Brett Atkin, the owner of Pixel Jocks, was the third speaker of the Boone EDC’s Four-Part Summer Small Business Series as we discussed what every small business website needs. Brett gave us a fantastic overview of his recommendations for a website and shared his insights on what small business owners need to remember as they create a website. For more details on Brett, visit his company site here.
Specific takeaways that I gleaned from the conversation were the following:
- The two most important things as a small business are your relationships and your reputation. Your website is the entryway to both of these items as it is the first impression you will have on the future relationships and a representation of who you are as a business.
- Four pages every small business website needs are:
- Home Page- In the Home Page, make the tabs at the top easy to read and self-explanatory, so all audiences know how to navigate your site. Keep it simple, clean, and polished.
- About Page- In the About Page, include detailed bios of key team members and business owners. Don’t know who a key team member is? If a team member interacts with customers routinely, feature them.
- Products and Services Pages- As you explain your products or what services you offer, be simple. Don’t complicate what role your business serves, confusing your audience. Less is more.
- Contact Page- Always include this with specific information on how to connect with your small business via email, telephone, and physical location.
- When you create and update your website, always think about the customer as user experience on your website is the highest priority. If a customer cannot easily navigate the website or does not find the pertinent information fast enough, they will move on to another business.
- Lastly, as we discussed with many of our Summer Small Business Series sessions, you will need to monitor your website traffic to see what pages are hit the most. This will help you better understand your customers and create additional content that best fits their needs. From here, you will better know which areas of your site will need to be updated. Reminder, a static website is a non-effective website. Remember to add content and edit your site consistently.
For more insight and follow-up with Brett, please contact him at Pixel Jocks or reach out to Rachel.