How to Design Your First Branded Business Website

Should you’re of a sure age—let’s say 35 or older — you in all probability bear in mind the awe and immersion you felt the primary time you spun up Netscape Navigator and visited your favourite model’s enterprise “web site.”

Now fast-forward to this age of AI, Uber, Roblox, Meta, Snapchat, and a lot extra… And guess what? An internet site continues to be one of the simplest ways to share your model with the world.

That’s true whether or not you’re a mega model or a humble creator, solopreneur, or small enterprise proprietor. Many years on, a web site nonetheless supplies unparalleled inventive flexibility and management over your model. It’s a spot the place guests can study extra about you in your phrases. An ideal web site helps you inform your story, construct belief, and even create group and followers for all times.

As we speak we’re sharing a primer on branding and web site design for on-line creators and entrepreneurs. We’ll stroll you thru how you can design a web site in your model, whether or not you’re a creator, solopreneur, or small enterprise proprietor with a workforce of workers.

This text gained’t operate as a step-by-step information to launching a web site or go into an excessive amount of depth on the subject of branding itself. (For that, The SPI Beginner’s Guide to Branding may also help you outline your model’s mission, imaginative and prescient, and extra, and resolve if it needs to be a private model or an organization model.)

Reasonably, it is a subject information to designing a web site that places your model entrance and heart and connects together with your target market.

Why You Want a Branded Web site

So why a branded enterprise web site? Alongside together with your email list, a web site is a must have whenever you’re beginning out constructing your model. Like an e mail listing, you will have extra inventive and administrative management over a web site than you do your presence on different platforms like Fb, Instagram, or Etsy. And apart from uncommon service interruptions or safety breaches, your website is way much less more likely to disappear the best way a social media account might be banned or suspended.

Your branded web site is like your property base, a focal place for shaping your model picture and narrative. At SPI, we not too long ago revamped our web site to give attention to our core focus of group constructing and make it cleaner and simpler to navigate.

Right here’s what a well-crafted small enterprise web site may also help you do:

• Management your model: An internet site offers you full management over the way you present your model to the world, with out the inventive restrictions of third-party platforms. It additionally diversifies your on-line presence, lowering dependence on any single platform.

• Construct belief: A well-designed web site lends an air of professionalism and legitimacy to your model, instilling belief.
• Personal your content material: You personal and management the content material in your web site, lowering the danger that algorithm adjustments or platform shutdowns will harm your content material’s attain and visibility.
• Earn a living: You should utilize your web site to advertise and promote services and products or run adverts.
• Construct group: Web sites supply a devoted house for constructing a group and a following. You possibly can seize publication and email-list sign-ups, and even hyperlink to your personal membership group.
• Showcase your work: Use your web site to share case research, testimonials, and portfolios of your work together with your viewers.
• Perceive your viewers: Web site analytics present precious knowledge on person conduct, serving to you higher perceive your viewers and optimize your content material to succeed in them.

Your Web site Ought to Specific Your Model Persona

When lots of people hear the phrase model, they assume emblem. And true, a emblem is a key a part of your creator or on-line entrepreneur model — however your model can be much more than only a snazzy graphic. Since your web site is your property base, it’s the most effective place to convey the essence of your model via the next key components:

• Shade scheme: Make the most of a most of 4 brand-reflective colours. Align colours with professionalism; keep away from mismatch. Discover coloration psychology—the research of how colours have an effect on perceptions and behaviors—for steerage.

• Tone of voice: Past aesthetics, your branded enterprise web site wants a definite voice — a tone that informs all of your written content material. Adapt your tone to your character, area of interest, and viewers, retaining it approachable and jargon-free.

• Tagline or motto: A concise, memorable tagline helps convey your model id and worth in bite-size kind. It’s a bit element that may matter quite a bit!

• Signature font: Select one or two readable fonts that replicate your character, for consistency throughout every little thing you write and to bridge your model’s visible id with its written one.

• Unforgettable emblem: Final however not least, an attention grabbing emblem supplies prompt model recognition. Take into account enlisting a graphic designer for this one.

Optimizing the Visible Expertise of Your On-line Enterprise Web site

For probably the most half, guests will expertise your web site visually, so there are a couple of extra necessary concerns relating to your website’s visible property. Be certain the pictures, background designs, and different visuals you utilize in your website are:

• Related to your model and content material: This may occasionally appear apparent, however your web site visuals ought to make sense within the context of your model and the encompassing content material. Every visible asset ought to complement and improve the content material it accompanies and align together with your model’s id, reflecting its values, character, and messaging. 
• Strategically positioned: Place visuals purposefully to information the person’s journey and emphasize key messages. Take into account the circulate of the web site and the way visuals can improve storytelling.

• Constant in fashion: Sustaining a constant visible fashion throughout all pictures creates a cohesive and harmonious look and helps with model recognition. Use these model colours!

• Prime quality: Use high-resolution, skilled pictures; grainy or pixelated ones can detract out of your model’s credibility.
• Accessible: Not all your guests will probably be experiencing your branded enterprise web site visually, so be sure that any visible property are accessible by including descriptive alt textual content to all your pictures.
• Optimized and responsive: Visible property ought to adapt nicely to varied display screen sizes, significantly on cell gadgets. They need to even be compressed to enhance loading instances (and search engine rankings).

• Authorized: All pictures needs to be both authentic, correctly licensed, or fall underneath honest use. Respect copyright legal guidelines, and get permission if you might want to!
• Timeless: As a lot as attainable, select visuals that may evolve together with your model fairly than developments which may develop into outdated.
• Human: Human faces and expressions can create a stronger emotional reference to the viewers, so incorporate pictures that function individuals.

By ensuring the visible and written expertise of your web site is constant, skilled, and aligned together with your model id and voice, you’ll foster a way of familiarity and belief together with your viewers.

A Nice Creator Web site Wants a Nice Person Expertise: Structure and Navigation

Your web site isn’t only a static show; it’s an interactive expertise in your viewers. When you’ve established the important thing model components your web site wants, out of your model’s objective to its voice, tone, and visible id, it’s time to begin designing the precise website structure.

As you’re selecting a structure, take into consideration what is going to finest convey your model id and message whereas making issues as seamless and intuitive as attainable in your guests to navigate and discover what they’re searching for. Listed below are some fashionable structure choices to think about:

• Single-Column: Clear and easy, with a single column for simple navigation.

• Grid: Organizes content material right into a visually interesting grid construction, appropriate for showcasing a number of gadgets effectively, like portfolios or product shows.
• Journal or Weblog Structure: Mimics {a magazine} or weblog with a number of columns — well-suited for content-heavy web sites.

• Hero Picture or Video: Contains a hanging picture or video on the high, capturing fast consideration and infrequently used for product showcases or setting the model tone.
• Cut up Display: Divides the webpage into two distinct sections, offering a contemporary and visually interesting design with room for inventive components.
• Parallax Scrolling: Creates a dynamic scrolling expertise with background components transferring at completely different speeds, including depth and interactivity.
• Card: Presents content material in modular and versatile playing cards, selling visible hierarchy and straightforward group, appropriate for numerous sorts of data.

• Full-Display Background: Incorporates a full-screen picture or video background for a visually immersive expertise.

A fast word on navigation: No matter structure you select, your customers’ ease in navigating your website will decide how lengthy they stick round and whether or not they’ll discover what they want—or in the event that they’ll get annoyed and quit. You can even assist individuals navigate your branded web site via cautious placement and group of menus and footers.

The Strategic Content material Your Web site Wants

You’ve discovered your model’s visible id and voice and chosen a structure for the positioning. Now you might want to fill it with helpful content material that tells your guests who you’re, what you do, and how one can assist them!

These are a few of the key pages to think about in your branded enterprise web site—some are must-haves, whereas others will depend upon your small business and choices:

• Dwelling Web page: The house web page ought to supply a snapshot of your model, engaging guests to discover additional, speaking your distinctive worth proposition, and guiding customers to key sections of your web site.
• Weblog: Past selling your services or products, blogs are nonetheless a preferred technique to share precious content material that positions you as an authority in your area of interest.
• Podcast Web page: You probably have a podcast, you need to undoubtedly have a devoted web page for it in your website. Though your podcast can technically exist with no web site, a podcast web page can promote your present and assist listeners study extra about your model and choices.
• Credibility Part: Testimonials, case research, and press protection showcase the optimistic experiences of others, establishing your model’s credibility and reliability and constructing belief. This content material can reside by itself web page or be positioned strategically at completely different locations in your website.
• Product/Service Pages: Every services or products web page ought to present detailed data, advantages, and a compelling name to motion (CTA). 
• Model Story/About Web page: Your viewers connects with the individuals and the story behind your on-line enterprise. Use this web page to speak your mission, values, and the journey that led to the creation of your model.
• Store Web page: If you wish to use your website to promote issues, you’ll want a store web page with simple navigation, clear product categorization, and a streamlined checkout course of.

Examples of On-line Creator and Entrepreneur Branded Web sites

For a bit inspiration, right here’s a choice of nice branded enterprise web sites created by on-line creators and entrepreneurs identical to you! These of us all occur to be members of our SPI Professional group, which you’ll be able to study extra about at SmartPassiveIncome.com/group.

Gnome Angel

Ange Wilson’s quilting-based creator enterprise web site has a powerful, vibrant visible id based mostly round a palette of pinks and blues and a playful header font. The Gnome Angel worth proposition greets you as quickly as you open the house web page, and as you scroll you study Gnome Angel’s sources and merchandise by way of a “patchwork” design fashion that evokes a quilt. The “sticky” navigation menu persists as you descend the house web page, offering easy accessibility to the remainder of the positioning.

Piscari

The Piscari website is an organization model web site with a easy, clear, useful residence web page that serves as an About web page for the corporate and its founder, Mike Lander, with a hyperlink to affix the Piscari e mail listing on the backside. A high nav menu that shows on each web page makes it simple to study extra in regards to the firm, its providers, and different sources. The “Contact Us” button, framed in daring inexperienced, highlights the principle name to motion guests are inspired to take.

Jette Stubbs

Profession and enterprise coach Jette Stubbs’ website introduces her choices proper off the bat, adopted by a pleasant picture of Jette that humanizes the model. The straightforward single-column structure reduces distraction and guides you down the web page as you encounter a cheerful consumer’s testimonial and study extra about Jette’s providers. Graphic components and pictures are interspersed all through, together with refined font coloration adjustments to spark consideration. The parallax scroll impact with Jette’s face within the background provides extra human dimension and a little bit of novelty. A easy high navigation menu is duplicated on the backside, with hyperlinks to an About web page, Jette’s podcast, and testimonials.

Nonetheless on the Fence about Constructing a Web site for Your Small Enterprise? 

We’ll finish with a couple of reminders — and by debunking a couple of frequent misconceptions about making a branded enterprise web site:

• Sure, you do want a web site. Web sites aren’t only for huge corporations, and social media isn’t sufficient.
• Your web site doesn’t should be advanced or aesthetically beautiful. Easy, user-friendly designs typically carry out higher, so give attention to readability and performance above all.
• An internet site wants consideration. Your web site isn’t simply going to draw visitors by itself. You might want to put it on the market and repeatedly populate it with contemporary, Search engine optimisation-rich content material.
• You don’t should go it alone. There are many nice designers on the market who may also help you craft a emblem and construct a professional-looking branded web site. (We labored with the great individuals at Rockbase for our redesign.)

Should you’re feeling daunted, don’t! We’ve bought all of the help you might want to begin constructing your model and designing a killer web site to indicate it off to the world. Try our website’s Free Sources tab, the place you’ll discover content material for entrepreneurs at any degree. Should you’re able to take the following huge step in your on-line work trip, head to SmartPassiveIncome.com/community to study our communities for on-line entrepreneurs. You possibly can study from others such as you who’ve constructed their very own branded web sites, acquire entry to our full library of programs, take part in reside occasions, and extra.