Small Business
Website Design
Inspiration, Trends and Best Practices

Imagine a team of dedicated designers scouring the web to find the best small business website design examples out there!

Then crystalizing the latest trends in Small Business websites and sharing the best practices for your next design project.

Well, we’ve got good news for you! That’s exactly what we’ve done here. So kick back and enjoy the ride.

Small Business Website Design Inspiration

1. Tuldor House

Design Highlights: Elegant and classy, soft colors mostly with a consistent color scheme. The product is properly highlighted with quality professional images

Small Business Website Design

https://tudorliving.ca

2. Math For Love

Design Highlights: Interactive elements throughout the site. Appropriate colors used. Shopping cart integration. Well thought product presentation.

Small Business Website Design

https://mathforlove.com

3. Skilltwins

Design Highlights: Color scheme, object shapes and other design elements match the industry, in this case sports. Good color contrast, content text is easy to read. Dark colored website.

Small Business Website Design

https://skilltwins.com

4. Boomerang Air Charter

Design Highlights: Great emphasis on the product and service they offer by using actual quality images. Appealing color scheme.

Small Business Website Design

https://flyboomerang.com

5. Curt Thompson MD

Design Highlights: Refreshing color scheme. Beautiful presentation of products and services. Large section headings. Clean and minimal innerpage design

Small Business Website Design

https://curtthompsonmd.com

6. Campos Coffee

Design Highlights: Use of whitespace to separate sections. Use of quality photos. Unusual staggered /asymmetric two columns of images with scroll-triggered animations

Small Business Website Design

https://us.camposcoffee.com

7. Creator

Design Highlights: Beautiful and large images. Friendly and clean design. Warm over all tone, fit for the food industry.

Small Business Website Design

https://www.creator.rest

8. Giorgi Girl

Design Highlights: Elegant and classy. Consistent color scheme. Quality professional images and beautiful typography. The before and after image with slider effect is a plus.

Small Business Website Design

https://giorgigirl.com

9. Gogogro Eeyo

Design Highlights: Focus on the product maximized using amazing product shots. Clean minimal design. Great use of color for links and call to action.

Small Business Website Design

https://eeyo.bike

10. Single Cell Technology

Design Highlights: Bold heading fonts. Regularly updated content in the form of news and blog posts. Use of background textures to provide focus to content.

Small Business Website Design

https://www.singlecelltechnology.com

11. King Real Estate Group

Design Highlights: Eyecatching hero videos of actual locations of properties handled. Beautiful color palette. Functional contact page with actual team picture.

Small Business Website Design

https://kingregroup.com

12. RJ Investments

Design Highlights: Non traditional layout adds a jazzy and modern feel. Mouseover effects add interaction.

Small Business Website Design

https://www.rj-investments.co.uk

13. Frank & Sullivan

Design Highlights: Beautiful imagery. Use of scroll triggered transition animations. Simple but effective loading screen.

Small Business Website Design

https://franksullivan.com

14. Tofino Resort Marina

Design Highlights: Beautiful imagery. Use of custom looking fonts. Effective use of background patterns and the use of imagery to divide sections from dark to light and back.

Small Business Website Design

https://tofinoresortandmarina.com

15. RGF Integrated Wealth Management

Design Highlights: Manual scrolling testimonials. Use of consistent color scheme throughout. Bold section headings. Cool team section.

https://www.rgfwealth.com

16. Thomson Safaris

Design Highlights: Use of appropriate colors scheme. Beautiful images. Captivating hero video background. Video testimonials.

https://thomsonsafaris.com

17. Camp Cody

Design Highlights: Hero video background that shows the actual services and activities available in their location. Large headings. A fun and informative site over all.

https://campcody.com

18. Bar Z Winery

Design Highlights: Balanced, center alignment of design elements and content. Subtle animations and creative popups on the sides.

https://www.barzwines.com

19. Abingworth

Design Highlights: Big and bold headings. Staggered / asymmetric sections. Sharp edges that make the site look professional. Beautiful inner pages.

https://www.abingworth.com

20. Give Campus

Design Highlights: Effective use of whitespace. Use of subtle animation and movement. Intertwined use of images and illustrations/graphics in the home and inner pages.

https://go.givecampus.com

Small Business Website Design Trends

1. Oversized or Large Bold Headings

Large headings inform the site viewer about what the company does, its main product or service. Most effective with brief and specific statements. This is usually used on the value proposition or section headings.

2. Video, Animation, and Transition Effects

With the advent of ever increasing internet speeds, animation and video integration into websites became more feasible. Movement in a webpage adds life and personality to an otherwise static page. Be wary however as too much movement in a page can be a distraction.

3. Minimalism

Removal of clutter in a website makes site viewing simple and direct to the point. Aside from making a website look professional, minimalism also moves the focus to the product, idea, or service offered by a company.

4. Asymmetric Page Layouts

Asymmetric layouts also called staggered or broken grid layouts add individuality and make website look original and creative. Improvements in website development technology made broken grid websites possible. Mostly used in personal websites and trendy product sites.

5. Full Screen Video Backgrounds

Background videos provide a visual flair that adds life to an otherwise static website. When properly used, background videos provide a visual experience to a company’s service that may entice site viewers to want to try the experience firsthand.

6. Dark Background Websites

Similar to the popularity of dark or night mode in Facebook and Youtube, more websites are now going for pages with dark backgrounds. Aside from providing good contrast to text and images, dark backgounds reduces eyestrain.

7. Overlapping Layers

Overlapping elements like layers of images and text boxes adds dimension and depth to a page. When used effectively, a page does not only look original and creative but also helps in the setting the flow of a page, most useful in telling a story or a sequence.

8. Bold and High Contrast Colors

Recent requirements in meeting accessibility policies and requirements has prompted the influx of high color contrast website designs. Bold colors are used to accentuate these pages. As seen in the image below, the bold colors on a dark background accentuates the products greatly.

9. Comprehensive Page Footer

A comprehensive footer contains links to all pages in a website Craigslist-style. This allows site viewers to choose a page they wish to view without having difficulty in finding it within the content sections of a page. Effective footer sections contain contact information and social media links.

10. Scroll-Generated Websites

As a user scrolls down a page, design elements change to display context relevant information. This adds to create a dynamic page that captures a viewers attention. Motion provides an immersive experience.

Small Business Website Design Best Practices

1. Focus on Ability to Convert Visitors Into Leads

The best looking website is useless if it cannot get customers. The primary goal of a small business website is to make a sale or at least get a lead via email or contact info. Leads can be collected by giving away something for free, such as a free product demo or trial.

Small Business Website Design

2. Professional Appearance

In a website, just like in real life, first impressions lasts. A professional looking website will give an impression of how a business runs its business – professionally. Professional looking websites feature high quality and appropriate images and clear and readable fonts among others.

Small Business Website Design

3. Clear Value Proposition + CTA

The value proposition describes in very few words what a business does and why someone should use it and what problem the business solves. A simple, clear, and specific value proposition with a call-to-action are usually the first thing visible on a website

Small Business Website Design

4. Use of Eyecatching Visuals

The more advanced technology gets, the shorter the attention span of site viewers. By using attention grabing design elements like video, animations, and quality content, we may just be able to buy some time until the viewer scrolls down or click on your call to action button.

Small Business Website Design

5. Social Proof

Social proof is the concept that people will adapt their behavior according to what other people / influencers are doing. User testimonials, celebrity endorsements, media exposure, and client lists are some of the more common social proofs used in websites.

Small Business Website Design

6. Visible Contact Information or Link on Every Page

Visible contact information on a website builds trust and adds legitimacy to a website. This also adds to the user experience since a prospective client is given a chance to communicate to a company representative via a phone call, email, chat, or social media message.

Small Business Website Design

7. Social Media Presence / Integration

Social media development is key to visibility, advertising and growth. Social media presence In tandem with a business website increases website traffic and adds meaningful interactions with customers. Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin are some of the most widely utilized.

Social media presence

8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In relation to number 1 above, SEO increases the chances of a small business website to be found online. The best designed website is useless if it cannot be found by prospective clients. There are two main types of SEO, On-Page SEO & Off-Page SEO.

SEO

9. Regular Website Content Update

Regular updates on a website with new, fresh, and relevant content such as blog posts affect a website’s ranking on search results. Aside from this, new and updated content will help viewers to revisit the website.

Small Business Website Design

10. Regular Website Maintenance

Over time, security requirements and search engine protocols change. In order to cope up with these changes, it is imperative that a small business website is regularly maintained. Most website design companies offer maintenance plans, Thomas Digital included.

Small Business Website Design

Conclusion

There are trends and then there are best practices. Trends come and go like the seasons but best practices remain.

An effective website greatly helps small business. First, it serves as a source of information for clients. Second, websites also serve as online advertising. Third, websites are also used to do actual business with clients eg., online stores.

As a small business, it is imperative to have a website that actually does business. Contact Thomas Digital today to find out if we are fit for you.