Finding the right type of website design for your small business

The way in which we do business is rapidly changing and to give your business the best chance of success, it means going digital. In the old days all you needed was a phone number, fax machine, business address and a listing in the yellow pages for customers to find you. These days the list is much bigger - mobile, email, SMS, website, social media, mobile site view, ecommerce and mobile banking to communicate with and meet the needs of your customers.

Finding the right mix of digital tools for your small business can be confusing and costly if you don't get the formula right. Understanding the basics of web design and internet marketing will help you to get an idea of what you need for your business size and budget, future expansion plans and to avoid signing up for something that you could get elsewhere at a fraction of the cost.

Professional Custom Build versus Template Website design

Never has there been a better time to start an online business or reach new customers using the Internet. Affordable web design packages for the budget conscious are now more accessible, thanks to the explosion in free template software.

In 2004 when I started trading online there were very few free template software products and the ones available were incredibly hard to customise. I dabbled for a while and learnt a lot, but the site just wasn't making enough sales.

I then opted for a professional custom built site with full ecommerce capabilities including payment gateway, member logins, inventory and marketing modules at a cost of around $4,500. The same website today will cost you around $10K - $20K, sure it worked and I had the backup support of highly skilled programmers whenever I wanted something changed, at an hourly rate. Sales and memberships went up, I got a lot of value out of that website and it suited the sophisticated ecommerce needs of the business at the time.

Fast forward to 2006 and I had another custom site built for a service based business at a cost of $10K, including corporate branding with capability of digital downloads. Looking back with the advances in template software capabilities, I could have created that website myself for around $500 inclusive of branding and image rights using my present set of skills.

Since then, I have built many of my own sites and websites for clients including brochure style sites and online shops using various template software programs. With creativity, desktop publishing skills and a good knowledge of content management systems and internet marketing - the end result is on par with expensive custom built sites.

Deciding on the level of investment

Here's my advice…if your business is brand new and you do not yet have a customer base or a sales history then be conservative and test the waters first. Spending $3k - $10k on a website first up is not going to guarantee you sales. Due to the highly competitive nature of the Internet and its global reach you will need to create a niche market for your products and services online - particularly if entering retail sales.

There are millions of other businesses trying to do the same thing as you, so discovering your point of difference and building a client list is going to be much more important than a high end website to start off with. When you have a solid customer base and sales are coming in, you can then upgrade your website to a more sophisticated ecommerce platform if you need to.

You can test the waters first with shopping cart software and a business PayPal account which will save you money on merchant fees in the initial stages of business life. Expected level of investment will under $1500 for a designer to create this type of website for you.

For service based businesses including local trades and small business start-ups, you can achieve a professional looking website using budget template software for around $500 - $1000 with a designer. The level of investment is based on your business size and future expansion plans. For example, if you are tradesperson and want local customers to find you, a basic website will do that for you along with some good marketing.

Web hosting fees - what should you be paying?

Web hosting should not cost you more than $50/month for any type of website (custom build or template based) with the average price being around $14 - $24 a month. If you are being quoted rates higher than $50/month I would be asking why and get independent advice. This applies to buying pre-existing websites too; I have known a number of people who have taken over websites with expensive monthly hosting fees because they are not aware of how much they should be paying based on the industry average. It is a case of buyers beware.

Myth busting - the web platform does not determine your Search Engine rankings

I've heard quite a bit of online talk lately that one brand of template software (Wordpress versus Wix/Joomla/cPanel etc) will impede your search engine rankings or get you better ones. Quite simply this is nonsense - with 9 years' experience in internet marketing and SEO and having achieved top search engine rankings in record time for clients, I can tell you this is simply not true.

What is important is a professional looking website with all key functionality working well including links, images and downloads. The content is relevant and of value to your site visitors and is keyworded for the search engines. You have the capability of adding meta tag information to the site, including all pages for the search engines to crawl.

The flip side of the coin which will have the most impact is the level and expertise of internet marketing and SEO that is applied to move your site into the top 1 - 3 pages of search results on Google for the major keyword phrases related to your product and service offerings. Along with any social media marketing, print media advertising and online campaigns you are running to drive targeted traffic to your site.

It takes consistent and applied effort to get good search engine rankings. Keep a look out for my new online course on 'Internet Marketing for Small Business' (soon to be released) where you can learn how to market your website like a Pro using my proven system. I've run out of time…so we will discuss social media web design in the next article, until then stay awesome!

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Rosemary Burnett, CEO EBusiness Courses is based in Perth, Western Australia and has 9 years' experience in web design, internet marketing and SEO, expert content development and building customer bases online.