Designing for any online business is a vital and serious issue as it says a lot about the business, its owners and product or services. It is the thing which keeps a customer on a website and its easiness compels and convinces him to buy a product. So it’s important to have a professional look.

No doubt launching a website for small business is a hilly task. When you go through the process of development then check out each part to have an effective web site
for your products and services in accordance with your target audience.

Choosing web designer- Don’t go by the cheap web design. To have a professional web design, don't compare web designers by their price; always look at your requirements regarding the type of service, internet marketing and updates you needs w.r.t. growth.

Domain Name
Choose simple, short and relevant domain name for your site. Don’t get settle down on anything to get your web space as every word on your web site has relevancy in its success. You can find out if the name you want is still available by using the free search tool on the sites.

Web Hosting
Web hosting can be obtained free of cost from content portal sites such as Yahoo! Geocities . The user does not have to pay for service because it is subsidized by banner advertising. As they do not charge, they offer limited service depth and relative quality. They do not even provide customized hosting services where domain names are personalized.

So, avoid getting lured by the free hosting providers as nothing is really free.Even avoid messing around with small time web hosting. Affiliate yourself with a reputable company that provides top-notch service and have the resources to provide fast and reliable servers.


Text Content

Content of the site deserves utmost attention as it’s the words that people read, it’s the words that call people to action, and it’s the words that sell. The rest also helps, but a site with poor content is an as bad as a site without any words.

Keywords
Order to end up high on search engine use the relevant keywords and place them accordingly on a web page. The number of times each word appears on a web page is the factors that determine how high you end up in search results.

Regarding resolution
Sure that your pages should work at any resolution, from 800x600 to 1280x1024 and beyond. Currently the most widely used screen size is 1024 x 768.You shall see the statistics for the month of January for the last 2 years provided by w3schools seem to reflect the general trend we are seeing on the Web.

Year Higher 1024 x 768 800 x 600 640x 480 Unknown
2007(January) 26% 54% 14% 0% 6%
2006(January) 17% 57% 20% 0% 6%

It’s always safer to keep your web site at less than 750 pixels wide as you don’t want to alienate your visitors by having them scroll to see the whole page. Make sure that that your web pages show up the same in all web browsers.


HTML Tags

You will have to make sure that your title, description, and keyword meta tags are bang on with the text on each web page you build. All of your optimized pages must be linked from the home page itself.

Graphics
It’s good to place web graphics in context with the information being presented. Avoid using graphic that has no any relation with your text. Overusing graphics will only make the site look amateur. Make sure if you use web graphics as links that they work at all times. There is nothing worse than clicking on a graphic that does not work.


Conclusion

Basic tips for small business website are just the tip of the iceberg. You should also have to provide correct contact information plus regular updating w.r.t. your products; which I already explain in detail in my earlier articles. Web design can make or break your business. So always remember to create a site that is appealing and easy to navigate.

Your website should be like an investment and for that you are certainly going to receive a return.