Website Maker 101: What to Look For in a Website Builder Develop a website that works for small businesses

For website building novices, it can be overwhelming to jump into the deep end of creating a small business website from scratch. Still, with a basic understanding of the elements that make a website easy-to-use and business-savvy, you can create a stellar site. Here are a few basic features to look for in your website builder.

A Professionally Designed Showcase

Your business website often gives prospective customers their first impression of your business. The design should be professional and user-friendly, which builds a sense of trustworthiness for your business. For instance, you wouldn't necessarily trust a dirty restaurant to deliver quality food. Similarly, you wouldn't trust a website that's hard to read, or has broken pages.

Moreover, the site should feature well-written text and high-quality images. The site should appear without error across different browsers and a variety of mobile devices.

Customer Engagement Features

You're running a business, and your website should make doing so as easy as possible. One of your priorities is to engage your customers, and you can do this by incorporating things such as merchant account capabilities, and the ability to complete complex transactions, like paying deposits, requesting a quote, or paying when a job is complete.

Additionally, you'll want features like a discount manager, and possibly even an online appointment scheduler with automatic reminders, depending on the nature of your business.

Features such as contact management systems and customer relationship management (CRM) tools also help you successfully drive sales and leads to your business. Plus, you should have the ability to create PDF documents and receipts.

Business Operations Features

Ideally, your website builder will include hosting, as well as flexible security, which allows you to create password-protected web pages. Plus, if you want to engage with online advertising campaigns, look for a website builder that offers advertising optimization abilities to track and analyze the successes of your campaigns through Google AdWords.

Support and Cost

Nothing is worse than launching a shiny new site only to discover that something has broken and you have no idea how to fix it. Eliminate this headache by choosing a website builder, like Ocoos, that offers 24-hour, US-based support.

Plus, Ocoos offers a full-service concierge who will work with you to build your website, incorporating features that address business goals and user needs.