Why Every Small Business Needs a Professionally Designed Website?

Welcome to another episode on the FSBO Podcast. This is the Small Business Credit Minute, and I'm your host and business credit expert, S.E. Day. On weekly episodes, we bring you, the small business owners, issues that matter most to your business financial wallet, because in order for you to compete in today's business financial world, you should know the rules of competition. Today's topic hits every small business owner squarely in the middle of their growth plans. The importance of having a professionally designed website. Whether you're selling products, offering services, or building your brand credibility, your website is your digital storefront. I have invited an expert in this field and he's calling in from Dubai, and he will be with us in a few seconds, so stay tuned. In today's competitive world, your business deserves more than just hard work. It deserves the financial freedom to grow. Building business credit is the key to unlocking opportunities. With strong business With business credit, you can expand faster, invest smarter, and reduce your personal risk. Start building your business credit today because your dreams deserve the chance to grow just like your business. Secure your spot at the next Small Business Credit Survival Boot Camp and receive business credit guaranteed. Welcome back to the show. Welcome to the show, JJ.

Thank you so much, Randy. It's great to be here. I have spent over a decade working with small and mid-sized firms to create their websites, which not only look good but actually perform good as well.

You know, JJ, that's excellent. I mean, I'm excited to have this discussion with you today because I know so many small business owners underestimate how powerful a professional website can be. So Let's dig into the basics. Many small business owners believe that having a Facebook page or an Instagram account or a TikTok account is enough. Why is that a risky approach?

Well, relying on Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media platform can be risky because these platforms don't give you complete access to your online presence. And, uh, things such as algorithms policies and suspensions can change things overnight, which means they can cut off access to your audience and the content that you've been building in for years. Now, on the other hand, a dedicated website gives you complete ownership of your brand's identity, your data, your customer experience. It allows, it actually allows you for better search engine visibility, like ranking on Google, It builds credibility and, you know, it becomes a central hub where all of your social media platforms point back to. So I would say in short, social media is a rented space and your website is your own real estate. So all of the smart businesses leverage social media to drive traffic to their website and not depend on it entirely. Right.

Now, you know, that's an excellent point because we really don't think of it in the way of it's owned by someone else, right? I've heard people say, well, it's my Facebook page or it's my TikTok account, and it's really not. You're— that, that is borrowed space. You're on somebody else's real estate, and they can cut and censor and close you out if they like, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Yeah.

So basically what you're saying is your website is an asset.

Exactly.

What other benefits do you see in having a professionally— a professional site rather than a do-it-yourself one? And, and, and I ask this question because there are many platforms out there, right? Like your Wix, uh, like your GoDaddy, where— and I came to you as a referral, but I came to you because I had built a site on Wix. And I'll tell you, I'm a business credit expert. I am not a web designer. And I, when I talk to you, I'm like, man, I want to appeal to million-dollar corporations, not, you know, the layperson. So what are some of those benefits of having a professional site over a do-it-yourself one?

Well, I remember the question that you asked me the first time that we met. Why do I need professional help? And I've been asked this question a lot. So I'm going to start with the basics why DIY about DIY websites. Now DIY websites, they look good, but keep in mind those websites are basically brainchild of the business owner. It's his ideas how he wants to present his business. There's a very good example. If you look at Nokia, if you look at BlackBerry, these were huge companies. And they did everything right except for one thing, for about adaptability, not working on user experience. So I believe DIY websites lack user experience. The business owner creates, decorates a website like how he wants the audience to look. On the other hand, a professional web designer actually goes into the nitty-gritty of the business. He actually learns about how your audience work. What are their expectations? And it's not about the decoration part of it. It's also about the structural part of the website. So a professional web designer works on the aesthetics along with that, the structure, which actually increases the visibility of your website, that it comes up on Google, that people, it actually reaches the target audience. That is the major difference.

Got it. So it's not just about the look, it's how it works behind the scenes. I like that. I like that. Okay, so now let's get into the design strategy of it, right? What makes a website truly professional in terms of look, looks and functionality?

Well, it all starts again. It all starts with understanding your target audience. In today's digital era that we are living right now, every business is more focused on user experience. And that combines with what they have to offer. So the first thing is understanding your target audience. After that, the colors, layout, tone, and your brand identity should be consistent and should get to know about what your customer expectations are. All right, so professional designers basically think about how to guide a visitor on your website. It's not just to impress them, you know, visually. It's, it's a complete journey from the homepage till the last page.

Okay. Okay. So, right. So design isn't just decoration, it's direction. It moves people towards taking an action. All right. So what are some key elements that every business website should have?

Absolutely. Design isn't decoration, it's direction. A well-designed website by a professional basically compels a user to take an action. For example, you know, booking a call or buying a product or even inquiring more about your services. So speaking of the elements, let me lay down the most basic elements that every business website should have. The very first one that's top on the list is clear value proposition. The visitors coming onto your website should clearly and instantly understand who you are, what you do, and why you matter, and why all of what you're doing matters. That's really important. The second one is call to actions, which we call CTAs, such as buttons, prompts, even banners on your website. Should stand out visually and it clearly guides your user, like what's the next step? For example, if I'm coming onto your website and it clearly mentioned that this is the part where I can book a call, it should stand out so that, you know, it actually creates measurable outcome. The third part is intuitive navigation. Now this is something that I stress a lot. Today I see a lot of, you know, websites aesthetically so beautiful, But yet very complex. So it should be a simple logical layout that helps users find information. So if you are coming on to my website, it should be easy for you. It should not be a frustrating process for you, however it looks.

Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry.

The 4th one, I'd say mobile optimization since Yeah, since you won't believe more than 60% of web traffic is through mobile devices. So your website should load fast and it should function flawlessly in all the devices.

Got it.

The fifth is it should be trust signals. Yeah. So testimonials, reviews, creating that connection, the experience that all of your other, you know, customers had. Share that with your audience. Tell them that it's not just business-centric, it's user-centric, that you create connection, not just deliver a product and go by your way. You create a connection. This actually builds credibility. This actually creates a feeling for your user that, you know, they are in a good feeling. It creates such feeling for a user. So that's really important. Consistent branding. Look at Apple, Adidas, and other big brands, one thing that they have in common is consistent branding. They have, you know, cohesive colors, typography, and, you know, the tones that they, they basically portray emotions. Even just looking at their website or even looking at one of the advertising material, it actually delivers an emotion. So branding is important. Lastly, and the most important, I'd say, search engine foundation. This is a bit technical part. Metadata, keyword structure, site speed optimization. And these things are very important in order for your website to be reached to a certain audience or be discoverable among people. So, well, These are like 7 elements. And these— and, you know, when all of these things, all of these elements come together, it's the design, you know, does not just look good, it actually looks good and it actually converts your visitor into customers.

So we had a guest on, on the last episode and we were talking about data analytics and search engine optimization and understanding that the magic ingredients most business owners overlook is that search engine optimization, right? So we'll touch on that a little bit more shortly. But let's go into— you touched on something, you said functionality. Let's go into conversion and functionality. Um, beyond the appearance, what, what makes a website a tool for conversion? I mean, how do, how do you convert those lookie-loos into customers, if you will?

Well, understanding your audience and how, and looking at your competitors, that is one thing. But specifically speaking about the functionality of the website, the website should have clear pathways. For example, it should have lead forms. It should have newsletter signups, payment gateways, product description. All of these, all of the things that actually drive measurable outcomes. These things should be present in your website. Every page that you have on your website should have a purpose that actually supports your business goal. That, that's okay to have.

So it's like having a silent salesperson working 24 hours a day for you, right?

Exactly. And it never takes a day off.

Okay, so now let's dig into some of the common mistakes or missed opportunities Um, that people make on their website. What are some of the biggest mistakes small businesses make, you know, when they're building their websites?

Um, on the very top, I would say right now, as we discussed about this earlier, neglecting mobile optimization, mobile design.

Because 98% of eyes are on these things. They're on these. Got it.

Go anywhere and you find people looking down at their phones, constantly browsing, using it. So majority of your traffic comes from mobile devices. And a lot of business owners, you know, do not give that much attention to the mobile version of the website. So, you know, that is the first biggest mistake small businesses do.

Mm-hmm.

They are more focused, you know, upon the laptop or desktop version. you know, making it more aesthetic, making it more beautiful. So that is interesting. They do not focus much on the mobile design.

Okay.

One is, I'd say, not keeping your website updated. Outdated content always kills credibility. So for example, I am, I'm going to go search for a product. All right.

Right.

And this product is on a certain website. And on that website, I go on to that website. The website is beautiful, my God. But I see the information that was posted, blogs especially. The last blog that they posted was 2 days ago.

Yeah.

Well, you know, this raises a question in my mind, right? These guys do not care much about, you know, their product or business. These are the questions that comes up to your end users.

Wow.

They do not put that much attention on to, you know, spreading information because blog is, you know, is is one of the most important sections of a website that provides free information, that creates connection with your audience. It's a bridge. So keeping it outdated, it actually kills credibility. And last but not the least, ignoring analytics.

Oh yeah.

A lot of small businesses, they do not actually look into the analytics of what's working for them. And what's right, they'll dive into paid advertisement, they'll dive into social media, they'll dive into design aesthetics without knowing what's working for them. And at the end of the day, they are losing a lot of money on all of these elements. And yet—

Wow.

Many of these elements are not even working for them. They are— they might be working against them. So they ignore analytics. That, that's the biggest mistake small businesses make.

And those are costly mistakes. And sometimes business owners just don't realize how much money they're losing due to a poor online presence, right?

Yes.

So I come to you, audience, full disclosure, uh, I'm working with Geoffrey and his companies. They've designed our newly designed website. Take a look at it for small business, FSB only. Um, and they're working on another one because we decided to do a brand One for the company and me, myself, thesandyday.com. So it's, it's important that you bring along a professional to get this done because you are building yourself as a professional business. You need to have that professional presence. So, JJ, let's, let's circle back to SEO for a second.

Mm-hmm.

Because we talked before with the, with the previous guest, but This is more centered around the search engine side. So why is search engine optimization tied so tightly to a good web design?

Well, I'm going to start by talking about what search engine optimization is. All right. So every other person, you, me, or any other person you see, if we have a question, if we even want to ask about how to to spell a certain word, Google is our go-to place.

Right.

We go on to Google. So, you know, it's no harm in saying that Google search engine is the very top search engine in the world, right?

Right.

It's at the very top. And now what Google does is it works in a way, it does indexing. The list that you see, that's called indexing.

All right?

And Google rewards websites which are fast, mobile responsive, and structured properly. Explaining it a bit more in depth. So when a professional web designer creates a website, he works on the metadata, he works on the description, he uses search engine optimized content and put that, actually weave that into the website, embedded into it.

Mm-hmm.

So once the website is live, Google actually assigns this website a rank. It actually, the crawlers, those are called crawlers, which actually reviews your website. So the crawlers basically look at your website, the page, they understand ones and zero, and then they assign a score to it. Okay. And that is how Google rewards your business. That is how you see your website at the top. So I would say a good design with structural components of SEO is crucial for any small business so that they are visible among an audience and they can be easily searched on Google and even on other search engines as well. So it's very crucial that from the very first day when you start working on a website, you should be focused on search engine optimization as well. Not waiting for it to finish, and then we do the search engine optimization and so on and so forth.

Right. And you've told me those same things in my consultation with you. So for a business owner listening right now who's thinking, man, I need to step up my game, right?

Yeah.

What's the first step they should take?

Well, start with an audit. review what's working and what's not, and actually look at your competitors, how they are working, how they are functioning, how they have used their website, how they are basically driving traffic. Just, you know, do an audit first. That's really important. After that, once you have all of that information, then invest in professional design help. Even if you start with the basic starter package, right?

Right.

Consider this, consider your website, consider all of this, as a long-term business asset, not an expense. A lot of people think website as an expense. Yeah, but it's not. Yeah, it's an asset. It helps you gain more business. It helps you to be discovered. It helps you create credibility. So that's really important that you understand your, you know, your website is an asset, not a liability.

You know, that takes me back to years ago. I used to hear the term that A business with no sign was a sign of no business, right? And now we're looking at that, that brick-and-mortar sign is now digital.

Exactly.

So if you don't have that digital sign out there that's driving traffic on the highway, the information highway— oh God, that's an old term. I just dated myself. But if you're hearing that, if you don't have your digital sign on that, on that information highway, you're going to get missed. So that's a great takeaway. Every serious business should treat their website like their headquarters, because in today's world, that's exactly what it is. It's your headquarters and it's, it's what drives your revenue, right?

Yes.

JJ, Jeffrey, thank you for sharing your expertise today. This has been a great reminder that a professionally designed website isn't optional. It's essential for credibility, visibility, and the growth of your company. To our listeners, if you are ready to elevate your digital presence, start by evaluating your website. Ask yourself, does it represent the quality of my business? Hey, I'm your host, S.E., and I'm with— on the Small Business Credit Minute. Listen, you can listen to this podcast anywhere you get your favorite podcasts. Um, if you like this episode, you learn something about it or learn something from it, click on like, share it with other small business owners. Remember, we are one small community. And until next episode, remember, your dreams deserve a chance to grow just like your business. JJ, thanks again.

All right, sir. Thank you for having me.

All right, absolutely.