What to include on a small business website

Having worked with small business owners and entrepreneurs across the country to launch custom HubRunner websites, we are often asked about what to include on a small business website. This may seem like a straightforward issue, but there are several things to consider when planning out your website content to effectively reach your target market and provide the right kind of information to turn website visitors into customers or clients.

Here are a few tips for what to include on a small business website:

1. Who are you?

The “About” page is a simple but necessary section on any small business website. This is your opportunity to tell website visitors, in a nutshell, exactly what your business or service is, to provide your mission statement, and also to put a human face on the company by sharing more details about yourself or your team. This is also helpful for journalists who may need to research your company for media coverage. It is your opportunity to provide a boilerplate statement about your business that can be copied and used across multiple platforms, such as other blogs and websites that feature your business or product, PR pitches for your company, marketing materials, and more.

2. Pictures, please

If you don’t have professional photos of your brick and mortar business, physical product, or illustrative examples of services, this is something to seriously consider investing in for your website design. I think we’ve all been to website with no images—or poor images—and clicked away immediately. Most people are extremely visually oriented creatures, so ensuring your small business website accurately and effectively portrays your company is essential to keeping potential customers on your site.

3. Don’t just take my word for it…

Another aspect to include on your small business website is a page for customer testimonials or examples of your work. Providing concrete evidence of the quality of your product or service is a great way to set your business apart from the competition. Whether you link to reviews from your company’s Yelp! page, or create a gallery featuring highlights from your portfolio, showcasing examples of your work on your small business website is beneficial to capturing the attention of website visitors and positioning your company as an expert in your field.

4. Encourage visitors to take action

If it’s possible to purchase your product or service, make payments or secure reservations online, having this capability on your small business website is essential. Whether you need ecommerce software, a reservation or a registration system, work with your website developer to ensure your website has the functionality that corresponds with your business needs. And, if your small business offerings aren’t appropriate for an online ordering system, include instead a strong call to action to compel visitors to inquire for more information—even by submitting their own contact information—about your product or services.

5. Social media integration

Integrating social media throughout your small business website is ideal for encouraging engagement with your brand and building customer loyalty. Potential customers or clients expect successful businesses today to be active on platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn, so social media integration should be one of the key components of your small business website design. At HubRunner, we know how essential social media integration is for businesses today, so we always feature links to companies’ social media accounts on each HubRunner website. There are many great options to consider, from integrating your Twitter account feed on the homepage to including a social media “share” button on all individual pages and blog posts.

For more small business website tips, follow HubRunner on Twitter or like us on Facebook.