5 Best Tools to Make the Most of Your Small Business Website

Your website is your online storefront and it is essential for building a loyal customer base —whether your small business is looking to drive online traffic, in-person traffic, or both. So how do you make the most of this opportunity to connect with your target audience? How do you turn your website into a lead-generating, customer-pleasing machine? 

Luckily you don’t have to be a coding genius to optimize your business online. There are plenty of user-friendly tools that will help you with search engine optimization, site performance, website security, web design, and more. This means that you won’t only increase incoming traffic but impress visitors with a site that meets all their needs.

Let’s go through the website tools perfect for small businesses elevating their online presence.

Choose the Best Website Builder for Your Small Business Website

Creating a website is no longer a dark art. Nowadays, small business owners can DIY it with a website builder. Even affordable website builders give you the capability to create website pages, build an online store, and add an SSL certificate to protect customers.

Keep in mind, the functionality does depend on the provider and whether you go for a free plan or check out the premium plans. Browse around to find a website builder and plan that meets your needs. Our top 3 best website builder suggestions are Wix, Shopify, and Squarespace. Let’s go through each one in turn so you can figure out what would work best for your small business website.

1. Wix

Wix is perfect if you have a tight budget because you can get started with a free plan. It’s easy to use as well with a drag-and-drop editor and over 500 templates. You don’t really need any coding or design knowledge to set up your site with this website builder even when using the more advanced features like live chat.

2. Shopify

Shopify is a great small business website builder for setting up online stores. It includes the website security needed to process payments which is a top priority for selling online. It’s known for its search engine optimization tools that will help your online store to rank on the first page of Google and other search engines.

3. Squarespace

Squarespace has a bunch of tools and integrations to make your website a lead-generation powerhouse. Your website will come with an SSL certificate as standard, website security, and tools for ranking on search engines. There is fully integrated email marketing so you can send your email campaigns through your website and keep all your sensitive information about customers in one place behind the security of your website builder.

Additional Tools for Small Business Website Success

Whatever website builder you go with, you might find yourself in need of some extra functionality. That’s where these additional tools for boosting business websites come in handy.

It’s well worth looking at extra tools to integrate into your site. They offer various additional features including external security, a content management system, and customer service capabilities. Would your small business website benefit from any of these?

1. Hubspot CRM

Your website is an important part of the customer journey. It’s how new leads find you if you rank on search engine results pages and how they purchase from your small business if you have an online store or a services web page.

However, website builders don’t really have the capabilities to manage the whole sales pipeline in the way that most small businesses need to be able to stay on top of things. Hubspot offers a CRM that optimizes the sales process including managing the impact of your website and the customers it converts.

Interested? Podium Customers can get started with HubSpot for free.

2. Podium Webchat

Being accessible is a really important part of creating a loyal customer base. Once your small business has been found and your website read, what if a visitor has a question? Emailing or filling out a form is clunky and time-consuming.

Having a web chat integration provides a more efficient way for small businesses to support customers. Podium offers a text-based Webchat. Website visitors can message you through Webchat and continue the conversation in real-time, with a real person, via text, so they’re not stuck on the site until their query is dealt with.

3. Let’s Encrypt

SSL certificates encrypt data and protect any sensitive pages on your website from external threats—they’re an essential part of making your website secure. An SSL certificate might not come with your website builder or it may only be offered as part of the paid plans.

Let’s Encrypt offers them for free with the same level of protection as a paid certificate. External website security for small business websites is of top priority to prevent a data breach.

4. Okta

On the topic of website security, identity authentication is a tool to add to your list if your customers or employees log onto accounts on your website. Small businesses are just as vulnerable to data breaches as larger corporations.

In some cases even more so because they don’t have the budget to invest in complex virus protection making it easier for hackers to steal data and gain complete control of your site. Okta adds another layer of protection for websites by implementing two-factor authentication for users.

5. ProveSource

Social proof is a really powerful way to show potential customers just what you’re capable of and is even more important for small businesses because they don’t have the backing of a well-known reputation or brand recognition. As well as including testimonials and positive reviews on important pages such as those that rank higher in a search result, did you know that the website itself can provide social proof?

By adding a tool like ProveSource, you can share information about customer interactions as they browse including purchases and numbers of website visitors. This proves to users that your website is full of high-quality content worth browsing and that your services and products are tried and tested.

Take Your Website to the Next Level

You can improve your online presence and grow your small business by utilizing a website and the tools it integrates with. From finding the best website builder for you to creating quality content, there’s a lot to consider when building your website. If you’re a bit unsure of what direction to go in and would like to do some more research into small business websites, check out the tips and tricks in our Guide to Local Business Websites.

Of course, this doesn’t have to be the sole responsibility of small business owners. You might find the best option for creating an amazing small business website is to build a team of experts around you. We’ve got some guidance in that area too. Here’s how you find the right website designers and developers for your company.

Websites are an opportunity for small businesses to get ahead of the competition and connect with potential customers. Make the most of it.