doing this for decades – so we should assume they are winning that battle.

Focus on providing great content. It will do far more to improve your rankings than tweaking your code to land a bit higher on Google search. Also, if you use a web hosting service like Wix, Squarespace, Wordpress, Weebly, Shopify, etc., then they will do much of the SEO for you already.

Stop worrying about SEO, stop paying anyone who promises to improve your SEO, and stop trying to hack your way to success. Yes, you can improve things a tad, I’ve done some of it myself, but considering the time I put into it, I would have been better off creating good content. So focus on content.

6.       You should be selling how to get rich

No matter what product or service you sell, if you can tie that to becoming rich, you will make more money. This is because your customers and clients want to find success, and in the US, that means being rich. Obviously, it’s not the most honorable thing to desire, so they won’t actually say it so bluntly, but deep down, it is what the vast majority of people landing on your site are after.

This is not to say that there aren’t plenty of other trends from fashion to cars to celebrity gossip that are also popular on Google search. But guess what? They all still boil down to one thing: people want to be rich. All those other topics are a means to reach that end, or at least that is what most people believe.

There are far too many small business sites that lose sight of that fact. They become wrapped up in describing their products and services, how they are so much better than the competition, and how they offer the best value. In the process, they forget to tie it back to the one thing that their customers and clients desire most: to become rich.

So, no matter what product or service you sell, you want to mention, hint or suggest that your product will bring financial success. Sure; you can choose not to do that. You may even do OK that way. However, you will do considerably better if you can convince your customer/client that you will make them rich.

Yes, it’s a crass reality, but I’ve seen first-hand how just a slight re-wording of a product generated more interest in that product in a matter of days. Anyone who is planning on spending money on your site is most likely doing it for that simple reason. Even if they are buying for the company they work for, it still boils down to promotions, bonuses, and thus, becoming richer.

7.       Your site should exude confidence and authority

This starts with keeping it simple, as mentioned in rule #3 above, but don’t make it childish. Simplicity is always good, but you still want to be authoritative. You want your customers and clients to see you as trustworthy, reliable and knowledgeable.

The site should be clear and direct. For example, instead of saying how much better your product is from the competition, you should infer that by describing your product as if it was the only one of its kind. Assume that their search for this product has ended, and that they can now move on to purchasing it. You have solved this problem for them – and that is what matters.

This is not to say that your site should not have depth. You should have a place where you describe in-depth what your product or service is, how it was developed, and where the idea came from. You should also have a place where you establish your credentials as an educated, knowledgeable and experienced person sharing this valuable part of yourself through your product or service.

8.       Include real people in your About page

Following up on that last point, you should have pictures of the people in your company. If it’s just you, you should have a well-posed smiling picture of yourself. It should be personable. The mere fact that you are including it shows a bit of vulnerability, which helps establish trust with your clients and customers.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve visited a website from people I know well, but their About page is a generic copy-paste from every other company out there. It has that generic stock photo that came from pixabay. It tells you nothing about who is behind the site. You know the type: it starts with the word “We” and goes on to say how amazing they are, but after three paragraphs you still have no idea who “We” is.

While we’re at it, also have a friendly face on the “contact” page. Again, this shouldn’t be a generic face from a stock photo library. It should be a smiling face of one of your employees, or yourself if you’re a one-person business. Customers and clients want to know who they will be contacting.

Nothing like a simple, friendly, uncluttered home page to make visitors feel welcome, appreciated, and ready to purchase.

Conclusion

This isn’t a comprehensive list of rules, but in my experience, they are the ones I believe are the most understated ones. Some of them you may have heard already. If so, did you actually implement them? As important as these rules are, I haven’t implemented them across all my sites either, but when I work with clients, especially when we are working on a new design, I make sure I cover all these rules with them.

I realize that small business owners are busy. Designing websites is a chore and doing it well requires time, money, and help (which requires more time and money). That is why it is critically important to consider these rules before you even start building that website. If you already have one, then apply them slowly over time.

The most important thing to remember about a company website is that it will always continue to change. It isn’t a static thing like a marketing flyer that you print, hand out, and forget. A website is a constantly evolving part of your business. It should grow with the growth of your company.

So just to recap, here are the 8 rules one more time:

1. Websites still matter

2. Content is more important than design

3. You should only have one product/service on your home page

4. Customers and clients stay longer than a few seconds

5. SEO importance is fading

6. You should be selling how to get rich

7. Your site should exude confidence and authority

8. Include real people in your About page

Of course, this is just my opinion. What are your thoughts?