Options and Functions Your Small Business Website Must Include

Your website is the first impression many customers are introduced to, even before visiting your store or interacting with your company. It’s very important that the first impression is a good one, and your website delivers a pleasant user experience.

To help you identify the most important functions and options that your website should include, we spoke with several business owners to see what they felt were the most important features to focus on. Whether you are building a brand new website or auditing your existing one, these suggestions should all be taken into consideration.

Click-to-call.

“Today, you have to have a click-to-call button available for mobile users as soon as they land on your website. This allows those that have an immediate need or a burning question to get in touch with you right away. They are more likely to take action right away if it’s in front of them.” — Christopher Dziak, CEO of Pure Nootropics

Business blog.

“These days you need to have a blog. Customers like to be able to read more about your business and the SEO benefits are many. With content marketing rising in popularity, virtually every business has a blog these days. Make it a habit to post regular updates to keep your content fresh.” — Jim Epton of Dom Huga Ltd

Use as few form fields as possible

“When creating your submit forms, have as few information fields as possible. Asking for too much information on first contact can push a lot of people away. A name and email is really all you need at first, and then you can ask for more after you determine it’s necessary.” — Tom Munroe, CEO of RugStudio

Use Google AMP.

“You need to be using Google AMP to make sure your website is fast loading on mobile devices. It’s a free open source solution and it’s fairly easy to use. There are WordPress plugins to make it even easier for those that don’t want to mess with website code. Faster page loading is important.” — Ari Evans of AAA Handbags

Live-chat.

“Integrating a live chat feature has helped our business tremendously. There are many services that offer a managed live chat feature so you don’t need to be the one waiting for people to interact with your website. You should also invest in call tracking so you can measure your campaigns.” — Joseph W. Belluck of Belluck & Fox, LLP

Simple navigation.

“Your navigation needs to be as simple as possible. A visitor should be able to land on your website and click one option to see all navigation options and then find what he or she is looking for within a second. If you overwhelm the user with choices they will often give up and leave.” — Andrew Tran, Founder of Therapy

Fully mobile-optimized blog.

“Make sure that your blog is also optimized for mobile. There are many sites that are great until you click over to the blog and then it becomes very hard to navigate with small text. Create your blog with mobile traffic in mind, as most will be reading your content on small screens.” — April Gillmore, CEO of ClickFirst Marketing

Frictionless contact forms.

“There are a few must-haves for small business websites including click to call phone numbers on mobile and frictionless contact forms. A primary goal should be to make contacting the business as simple and easy as possible, answering common questions before reaching out.“ — Sean Christman, Founder of Slamdot

Must be very descriptive.

“The website has to describe the company, describe what makes the company great, and say how a customer can get started working with the business. For many small businesses, it should be a sales message with a call to action.” — Matthew Kolb of All High Schools

Analytics and tracking.

“Analytics is helpful. Using sites like Moz, Ahrefs, and SEM Rush allow small businesses to track the organic rankings and value that their website is receiving.  Using these tools provides the information needed to grow.” — Marc Webb, Founder of Real PDL Help

Make what you do crystal clear.

“Prominently feature a clear description of what you do and how you do it. A logical road map to take readers and potential clients through the site step by step, and then clearly detailed contact information and crucial business details. Make sure it’s easy to navigate, mobile user friendly.” — Shawn Freeman, Founder and CEO of TWT Group

Varies according to your needs.

“Depending on the type of business — a small business website should answer the questions of what the business does, who runs/operates the business and how to contact the business. The bigger the business, the more details are needed.” — Shawn Schulze of HomeArea.com

Focus on mobile optimization.

“Your website must be mobile optimized if you want to show up on Google search results. This is also a must if you want people to stay on your site when they are using a mobile device, and since mobile search now makes up over 50% of all searches I wouldn’t do a website without it now.” — Ben Walker, Founder of Transcription Outsourcing, LLC