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SMALL BUSINESS WEB DESIGN

Hopping Mad Designs is a small business website specialist. We have been designing and developing websites for small businesses such as florists, accountants and lawyers for over 15 years. Our experience in providing the whole package–from logos through to websites, has benefited many small businesses owners.

For a small business, marketing is a crucial element to bringing business in the door, making sales and generating income. A website is an important component to your marketing collateral. Hopping Mad can provide you with a website that works–not just looks good. It will communicate with your market and get results. See our portfolio for some examples of great website solutions we have created over the years.

Why does your small business need to be online?

If you are running a small business and you do not have a web site, then here are some compelling reasons why you should be online:

1. In Australia over 75% of people who look for a product or service online will actually make a purchase. In today's very tough economic climate this means that if you are not in the firing line when people are searching, then your business will lose out. Internet usage is only increasing, particularly with the use of ipads, iphones and androids. As a business owner you must be up to speed with these technologies or you will fall even further behind. People are gravitating to these hand held devices when searching online and having your website found by these consumers will generate the sales you need to keep going.
2. If you are targeting a certain demographic or age group having a site that relates to these consumers and speaks with them at their level is a great way to retain brand loyalty and induce new clients to use your product or service. If your new small business web design is purpose built to target these consumers and they love what they see then it could have a viral effect where one person tells another who in turn tells another. Also known as viral marketing, getting a site that can achieve this can make your brand an instant success.
3. It is an essential marketing tool. If you are a small business suburban trader wanting to increase your client base, a small business web design is the easiest and quickest way to reach a larger market. This is achieved through implementing a search engine campaign where we can look at targeting a specific larger area rather than your smaller suburban location. For example if you are an accountant or lawyer in Balmain and are wanting to target the whole of Sydney, then all we have to do is look at site content, adding geo specific content relevant pages as well as optimising the keywords: accountants Sydney and Lawyers Sydney. If performed correctly you should see your website ranking for these search terms within a couple of months.

Small Business web design pitfalls to be aware of:

Small business owners can sometimes be a bit naive when it comes to their web design and whats involved. You should always be wary of is being locked into contracts whether it's for SEO or site maintenance. Never sign anything with out meeting the web company or showing the documents to a solicitor. A quick decision may land you in hot water that may be very difficult to get out of.

Just because you are a small business with a low budget, does not mean that you have to settle for mediocre design. Make certain that your web designers are pushed a bit to deliver you a design solution that will work well for your business. Too many web companies are happy to churn out templates in a production like manner. Don’t let your small business fall victim to sub standard design. If you are unhappy with what you are presented with let them know and ask the design team to work on the interface to your satisfaction. Invariably its a matter of just spending a few more hours working on some minor tweaks and adjustments. Stand your ground and don’t be afraid or intimidated to make comments or offer design suggestions. Remember it's your money and your business is going to have to live with this design for at least the next couple of years.

Be aware of the coding standards used by web developers. It's vital that everything that programmed for you has search engine optimisation as a mandatory requirement. If they are not going to implement a SEO campaign then at least ensure that all the page titles and descriptions match your businesses products or service offerings. It may be worth the effort to pay a company to look at the user interface ( UI ) and make sure that it is Google compliant and will help you in the rankings. A bit of time spent here in the early phases of web development will pay huge dividends later on.

An important thing to remember is to pay only in stages. Never pay in advance for the full web site design as you will have no recourse to get your money refunded if there are any site issues. Pay a deposit, but break it into stages such as paying a 25% progress fee upon web design approval and pay the balance once the site is uploaded and you are happy with everything. If you are a small business you will appreciate this staggered payment method as you will have more capital to spend on other types of marketing.

Don’t be afraid to bargain a little bit. Try to see if they will offer you a 10% discount. The worst thing they can say is no. In most cases you will be pleasantly surprised when they agree to your offer. Small businesses starting out, are probably not used to this, but if you do bargain and ask for a website discount most companies will be happy to accommodate this. Try it out and see the response. If they are unwilling to offer a discount ask why and perhaps look for another quote.

How can Hopping Mad Designs help you get online now?

• Getting online has never been easier. You can start with a basic web page of a 4-5 page website that has all the necessary information to get your message out there. You can have have details about who you are, services you offer, testimonials, a product image gallery, FAQ section, contact details page as well as a newsletter sign up form. These are just the basics but if you want any other items these are always very easy to add later on through the content management system.
• Small Business Website packages to suit your budgets. Hopping Mad Designs can provide you with simple, organised solution for your internet requirements. Hopping Mad’s designers and programmers are able to create web site packages for those needing an uncomplicated, cost effective, results focused site. We ensure that we can come up with a package that not only looks good but will drive customers to your site through our online search engine optimisation ranking strategy.
• Bringing customers to your site. If business is a bit slow, getting Hopping Mad to rank your new website on search engines such as Yahoo, Bing and Google will get the phone ringing. We can even install Analytics into your site so you can measure performance and site visits.
• Complete solutions. We manage everything for you–from domain name registration, hosting, photography, image search, copy writing, programming, email marketing, through to SEO we can manage the whole process for you. We have a team of small business website design experts who have done hundreds of sites, leaving you free to manage the day to day runnings of your business.
• ECommerce made easy. If you area small business searching for a new revenue stream then we can build you an shopping cart site that you can manage yourself. We will design and develop your site and set up the interface and handle the often complicated process of dealing with the merchant facility set-up process. You can either take PayPal or Visa/Mastercard. This is real time so as soon as the new site is set up you can start trading. This is an awesome way for a small business to get out there and sell their products world wide, 24/7. There will be no limit on the amount of products that you can add. Just think about it , you can put you whole shop online. Perhaps if business goes well you wont need a shop front.
• We are here to help. If you have never ventured in to the online world and are a bit unsure about how all this works then we are always here to have a chat with you. We are a Sydney based studio so if you need to be guided through this process and prefer to have a meeting, we are more than willing to meet with you. You will find that the unknown (especially the internet) can be a bit daunting , so we are here to demystify the cyberspace black hole and guide you through it. Just remember that we are a small business also so we know that change can be intimidating. Realising this, we have designed small business website packages that are easy to read, understand and get your business online within days.

If you would like to get a your business online NOW then please give us a call on 02 9360 8514 or contact us here.

© 2013 Hopping Mad Designs Pty Ltd | Author: Steven Waldberg | Terms & Conditions | Sydney Web Design Studio | Level 5, Suite 510, 19A Boundary Street, Darlinghurst SYDNEY 2011

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