Small Business Website Building Checklist by Walmart Business & UENI

Build your online presence today

Whether you’re a sole proprietor running a tree care service out of your home or the owner of a local chain of coffee shops, websites are a crucial marketing tool that connects you with your desired audience. This checklist, courtesy of Walmart Business and the pro website builders at UENI, will help you build a solid foundation for an online presence that will help drive traffic and grow your business.

7 must-have elements of a quality business website

1. A design that works well & looks great

Your website is often someone’s first impression of your business—one study found that over three-quarters of consumers look at a business’s website before stepping through its doors. A clunky website that is disorganized or difficult to navigate is like having your store’s physical shelves in disarray. 

Focusing on your website’s user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) is a pillar of good web design. Put simply, UI refers to how a visitor will get around your site and UX refers to how enjoyable they’ll find their visit. The better the UI, the better the UX tends to be.

Your website should load quickly, and be organized logically in sections that are easy to find. The simplest version of this is listing each section of your site at the top of your home page, so that visitors can quickly jump to your Shop, Contact form, or About Us information. 

As you’re designing your site, don’t just think about what looks good—consider how your color and font choices might help or hinder a user. Text should be legible, using sizing and color contrasts that remain visible to visitors with color blindness or poor vision. Don’t forget that many potential customers will be using your site on their phones, so make sure it’s as easy to use on a mobile device as it is on a desktop computer.

Meanwhile, all of this should be wrapped in a unique, eye-catching visual design that matches your overall brand. Colors, fonts, images and logos should complement—if not match entirely—the vibes of setting foot in your physical building.

2. Search engine optimized (SEO) copy

Unless they already know about your business, most people will find your site by using a search engine like Google or Bing. If your site isn’t properly optimized for the algorithms these engines use, it won’t come up in search results.

SEO is the process of building your website in a way that is readable for both search engines (which will scan your content and surface it in relevant searches) and the people who visit the link the search engine provides. It’s a delicate balance of writing content that matters to your customers—like a blog explaining how to know when you need a bookkeeping service—while also including specific keywords that the search engine will notice and recognize as the answer to a particular question. 

By maximizing your website’s approach to SEO, you can give your business the best possible chance to reach the highest ranks in your potential customers’ search results. The higher the ranking, the more likely they’ll click your link first, boosting your chances of closing the sale.

3. A memorable name & email address

Without getting too technical, a domain is basically your website’s address on the internet. This domain name can also be used for your email address as well, which is important—customers are more likely to trust emails from an official business address than they are from personal addresses.

The best part of the domain name? You can pick pretty much whatever name you want, as long as it’s available. To do so, you need to customize the two major elements of your domain name: the top-level domain (TLD) and the second-level domain (SLD).

• The top-level domain is the suffix of the website address. .com, .org and .edu are considered top-level domains. Some are reserved for specific purposes (.gov is held for U.S. government websites, for example), but there are a ton available to suit your particular business needs. Running a pizza shop? There’s a .pizza TLD with your name on it.

• The second-level domain is the part you get to name yourself—the “Walmart” in Walmart.com. As long as it’s not currently being used in combination with your chosen TLD, it’s available to purchase.

Buying a domain name must be done through a domain name registrar. These services set prices for the domains and will manage your annual subscription once purchased. They can also help you set up your email address to match your domain.

4. A way for customers to schedule an appointment

If you run a service-based business that relies on appointments, having booking options on your website is a great way to boost your business. One report found that nearly two-thirds of Millennials and Gen X-ers value online booking when scheduling an appointment with their healthcare provider—and would even choose a new provider if their current one doesn’t have it available. Making an online booking form available on your website that’s usable on smart devices and desktops is a smart way to build customer relationships. If your booking form can integrate with your point of sale and scheduling systems? Even better.

5. E-commerce options so customers can buy online

79% of Americans shopped online in 2023. They’re not just shopping at the big online retailers—they’re also spending money on local businesses’ online stores, because it’s fast, easy and convenient for them. If it makes sense for your business, consider setting up an online store of your own. It’s an excellent opportunity to boost revenue and expand your business reach beyond your community.

There’s a lot to think about when it comes to building an e-commerce platform for your site. You need a way to display and manage your inventory, process payments and store customer account information, and it all needs to be secure to protect your customers’ financial information. E-commerce template solutions can help make this process a cinch, though. They’ll take care of the heavy technical lifting for you, so you can worry about providing quality customer service.

6. Secure hosting for your site

Even small businesses need to take cybersecurity seriously. As users enter personal information or make payments through your website, that information gets routed from their web browser into your hosting provider. If your site isn’t secured correctly, that information is accessible to hackers who know how to grab it. SSL certificates act as a barrier for those kinds of attacks, encrypting data as it travels—giving you and your customers peace of mind that their information is safe. The service you use to host your website should be able to help you with an SSL certificate. If they can’t, consider using a different provider.

7. Full-service support to help when you need it

It’s okay not to have all the answers as you’re putting your site together. When you’re looking for providers to help with hosting or design, consider ones that offer full-service support. They’ll help you squash bugs, integrate analytics tools and keep your security up to date.

Get a website that checks all the boxes, courtesy of Walmart Business+ & UENI

Want a professional, high-quality website for your business but don’t have the time or expertise to put one together? Thanks to our partnership with UENI, you can get one built for you in seven days as a part of your Walmart Business+ membership. 

You’ll get the works: a premium, multi-page design that’s search engine optimized and mobile friendly, a custom domain name and email address, integrated booking and e-commerce platforms, secure webhosting and live support for all aspects of your website. It’s a $599 value, now included in Walmart Business+ membership—just pay for hosting! There’s no long-term contract, so you can cancel your subscription at any time.

If you’re a Walmart Business+ Trial or Paid member, you can redeem your free offer by logging into your account. If you’re not a member yet, sign up for a Walmart Business+ account today. In addition to this website offer, you’ll also have the opportunity to save over $500/year and enjoy other exclusive rewards for your organization.¹

¹ Savings based on 1 free $35+ delivery order vs. $9.95 fee and 1 free shipping order under $35 vs. $6.99 fee biweekly, plus 2% Walmart Business Rewards on monthly order >$250 (average value of $400).