Of course, any ecommerce venture needs one from the off, but even those few companies left that do not conduct online operations often have a website anyway for the purposes of marketing, brand promotion, and so on. This shows us that the website isn’t just essential for ecommerce, it is essential for commerce, period.
However, the size of the company matters. The web design challenges faced by a small company, for example, are quite different from those faced by a larger one. It is something of a compromise – larger companies have greater resources, of course, but their websites need to achieve more, they need to offer more products, and reach many more people.
This is why web design for large companies is often handled by professionals. Sacramento web designer, Peak Design, say that creating a top website for a company with a massive reach is really the domain of the professionals.
But this is not so with smaller companies. In such cases, the challenges are less onerous, but the resources are modest too. This is not necessarily a bad thing though as it is the early days when most of a company’s responsibilities are handled in-house that a company forms its unique identity. Giving away too much responsibility to third-party companies can interfere with this process.
Web Design for Small Companies
We might say then that over-outsourcing is one of the major mistakes made by small companies. The difficulty, of course, is standing out. And websites that are too formulaic, which seek to cut costs by simply copying a generic web template, can have trouble attracting the traffic needed to grow.
For this reason, those running small ecommerce companies should think hard about when to outsource web design. Simply being able to is a good sign of growth, but it is important to have a brand and aesthetic identity in place beforehand. That way, the professionals can be guided towards realizing a highly functional website with a large reach that is still true to the company’s identity.
Top Mistakes Made
The outsourcing question is one – particularly thorny – issue, but there are many more challenges faced by smaller companies when it comes to web design. And, of course, there are many mistakes that are commonly made too. Learning what these mistakes are isone the best way to avoid making them.
Overcrowded Design
A web design rule is that a website should not be cluttered, either with too many interactive elements or simply with a design that is too loud or cluttered. The vast majority of successful websites today tend towards restraint and elegance. Keep the colors muted and present only the essential information on every page.
Complicated structure
Another common mistake is web sites with too many pages, specifically too many sub-pages. This makes it difficult for users to find what they need and hence increases the likelihood of them clicking away. As a rule of thumb, ensure that no page on your site is more than three click away from the homepage.
Using the Wrong CTAs
Calls to action (CTAs) are vital for building engagement with a website. Things like newsletter sign ups and or links to blogs should be featured, but there are bad CTAs too. If a CTA demands too much of the visitor – for example, by requiring a more than a name and an email for a newsletter – then they are actively off-putting.
Business has moved, overwhelmingly, into the online realm. That makes web design vital for anybody involved in it.