Before marketers or advertisers start any advertising or brand campaign they start with the 5 Ws. These basic problem solving and information gathering questions set a framework for small business WordPress website design and development too. Matter of fact they come in handy for a lot of life choices. In this post, we will focus on using them for website design planning.

Let’s start with the Why

The first ‘Why’ is why do you need a website? Why do your customers want to work with you instead of your competition? What are the differentiators that set your company apart? Clarify a value proposition for prospects and customers to connect with.

Begin to compile evidence of this expertise. Include all the content that proves your claim throughout the website.

• testimonials
• awards
• client list
• reviews
• certifications
• quantitative facts

The What is the Website Format and Function

What type of website do you need for your business? Are you selling products online? What style do you want for your website? What type of content will be included? What features need to be included? Have you looked at different WordPress themes that are suitable for your industry? Some themes are industry-specific and include plugins that are targeted to increase functionality based on the needs of your company such as calendars, easy to edit contact forms, woo-commerce shops, and more.

As You Begin to Research Themes and Styles Consider the Who

In marketing speak, who is your specific target market? While planning your small business website, think about who it is intended for. Who will benefit from the content on the website? Who do you want to attract to the website?

Determining the Who, in the beginning, will help you select the appropriate website style and the tone. If your website is meant to reach professionals as a business to business service the colors, features, and tone will be very different than if you are a company needing an e-commerce website selling kids pay supplies.

Where Does the Information Go?

The ‘Where’ gets into the actual design and flow of your small business WordPress website design. As in all design, your website layout needs to consider eye flow. When a visitor lands on your website what do you want them to see first? Where will you place key information so the visitors see the most important information first? Placement of website elements, including calls to action, contact information, photos, and videos can either help guide the visitor or confuse them.

Placement and flow considerations also include the website navigation. The goal of your website navigation interface is to maximize usability. When you know what information and media you want to include, begin to categorize it. Select no more than 6 categories for your main navigation. Once these main categories are defined start placing your content on pages under the main sections and quickly a site map will begin to develop.

For more robust websites with a lot of content and pages, there are additional options for website navigation built into the user interface.

Optional navigational schemes include:

• Hierarchical navigation systems – The primary navigation system that allows users to navigate within the site using levels
• Global Navigation – serves as the outline and template to allow users ease in maneuverability throughout the site
• Local Navigation – helps visitors in a specific area of the site (often referred to as sub-navigation)
• Adaptive web navigation – Personalized website experience based on a user’s browsing pattern in order to find relevant information more quickly and efficiently

Considering all aspects of navigation in advance allows for more efficient experiences for visitors to the webpage.

Moving Deeper into the Website Content Leads us to the When

The goal of every successful website is to lead the prospect to action. Whether it is a step by step funnel, a short contact form or a quick chat option the goal is to encourage visitors to act and act now before they are distracted by another cat video alert. Calls to action (CTAs) with a sense of urgency are key here. In some instances, you may want to offer limited-time specials. Other times offering a lead generator such as a free download or a 15% coupon with your next purchase will capture their contact information right away. This helps to stay connected with every website visitor even if they don’t purchase or contact you on the first visit.

Lastly, We Get to the How to Begin a Small Business WordPress Website Design

There is a couple of considerations when we look closely at the ‘How’ question.

How includes the securing of your domain name and choosing where your website will be hosted. Also the actual building of the pages uploading the theme and website content to the webserver. When choosing website hosting make sure you select a WordPress hosting plan that offers fast page load speeds and also helps to keep your website secure. For over 20 years Connection Group has chosen to work with Network Solutions for our customer domain registrations and we use Liquid Web for our small business WordPress website hosting. There are many companies offering these services. Choose one that is reputable and make sure you track the name and the URL of the companies you are working with and note your login credentials.

The other ‘How’ is the actual building of the website. The beauty of a small business WordPress website design is that you don’t have to be trained in website code and development to build it yourself. There are many WordPress website design tutorial videos on YouTube, local community education courses, and colleges that offer WordPress design classes.

If you are an entrepreneur who hopes to build your own company website I suggest starting on YouTube with some introductory videos. If the videos are easy to follow and you are starting with a small website, answer the questions above and begin your build-out. If you require a website that is more complicated or if the website design tutorials are confusing save time, money, and sanity and hire a professional WordPress website design firm.

Connection Group provides small business WordPress website design and development and we offer training once it is complete. We help you get to the business of running your business by doing the heavy lifting of building the entire website for you. Then when you need to make updates or edits you can choose to do that in-house without additional cost. Our goal is to lighten your workload and create a website design that contributes to the success of your business. Give us a call, we’re available for a consultation and we’re always here to assist with making critical updates for you as needed.