A few of our staff at Green Thoughts Consulting had the opportunity to give back to a pet and veterinarian rescue in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. We were out of the country on both business and pleasure and took an afternoon to bring over 3 full bags of dog and cat supplies along with vet supplies to a local charity in the area.
We visited Las Animas Dog Rescue in Puerto Vallarta, which houses around 45 dogs presently. There is a huge problem in most countries including the United States when it comes to stray animals that are abandoned by there owners. The Las Animas Dog Rescue was happy to have us visit for the afternoon and drop off supplies.
We also offered our services for an updated or redesigned website. More to come on that soon enough.
For now enjoy these pictures of Green Thoughts Consulting giving back.
It was a heart warming and heart wrenching expericne for many of us. The younger kids in our group were hit especially hard by the reality of life in a third world country. While the care at Las Animas Dog Rescue was spot on the overall cleanliness and tidiness of the landscape, yards, ans surrounding areas were an eye opener for the kids. We all noticed strays at a greater rate once leaving the facility and moving about the city.
It’s good to give back and good to be grateful for what we have.
What are the MUST HAVES for your business web design
There are things that will work for a business web design and things that will not work for a business website. It will be our goal to outline a list of must haves and sprinkle in a bit of don’t do it comments. There are always exceptions, however when people visit a web design and particularly a business web design they expect to find a certain look or type for particular categories of business and/or sites.
With all of that said let’s get into the must haves:
BUSINESS WEB DESIGN MUST HAVES
Clear Calls to Action
Your business web design needs a clear call to action. The call to action button will and should stand out for your visitors as soon as they hit the page. It should be visible upon landing (exception to mobile browsers) and should be an attention getting color. I prefer reds and oranges. It should lead the way to what you want your visitor to do. What action do you want the individual to take? Use that text. Contact us. Get a Quote. Learn More.
Here’s an example.
Good Design
I think it goes without saying that your business web design needs to be attractive to your target audience. You want the colors to inspire trust and to work together. This also means you need a modern style for your website. You need a site that looks like it was built in the last 1 to 2 years. As a side note the average business updates and redesigns there website every 18 to 24 months. Make it look good and update it every few years.
It’s absolutely necessary that you have a clear area on your website for visitors and clients to contact you. This area should include your NAP. Name, Address, and Phone Number. Bonus for local phone numbers, but if you do world wide business a toll free number will work.
You should include a contact form for the visitor to fill out his or her name & email at a bare minimum, however for most businesses adding a phone number field is a good followup idea. Finally, leave an area for the visitor to write a message to you.
I believe it’s best to include your NAP and contact information at the bottom/footer on each page aside from landing pages.
About Page
A business website design must have an about page, which is sometimes known as Our Story, or About Us. The point here is that those visiting you need to get to know you. They need to see real people and real office space or work stations. They need to connect with you on a human level. This may sound too much but it’s important. It builds relationship and connection when someone sees you instead of a model.
Keep the page short and sweet, tell a story or two about how you got where you are, and speak to the benefit or working with your business and how it differentiates you from other companies. Not too salesy though just to the point and honest.
Social Proof
Add social icons and links to your various social profiles. I guess it goes without saying that a quality business web design must have a social profiles behind it. Try to stay consistent with your branding across platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. For many companies these are the must have profiles, however in some instances you may wish to have a Pinterest or Snapchat depending on your industry.
Google Reviews Embedded
People are moved by Google Reviews, Yelp Reviews, etc take advantage of this and embed your reviews with an api or third party software to show proof of what others are saying about there experience with your business. This will elevate you and create a sense of trust.
On a similar note you need to work hard for your reviews and reply to all reviews you are given both good and bad. Build a process of followup with your clients were you request a review after service/etc and again 14 and 30 days later if you haven’t received it.
Closing Business Web Design Remarks
Follow the advice above to get on the right track with your small business web design. If you are feeling overwhelmed reach out to us for a free consultation. We provide full service affordable business web design and Search Engine Optimization.
We were approached by a small startup to provide them with an extremely affordable business web design in Dalton Georgia with a very quick turnaround. The client wanted a CMS (content management system” so they could self update and publish there own content via the site and blog. In other words there was no content or wording added by us.
The turnaround time and scope was 24 to 36 hours. The price point was under 600 dollars. This goes against some of the rules we wrote when discussing Custom Web Design, however for this instance this solution worked best.
Due to these constraints, which varies from our normal designs, we choose a simple yet attractive WordPress template that was cost effective and quick to edit with a WYSIWYG editor (“What you see is what you get”) like Beaver-builder or Elementor.
This format worked well because of it’s price point and the numerous free resources available to our client such as YouTube tutorials and the like.
Web Pages Requested for the Web Design
The client requested a home page that would showcase the services he offered along side an about page and a contact page.
Dalton Ga Web Design for Blankenship PIC
1- Home Page
The goal of the homepage was to first get the point of the site across concisely with a call to action above the websites fold. In other words we were seeking to create a landing page feel for the home page.
Per request social media icons were created along the top right menu bar and email/phone on the left above the clients logo.
The header for the page, also known as the H1, was chosen for On-Page SEO and optics. The client added the sub text under the H1.
The call to action although in attention getting red was weaker than we had hoped for with the type “contact us”, however this was again a client request. They felt get a quote was too strong.
The H2 “Identify and Reduce Costs” in the below the fold type attempts to provide context to what the client in fact does and hopefully solves a problem that potential clients and web traffic are considering.
The three prong division of the site provides an overview of the services this particular business offers.
2- About Page
This affordable web design was provided to the client within 18 hours of request and an approximate 1 hour conversation. The about page was entirly left for the client to optimize and fill in text sections per our video instructions.
3- Contact Page
With the contact page we setup a simple auto-responder using mailer lite and a forward to the owner of the business so that they would be aware of requests.
Aside from this the business worked within the builder to update text and images.
Request for Blog within the Web Design
We simply set up the post page and provided video tutorials of how to upload blogs to the site. In doing so we explained the importance of keywords On Page SEO.
Each post shows up and is highlighted, grey overtone, as you scroll down. These are merely “featured images” for the that the user uploads. Each post has a a comment section and a call to action for the reader to contact the business owners.
An Affordable Web Design is Possible
I’ve included this post of a lower budget Chattanooga Web Design by Green Thoughts Consulting to illustrate that an affordable web design is possible with a quick turnaround.
Obviously, this site could be improved, however it cost the client less than the yearly and monthly fee for a Shopify, Wix, or Squarespace site and was completed per there request in less than 24 hours.
Even with an affordable web design option like this we include a discount on our other services such as SEO, PPC, and Hosting.
