Are you, as a small business, looking to develop a website to gain the benefits of being online?
If you are new to the table, do not fret – we are here to help. When you think about it, it is not something as simple as putting 2+2 together.
You do need to think about visitors coming to you on different devices, all the way from mobile phones to desktop computers. You also must think about putting the right talent to work.
It takes some planning to make sure you get your website right. We bring you a list of 28 things that you should keep in mind to undertake the development of your small business website to meet these goals and more.
6 Reasons for Small Businesses to Build A Website
A well-established and up-to-date website gives you control over what people learn about your company and in what form.
It allows your customers to get in touch with you easily. Your small business website also gives your customers a powerful way of engaging with you and inspires confidence in them.
Here are 6 reasons for you to consider building a website.
#1 Having An Online Presence
Technology is driving nearly all the interactions customers have with businesses nowadays. It may have to do with researching products and services or shopping, it all gets done online nowadays.
Most people use the internet to know more about a business.
In other words, if you want to get more business, you must be found online. And to get an online presence, you need a website.
With all sorts of websites and apps on smartphones nowadays, customers can get reviews and opinions, right in the palm of their hands. It has become so easy to build a rapport with customers.
You must be everywhere all the time to stay ahead of the curve. Build a website to start with, if you have not already done so.
#2 Visibility On Search Engines
A lot of visitors find businesses and products on search engines nowadays.
Therefore, you need to be on search engines to get organic traffic.
Make sure that you make effective use of your web development dollars to create that visibility and pay close attention to Search Engine Optimization, so you get free organic traffic.
Your website is very crucial in terms of getting organic traffic from these search engines and helps you in providing 24/7 information to anyone who is looking to know more about your business.
#3 Building Credibility
Customers nowadays expect you to be available on the internet. If you do not have a website or your website design looks unprofessional or neglected, people don’t trust you.
Having a website that is well-designed, attractive, and informative makes your business credible and accessible.
It tells your customers that you are a pro who has a well-established business with an eye on detail.
#4 Customer Services
A website goes a long way in building a relationship with your customers. It builds a bond of trust between the customer and the business.
Your customers can shop on your website with more confidence knowing that if something were to go wrong with the products or services they purchase from you, they can count on getting in touch with you for customer service online anytime.
#5 Branding Tool
Your website gives you control over your brand and the environment in which you interact with your customers.
You are free to pick your own domain name to project the personality of your company and make it easier for customers to find you.
The digital impression that you leave online may help you win business, even if you are a small company.
Use your website to tell your story using media like images and videos. Showcase your products and services as part of the brand you project on your website.
#6 Customer Engagement
A website of your own allows you to take customer engagement to the next level. For example, you can collect email addresses on your website and get consent from visitors to send them personalized marketing emails.
What’s more.
You can even set up a blog to share business updates, professional opinions, how-to guides, and other content to start conversations with prospects and current customers.
5 Concerns For Small Businesses To Build A Website
#1 Lack Of Time
Small business owners may not have the time on their hands needed to build and maintain a successful website.
They have more important things that they need to work on other than focusing on figuring out the web design packages to be used for their website development.
What’s more, it is imperative that you must factor in the cost of your time when you are creating and maintaining your new website.
#2 Deciding What To Focus On
Some small businesses try to include all of their plans on their website.
Taking this approach will only make it hard for visitors to find your best work. Work with professional website designers to figure out where you should be focusing your efforts.
Begin by defining a customer base to understand what content they may want.
Once this is clear, you can then create a website that attracts prospective clients.
#3 Upfront Costs
Instead of thinking in terms of web design cost, think in terms of opportunity cost. If you think along these lines, you will find that it is not much. You need to think in terms of return on investment.
The idea is to make the best overall net profit among all the different options available. And sometimes, when you take a cheaper route, you are really losing in terms of long-term potential net profit.
While you may have to spend some money occasionally, having a great website doesn’t need to be expensive.
#4 Updating The Website
Now you may have the best-looking website on the entire planet, with the best functionality and hosted on the most powerful servers in the world.
None of these matters if you do not have a dedicated team of web developers to update content on your website at regular intervals.
You can do it yourself too if you have the skills and time.
Small businesses do really struggle with keeping their website updated because of a lack of time and resources. So, you need to factor in some time and resources for that as well.
#5 Balancing Growth & Quality
Having a website is not enough, the site should be interactive, optimized, and functional to capitalize on all the possible opportunities.
Unfortunately, small business owners struggle with balancing growth and quality when building their sites.
You need to make sure it is kept up to date, is user-friendly, it can easily be found by your potential clients and current customers.
6 Reasons For Small Businesses To Hire Website Developers In India
There are scores of reasons why you, as a small business, should hire website builders in India. Here, we lay down the top 6 reasons:
#1 High Quality Work
Website Developers in India are very talented.
You will get high-quality work delivered using the latest tools and technologies like PHP, HTML, and CSS that will not only be effective, unique, and innovative but also be user-friendly.
#2 Flexibility
The mindset of Indian web developers is very service-oriented, and they are very open to changes, even in late development cycles.
This gives you the flexibility of implementing new ideas at any stage.
#3 Pocket Friendly
It does not cost as much to hire website designers in India. This works very well for your small business, as you need to get the work done on a shoestring budget.
#4 Availability
You get to choose from a large pool of Indian web designers.
This ensures that you can pick the right people based on your parameters of time, skills, availability, budget, and work experience.
#5 More Than Just Web Development
When you hire web developers in India, you are getting more than just development.
They can also deliver graphics design, SMO, and SEO.
They can even help you market your website so that you not only get more visitors to your site but also increase sales.
#6 Full Support
If you have a local team in India, you can make your development and support process run around the clock by engaging a local team and an offshore team.
These teams can coordinate to get work done around the clock.
6 Mistakes That Small Businesses May Make While Hiring Indian Web Developers
Although it is a good idea to hire web developers in India, you need to be careful so that you hire the right team for your website development.
Here are the top 6 mistakes that small businesses make while hiring Indian website designers.
#1 Paying Too Little
If you pay too little, you may either end up hiring incompetent developers for your team or hiring good talent who may quit as soon as they get a better deal elsewhere.
Either way, you will be losing money in the long run as your project will suffer.
#2 Paying Too High
If you are going through recruiting companies or contract salespeople to hire Indian Web developers, you may end up making the mistake of paying more than the market price as you are being fooled by the middlemen.
Stay aware of the market prices and research the market wages before you sign up.
#3 Hiring Wrong Skillset
It is easy to make this mistake and end up accepting a website development proposal from a web designer (who may just have some basic web development skills) instead of a web developer.
The contract recruiting companies will try to sell you what they have available. You will need to keep your guard up for this.
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#4 Not Doing Due Diligence
You are paying for hiring these folks. Do not make the mistake of not researching their background.
Go through their social profiles and references to double-check.
#5 Not Checking Their Past Works
Sometimes small businesses are so eager to get into a web design contract that they just base their decision on the face value of the person they have interviewed.
We recommend that you ask for samples of work to ensure the quality of work.
#6 Not Checking Their Communication Skills
India has a large population of skilled web developers and most of them struggle when it comes to basic English communication.
Make sure that you are hiring people with who you can communicate effectively or your project is going to suffer.
5 Tips for Small Businesses to Hire Reliable Website Designers in India
Hiring reliable website designers in India can be a tiring process just because of the volume of resumes and candidates you will have to go through.
You can, however, keep it manageable if you keep these 5 tips in mind:
#1 Being Clear On What You Want
Before you go out there and start getting in touch with any hiring companies, be clear in your mind about your hiring goals and the kind of work you need to get done.
There are so many flavors of web development in India and it is easy to get confused if you enter unprepared.
#2 Creating An Accurate Scope Of Work
Once you know what you are looking for, write the job requirement clearly in words.
You will need to share this with the recruiter in order to reach the right website design agencies. Not doing so may lead to frustrations down the road.
#3 Checking Testimonials
Small businesses do not have the time or resources to get into multiple hiring cycles.
Do your due diligence and check the background of the candidates by calling the web design companies they claim to have worked for.
A lot of people are not very honest with the projects and employers they have worked with. It is up to you to verify their claims.
#4 Request Work Sample
Never fall for the tall claims made in the resume or the interview process. Ask for their web design portfolio and work samples to make sure they can walk the talk.
It is easy for someone to claim they worked on some fancy feature but unless they can show you proof of their work or demonstrate it to you in code, do not fall for it.
This will make sure that the people you are hiring will perform on the job and not just warm the cushion.
#5 Get A Website Design Contract Signed
Before hiring any website developer in India, you must ensure that you sign a formal website development contract with them.
A website design contract will always help you protect your interests and avoid any possible conflicts & disputes.
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