The six decisions you actually need
Six design decisions cover the visible work of a small business website. Get each one right once and apply them consistently and the site will look composed. Get any one of them wrong and apply it inconsistently and the site will look borrowed, no matter how good the rest is.
1. One typeface, two weights
Choose one typeface for the entire site. Use it in two weights: a bold for headings, a regular for body. That's it. Two typefaces is fine if one is for headings and one for body and they were chosen together. Three is almost always too many. The single most common cause of a site looking borrowed is a second or third typeface creeping in via a button, a banner or a stock template.
2. A small, settled colour palette
One main colour, one accent and two neutrals. The main colour appears on the primary button and the headings. The accent appears on links and small highlights. The neutrals carry the body text and the page background. Use the same colours everywhere. A site that uses three slightly different blues looks like three slightly different sites stitched together.
3. Real photography, not stock
One afternoon with a competent local photographer at four to six hundred pounds will produce more trust than any amount of stock photography. Real photographs of the owner, the team, the workshop, the van, the product. If a photographer isn't possible yet, a phone in good light beats stock every time. Stock photographs of generic happy people quietly cost trust.
4. Buttons that look like buttons
Every primary action on the site uses the same button: same colour, same shape, same text style. Every secondary action uses the same secondary button. Links look like links. Buttons look like buttons. A visitor should never have to guess which thing on the page is clickable.
5. Generous space
Cramped pages look amateur. Generous space looks composed. Aim for clear room around every block of text, every image and every button. On a phone, a section that breathes always beats a section that's been crammed in. The fastest way to make a small business website look more expensive than it is, is to add space.
6. A header that says what the business is
The header is the single element a visitor sees on every page. It should carry the business name, a clear primary action and no more than four navigation links. A header with seven links and a search box is a sign the page list hasn't been pruned. Fix the header and the whole site looks tighter.
- Open three pages of the site in three browser tabs. Do they look like the same business?
- Are all the buttons the same shape and colour?
- Are all the headings in the same typeface and weight?
- Is there at least one real photograph of the owner or the work on the home page?
What you can safely skip in year one
Three things every design studio will offer that a tiny business doesn't need in year one. A full identity rebuild. A bespoke icon set. A custom illustration system. Each of them can be beautiful. Each of them costs four-figure sums and adds maintenance work for years. None of them earn a small business its first hundred customers. Spend the same money on a competent photographer and a proper monthly review of the four core pages instead.
Working with a designer for the first time
Hire a competent local designer or a careful template customiser, not a brand studio. Brief them on the six decisions above and the page list from chapter two. Pay between eight hundred and three thousand pounds for the build, depending on the platform. Insist on being able to update the four core pages yourself afterwards. A site you can't edit is a site that goes stale.
Templates, builders and platforms
Most small businesses are best served by a good template on a competent website builder. Squarespace, Shopify and WordPress with a paid theme will all do the job. The choice matters less than the discipline of applying the six design decisions consistently within whichever one you choose. A neat Squarespace site beats a sprawling custom build every time. The companion eBook Affordable Web Design for Small Businesses goes deeper into the choice itself.
Three real design summaries
The bookkeeper
Typeface: Inter, regular and bold. Colours: navy main, warm grey neutral, off-white background, single ochre accent. Photography: three real photographs of the owner at her desk and one of the monthly report. Buttons: navy with white text, rounded square. Header: business name, three links, a single "Book a 15-minute call" button. Total cost of the brief: ninety minutes.
The plumber
Typeface: Source Sans, regular and bold. Colours: deep blue main, white background, mid-grey body, bright red accent for emergency callouts only. Photography: three real photographs of the marked van and one of the owner at a job. Buttons: deep blue, square corners. Header: business name, two links, a single "Request a callback" button.
The homewares shop
Typeface: a single warm serif for headings, a clean sans for body. Colours: cream background, dark olive main, terracotta accent. Photography: real product photography on natural surfaces, plus three real customer photographs. Buttons: dark olive, slightly rounded. Header: business name, three collection links, basket icon, search icon.
What to do this week
Open three pages of your own site in three browser tabs side by side. Score them out of ten on the composure test. Pick the single biggest inconsistency and fix it: usually a typeface, a button or a colour. Don't redesign anything. Make the site look like it was built by one person who'd decided what they were doing.
Make the offer clear: design for a small business website is mostly the principle being applied to the look as well as the words. The previous chapter sharpened the writing. The next chapter, Speed, mobile and the basics, fixes the plumbing under the design that quietly costs sales.
