Section hub
Every channel ends at the website. If it loads slowly, hides the phone number, buries the service list or says nothing specific, all the traffic in the world converts poorly. This section is about getting the strategy right before the design, and not breaking what works when you rebuild.
The five redesign mistakes that cost small businesses rankings and leads: no URL redirects, cutting content that ranked, hiding contact details, a slower site, and redesigning without a measured reason.
How to plan a small-business website before choosing a look: define the site's job, list the pages that job requires, decide what each page must make a visitor do, write the content, then design. Cheaper and it converts.
The six website types, brochure, lead generation, e-commerce, content, application and portfolio, with what each is for, how it is structured and built, and how a small business picks the right one.
Why strategy beats design every time is the piece to read before you brief anyone. It walks through defining the site's job, the pages that job requires, what each page must make a visitor do, and only then the look. Sites planned this way are cheaper to build and convert better; sites planned around a template look fine and leak leads.
The six basic types of websites sorts brochure, service, lead-generation, e-commerce, content and application sites, and explains why the type dictates the structure, the platform and the budget. Most readers here need a lead-generation site and are sold a brochure.
A redesign is the most dangerous routine event in a small business's marketing life. URLs change, content gets cut, redirects are forgotten and the phone number ends up in an image. Five mistakes to avoid when redesigning lists the failures we see most, and will a redesign hurt my Google ranking? in the SEO hub gives the migration checklist that prevents them.
Static, lightweight pages load faster, get hacked less and rank more easily than heavy builds on ageing plugins. Several agencies now build small-business sites this way as a matter of policy; Dynamic Digital Marketing's website design service is one example that explains the reasoning publicly. Whoever builds yours, ask how it will perform on a mid-range phone on a weak signal, because that is where your customer is.
Make it obvious what you do, where, for whom and how to start. Put the phone number and the form above the fold on every page. Show proof: photos of real work, real reviews, real names. Answer the questions from the content hub on the pages where they arise. Then make sure every form and number actually reaches a human, which is the subject of the lead generation hub. Design is in service of all that, not the other way round.
A well-planned lead-generation site of 10 to 25 pages, built cleanly, typically costs a few thousand dollars from a competent freelancer or small studio, and far more from a full-service agency. Ongoing costs should be modest: hosting, domain, and periodic content updates.
WordPress is fine when maintained, and dangerous when not; most small-business hacks we see are neglected WordPress installs. A static or lightly managed site is safer and faster if you do not need a blog engine or e-commerce. Choose based on who will maintain it.
No. One responsive site that is designed for the phone first and the desktop second. More than half of local-service traffic is mobile, often far more.
Rarely. Refresh content continuously, fix what measurement shows is broken, and only rebuild when the platform is unsupportable or the structure blocks growth. Cosmetic redesigns every two years are a habit the industry sold you.
Home, one page per core service, one per primary service area if you cover several, about, contact, reviews or proof, and legal pages. Add guides that answer real customer questions. That is usually 12 to 25 pages, not 50.