Small Business Web Design And Development

Custom Web Design For Small Businesses

Small Business Web Design And Development

Small business web design and development at z5 Marketing is always coded from scratch. We take great pride in the fact that all of our websites are built from custom code with marketing passion.

For most small businesses their website should be the foundation of their digital marketing strategy. Unfortunately, this is not all ways the case.

We can not stress enough how important it is that you get this part of your marketing plan right!

We Do NOT Resell You Purchased Templates

Building our custom websites from scratch gives us several key advantages over generic template built sites:

1. It allows us to utilize much deep levels of SEO to help ensure your site is search engine ready for years to come.
2. It allows us to help keep your investment safer, and reliable for years to come.
3. It allows us to make your sites as lean and fast as possible (which is becoming very important for mobile search results)

While custom coded projects may not be the norm amongst many web design and development agencies today…

When we say that we build custom websites we actually mean it.

100% of our websites are designed and custom coded from scratch using our own code.

WE DO NOT RESELL PURCHASED TEMPLATES AND CALL THEM CUSTOM  BUILT WEBSITES.

By writing the code ourselves this also helps us to avoid many security vulnerabilities and prevent future site crashes (or annoying errors).

We know the code that is inside our websites because we write it!

Most business owners would be horrified to know the amount of  “web design agencies” out there selling premium websites that have no clue how to read (much less understand) the code that is inside the websites they are selling.

They’re basically selling these websites on blind faith that the code inside them is safe and good with no major security vulnerabilities.

They literally have no clue what they are selling you other than the visual aesthetics of the visible design!

The only code we do not write is core code found in any third-party web applications we may use such as WordPress and a handful of other trusted plugins and applications.

Style Of Business Websites We Design And Develop

• Marketing Sites – These are typically small business websites built for the primary purpose of generating leads.
• Corporate Style Sites – These type of websites can be for any business that just wants to make a bold statement and let their web presence be known.

If your web design project doesn’t fall within these two styles, contact us and we can discuss your project in more detail.  We do build other types of websites but they are not our primary focus so we typically only accept these projects on a case by case basis.

4 Reasons We Build Custom Small Business Websites From Code

• Performance
• Security
• Stability
• Flexibility

By hand writing our own code, there are not very many limitations to our customization abilities.

This gives us the ability to implement most any custom functionality that you may want, need or require.

Types Of Business Websites We Build

• Static Websites – For small simple sites that will rarely be updated or maintained, we usually build out static sites.
  Pros:   Fast, secure, stable for many years, no updates or maintenance required.
  Cons:  No easy user interface, if you want to change a sentence or image you will have to go into the actual code
• CMS Websites – For larger sites and sites where the business owner would like the option to make frequent changes to their site. For tese types of sites, we typically use a CMS (content management system) such as WordPress or Grav CMS.
  Pros: Has an easy user interface that anyone can use to make changes to the site, and this makes it very simple to make changes, add new pages etc
  Cons:  Requires regular maintenance and security updates.

Custom Web Development Projects

• Custom Web Applications – These are not your typical websites and usually revolve around a large database of information.  Example of these sites would be custom built CRM (client relationship manager), or a custom education or video training platform.
• Plugin Development – Web build most of our own CMS plugins to help keep our sites faster, more stable and more secure. We also offer custom WordPress plugin development as a service for those needing custom WP plugins.

The z5 Marketing Web Design Philosophy

It’s simple! We believe in doing things right the first time!

When it comes to digital marketing, your website should be the cornerstone of your digital marketing plan. This should be your foundation for all other digital and many offline marketing strategies.

Unfortunately, it’s far too common to see businesses paying so-called “agencies” to run Facebook Ads or Google Search Ads with have no way to convert that traffic into leads once it hits the business website.

Unless you are running a “branding campaign” there is no question that this behavior is borderline unethical (and maybe even flat out ROBBERY in most cases).

Sadly, you don’t have to talk with very many small business owners to find someone who has been burned by some of these marketers.

This is why we do things completely different than most other web design and marketing agencies.

Why Our Websites Perform Better

• Website Architecture –  Probably one of the more important yet most commonly overlooked aspects of a website by amateurs is website architecture. A well laid out site will make it easier for users to read and navigate (better conversions). This is also a major SEO key because it helps search engines better understand what your site is about so it will rank better.
• Information Architecture – Just like with the overall website architecture (how the files and pages are laid out) the information structure of how the content on each page is laid out is equally important. This requires a skillful mixture of user experience knowledge and sales/ad copy best practices. Good Information Architecture will increase your overall visitor experience and conversion rates.
• Speed – Google has officially moved into a mobile-first internet era. Currently, there are more mobile devices (phones & tablets) online than computers. This means if your site is slow to load on slower cellular internet service the average visitor will begin leaving your site after only 3-4 seconds. Waiting for a page to load makes for a very poor user experience (people expect pages to load instantly). Search engines also know this fact and will penalize your search engine ranking for slow loading times. Combine our fast sites with our business website hosting for even faster user experiences.
• Advanced Website SEO –  While traditional onsite search engine optimization practices still play a vital role in how a website performs in the search engines, more and more emphasis is being placed on user metrics and advanced semantic code. User metrics track things such as how users interact with your site, how much time they spend on it and how active your website links are on social media platforms. Advanced semantics is extra computer languages (code) that is added to a website in order to help the search engines better understand what a page is about.
• Analytics – This is the only way to know how users are interacting with your website. This is the information that helps identify areas of a site that are working and other areas that are not and need to be improved. Analytics is how you take the guesswork out of your marketing. It provides the data needed to fine-tune your site and turn it into a well-oiled marketing machine!
• A/B Split Testing Capabilities –  A/B split testing is how you maximize your marketing dollars and get the maximum conversion rate possible for your site and landing pages. A/B split testing is the practice of tweaking a site by tracking the performance of version A of a page and an alternate version B. This data is in turn used to determine which version better performs and produces higher conversion rates.
• Easily Add/Update Content –  Regular updates to the content on your site is vital! Not only does it help to keep your website relevant for potential visitors but it is also a ranking factor for the search engines in many cases.
• Maintenance –  Just like any other business tool, your website needs routine maintenance on a regular basis to help prevent security vulnerabilities and potential errors on your website.
• Security –  Site security could not only be damaging and costly to your site it could potentially be damaging for those visitors to your site. Your site could be hacked for multiple reasons but the most common are ransomware attacks, client data breaches and to spam porn links from your site. All of these can not only be huge financial liabilities but they can also have damaging effects on your business’ reputation.

Why Most Web Design Agencies Underdeliver

As with most things in life, things often work better in theory than in application.

Well to be honest designing a website that “hypothetically” in theory should generate traffic and convert visitors into customers is easy.

But when the rubber actually hits the road, designing a website that actually does these things is a lot easier said than done.  Building a marketing website is not just a once and done event.

The truth is that turning a website into a 24 hour per day lead generation machine begins to resemble the process of fine-tuning a race car when you get down to it.

See building a website that actually delivers on its promises usually isn’t a once and done process. It typically takes some time, visitor data and fine-tuning.

No two small businesses are the same and likewise, no two markets are the same.

So, just like a race car, your website will need to be carefully monitored with skillful analysis and require a lot of fine-tuning after it is launched if you ever expect it to reach its maximum marketing potential.

And this is where most web design and development agencies fall short.

You see most simply do not have the skills, experience or know how to finish the job and as a result, more often than not they leave their clients with undelivered promises.

A marketing website is very rarely a once and done runaway success.

In all reality, if you ever expect to turn your website into a revenue-producing asset for your small business it’s going to be a process.

If you would like to learn more about our small business web design and development process and how we can help you with your business website contact us below.