Whether you’re a startup or an established veteran small business, one thing’s for certain – you’ll need an excellently designed website to build a strong online presence. Recruiting the services of a firm that provides web design for small business will be immensely helpful in your project. But with so many web design companies on the market, it can be difficult to choose the one that’s right for your brand.
Not to worry! This article will show you how a full-service web design will benefit your niche industry and what essential elements you should look out for when finding web design and SEO services for small business.
What Are Web Design Services?
A web design service is a company or firm that helps other companies design their websites. These firms have a team of professional web designers dedicated to areas such as SEO, design and content writing, offering the best advice on creating and maintaining a strong online presence.
The Importance of Full-Service Web Design For Small Business
A full-service web design ensures your website is professionally designed and prepares your site for long-term growth, helping your small business stand out and succeed online.
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First impressions: Your website will likely be the first interaction potential customers have with your brand. Having a visually appealing aesthetic will build trust with visitors from the get-go.
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Enhanced user experience: A web design pro will make sure your website is easy to navigate, fast, and responsive, leading to higher customer satisfaction and increased user engagement.
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Improved SEO rankings: The right web design firm will keep all the SEO best practices in mind when designing your site, helping your brand rank higher on Google and other search engines and attract more organic traffic.
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Brand consistency: Keeping a consistent brand design on your website and other digital platforms helps to establish your brand identity and makes your business more recognisable.
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Long-term growth: A good web designer will build a website that can adapt and scale as your business grows, ensuring that it can support your long-term goals and handle future growth.
7 Essential Elements to Look for in Web Design Services for Small Businesses
Here are seven important features you should keep an eye on when searching for a firm that provides branding and web design for small business:
1. A Diverse Portfolio With Experience in Your Industry
Partnering with a web design veteran who understands your specific industry ensures your site is tailored to its unique needs. Reviewing the portfolios of different web design companies will give you a good idea of their level of quality, experience, and versatility, as well as their ability to handle different styles, interactive elements, and industry requirements.
Choose the one that best aligns with your specific niche and offers what you’re looking for in a website!
2. Customisation Options
A custom-designed website will stand out better compared to a template, so it is a good idea to see if a web designer’s portfolio contains unique entries, each tailored to their client’s brand and industry.
It helps to have a chat with a representative as well to make sure they’re more than capable of catering to your specific needs and designing a distinctive website that helps differentiate your brand from the competition.
Find out more: Why Custom Web Design Matters for Niche Businesses in Malaysia
3. User Experience (UX) Expertise
When looking for a web design firm, it is essential that you choose one that emphasises the user experience above all. This is because prioritising your website’s UX will ensure that it will be user-friendly, easy to navigate through, and functioning properly to keep your potential customers satisfied, engaged, and more willing to take the course of action you desire from them!
Here are some crucial elements contributing to a successful user experience:
Responsive Design
Responsive design refers to designing websites to adapt to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, ensuring that they look great and function on any sort of device and browser.
As mobile browsing is fast becoming the norm, you should look for a web design service that offers responsive website design in their portfolio.
Find out more: Responsive Web Design: A Guide for Beginners.
Security Measures
Safety is a top priority; after all, you do not want your customers’ sensitive information to fall into the hands of hackers. So, select web design firms that emphasise strong security measures such as SSL certificates, regular security audits, secure coding practices, and data encryption.
Such firms will make sure that your website is well-protected against potential threats like data breaches, malware, hackers, and more, thus letting your visitors feel secure when browsing your site.
Ongoing Support and Maintenance
If your team lacks a web design expert, it will be good to hire an agency that not only designs websites but helps you maintain them and promptly addresses any issues that pop up.
Look for service providers that provide ongoing support to ensure that your website is consistently updated according to the latest design trends while functioning flawlessly.
4. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Focus
There’s no point in having a beautifully designed and functional website if no one can find it!
For this reason, look for a web design service provider that is knowledgeable and consistently up-to-date on the latest SEO trends. A skilled web designer will know how to integrate search engine optimisation best practices like alt text, backlinks, metadata, keywords, graphics, and more into your site to make sure that it ranks well on search engines, driving more organic traffic toward your site.
Here are the two primary types of SEO a good web design firm should focus on:
On-page SEO
On-page or on-site SEO involves optimising webpages and their content for both search engines and users. Common tasks associated with on-page SEO include optimising search intent, title tags, internal links, and URLs.
Find out more: A Beginner's Guide to Onsite SEO: Improving Your Website's Search Visibility.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the process of optimising a website so that it meets the technical requirements of modern search engines with the goal of improving organic rankings. Common elements associated with this include crawling, indexing, rendering, and website architecture.
5. Positive Client Testimonials and Reviews
Check if a web designer has had positive interactions and feedback from previous clients. Do they have any good reviews and testimonials on their website? What do social media, industry forums, and review sites say about this provider?
Checking multiple sources will give you a broader idea of how competent a particular web design firm is.
6. Strong Communication
Communication is key in your projects; make sure that your prospective web design partner can keep you informed throughout the design process, will quickly answer any questions you’ve asked, and will be able to do so in fluent English (or your preferred language) to avoid any miscommunication.
A web designer with good communication skills will make the process smoother, implement any feedback more effectively, and bring your vision to life in the way you desire.
7. Transparent Pricing
Does your prospective web design service partner provide a pricing page? Are they clear and transparent about how much they charge for their work? Be sure to have a chat with them before you sign up. A good web design company will be upfront and honest about its cost, whether it is paid on a project-based or monthly basis, and will not surprise you with last-minute fees or unexpected payments.
Knowing what costs they offer will give you a better idea of how to plan your monthly budget.
How much does a web design service cost?
The price of a web design service in Malaysia can vary depending on the type of design, the features included, and the web designer's hourly rate. For example, a freelancer will typically cost between RM80 and RM300 per hour. If you’re looking for a full-time, in-house designer, however, you may be charged as much as RM3,000 to RM4,000 per month.
Find out more: How Much Does Web Design Cost in 2024? A Breakdown of Pricing and Value
Key Takeaways
Brilliant web design is a boon to small businesses. Whether you’re a new company or an established niche brand, hiring a professional web design team will greatly improve your online presence as they leverage their expertise to build a website design that boosts SEO rankings and drives organic traffic.
With so many web design agencies in Malaysia to choose from, it is vital that you understand the key aspects you’re looking for. From portfolios to industry experience to pricing, all of these factors will affect the quality of the firm you’ll potentially work with.
Why BikeBear is the Web Design Service for Your Small Business
BikeBear is a dedicated web design agency in Malaysia offering the highest-quality web design services to businesses of all sizes and industries. Our team of expert web designers will help you build the most beautiful and functional website any brand would want, ensuring that it ranks at the top of the search results and brings in all the customers your business needs.
