Web Design in New York: A Practical Guide for Small Business Owners

Small businesses in New York face some of the most competitive situations in the country. With almost 200, 000 small businesses scattered all over the city, staying profitable requires that the business owner learns how to rise above the crowd.

To rise above the stiff competition, certain things must be put in place. For starters, the services or products offered must be top-notch. However, this by itself is not enough. Your target audience must know that you have the services or products that they need in the first place to be able to patronize you.

Assuming that the first part has been taken care of, how can you as a small business owner make your target audience aware of the products and services that you have on offer? There are a number of ways that you can do this and you can read about them here.

In this article, we will be focusing on just one essential aspect and that is your online presence. We will look at why your online presence is important, the best way to maximize this presence and how to go about establishing this presence.

Why Do You Need a Website?

While you can have an online presence without having a website, you can only enjoy the full benefits available from having an online presence when you have the right website. Note that we did not just say “when you have a website” but when you have the right one.

So, every benefit we’ll be looking at will be based on the assumption that we have the right website. We will briefly look at what the right website is later.

So why do you need a website? Let’s look at a few reasons:

• You need a website to promote your brand outside of your physical location

• To reach a wider market outside of your physical location

• You can close more sales from your website than from your physical store

• A website can reduce the need for expensive physical locations as you can operate from anywhere and serve your customers/clients from your online location

• You can reduce operational cost and increase sales, resulting in more profit

The above are just some of the more obvious reasons why you need a website for your small business. Since this list is not exhaustive, you can find more reasons here: https://www.score.org/.

How to Get the Most from Your Website

The point of having a website, as listed above, is, in the final analysis, to grow your business. So, your online presence must increase your visibility, attract visitors, convert them to paying customers and ensure that they become repeat customers.

To achieve this, certain important design and operational requirements must be met. We shall break these down into categories.

Design

The design element of your website is as important as the design of your logo, advert and sales materials etc. This is the first thing people see when they come to your website so it has a huge impact on whether or not they remain on the website to find out what it’s about.

Note, the design does not bring the prospective customer; it may however help in retaining the customer.

Important design elements that should be addressed include:

• Branding – This captures the image of your business and covers factors such as color choices, font style and more.

• UI – This stands for User Interface and looks at how well the visitor to your website can engage with the website. The ease or difficulty experienced in this regard will be determined by the website layout, navigation controls, intuitiveness of the interface etc. Of course, you need your website to be highly intuitive so visitors can easily get the information or service they need.

• UX – User experience, fondly shortened to UX, describes the sum of the user’s experience while on your website. Search engine algorithms often use the length of time spent on the website as a measure of this factor. That is, if the UX is great, the visitor stays for long and keeps coming back, but if the UX is poor, well you should know the answer to that.

Features and Functionality

Your website is an extension of your business and so should, in most cases, offer the full service that your business offers. We added that caveat “in most cases” because not all businesses can be concluded online. If for example you own an auto-mechanic workshop, there’s just so much that can be done online.

So, aside from businesses that must be concluded offline, your website should be feature-rich enough to have transactions concluded online. A good example will be a baking business. Your visitor should be able to place an order for a cake from your inventory, pay for it and have it delivered to them.

The same goes for a flower shop, a shoe maker, and many others. Even those that cannot be completed online can offer enough features to solidify the lead online, making the physical conclusion a done deal.

What features and functionalities will make this possible will depend on the type of business. A baker, for example, will require an inventory management feature, shopping cart, checkout and payment processor, among other things.

If your business website does not have the right features and functionalities to close businesses for you, then it is a waste of online real estate.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

We mentioned earlier that your website’s design will not bring visitors, no matter how lovely it is. This is where SEO comes in. This is one of the major ways of bringing prospective customers to your website. Aside from being one of the major ways, it is also one of the most affordable ways, which is why it is highly recommended to small businesses.

With proper SEO strategies, you can push your website to people who actually need the service or product that you are offering. Today’s targeted marketing makes this easier than ever, leveling the playing field to a great extent for all levels of businesses.

Upgrades and Scaling

Your website will not just be setup and that will be all. As your business grows, you may need to upgrade. In fact, you’re likely going to need to upgrade whether or not your business outgrows the website. The rate at which technological advancements are happening means that you need to constantly stay on the cutting edge so you can take full advantage of any innovation.

Choosing a Web Design Agency

Everything we’ve discussed up to this point rests heavily on your choice here. The truth is that web design in New York is pretty much common place. This can make the process of choosing confusing.

To help ensure that you make the right choice, we will quickly provide simple steps that can act as a guide.

1. Ask for referrals – Talk to people you know and find out if they can recommend a web designer that they trust. This is one of the most effective ways of finding the right help.

2. Search online – This alternative will become necessary if you don’t get a referral from step 1 above.

3. Read Reviews and Testimonials – Once you have gotten your search result, begin to comb through for reviews and feedback from actual clients. This will help you narrow the list even further.

4. Make Contact – After shortlisting from your feedback review, make contact and open up a line of discussion with the shortlisted candidates. During this time, you should be feeling them out to ascertain their ability to get the job done.

5. Check for Industry Expertise – While this may not always be necessary, it helps to have a designer who understands your industry and can provide helpful tips, specific to your industry.

6. Ask for Portfolio and Testimonials – Different from online reviews and feedback, ask for their portfolio of past jobs. These past jobs should also be able to act as testimonials so you can call to confirm whatever you feel needs to be confirmed at this point.

7. Ask for Timelines and Quotes – At this point, you should have two or three options still left standing. It’s time to discuss timelines and cost. Timeline for deliverables and cost for each deliverable should be clearly stated. The clearer everything is from the start, the better for you.

Following these steps will surely help you make the right choice.

Conclusion

No business – no matter what type of business you are in – should be without a website. We’ve explained why this is so and how to get the most from your website. We’ve also shown a quick guide to help you find the right help.

Now, the ball is in your court. If you want to thrive in New York’s cut throat market, you must strategically put yourself out there. This is what a good website can do for you.