Five Digital Tools for Small Businesses in 2021

The digital landscape is always shifting, and new web design and development tools are created every day. Keeping on top of new developments, suitable tools and best practises can leave you feeling overwhelmed. But fear not, we’re here to help!
Want to help your small business shine? Here are five we’d recommend…

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

It can be difficult to know how to direct traffic towards your website. Once you’ve developed and designed it, how do you make sure your work is seen? Search engine rankings can make a big difference to the success of a small business. Being on the first page of Google/Bing listings is very important. Being in the top five is ideal. There are numerous ways to improve your ranking for different searches. These need to be curated over a period of time and can be difficult to get right, even for the best of us.

One hugely important way to boost your ranking: Keywords. Making use of these in Website’s page titles and meta data is tremendously important. Using tools such as SEMrush will show you where you’re ranking for different keywords, so you can shift your targets accordingly. You can also use sites like the ludicrously named Keyword Shitter to assist in identifying keywords.

2. Cloud Storage

Imagine: You’re at the office. You have a big business meeting in ten minutes. You suddenly realise that the document you need is on your home computer. Without cloud storage, there’s nothing you can do. With cloud storage, your work is securely stored online, accessible wherever you are. Dropbox and Google Drive are great places to start, and I actively use both myself. They also provide a fantastic tool to efficiently transfer files from portable devices (Mobile or Tablet) over to a desktop or laptop. I life-saver when you need files in a flash.

3. Website Building

Your website will often be your business’s first impression on potential customers. And first impressions leave a mark! A killer design is always important. Free site builders like Wix can help you, but you’ll likely end up with something less than satisfactory and they may end up costing far more than you imagined. If you’re looking to truly stand out, it’s worth investing in a web developer/designer.

Adding useful tools to your website is always a plus, whilst saving you lots of time and effort. Here are some highlights of tools we have used ourselves:

• Imagfy can help to speed up your website by reducing the size of your images without losing quality. This will help with your SEO and improve user satifsaction. There are also plugins for CSM such as WordPress
• Pattern Lab a frontend workshop environment that helps you build, view and test parts of your website design.
• Coolors is a simple to use tool which can help generate or browse beautiful colour combinations for your website. (It’s also super helpful for branding or any of your color palette needs).

4. E-Commerce

As we’re told often enough in the news, the high-street is struggling. Rental prices are high and footfall is low. This, along with its connivence, has pushed many businesses to selling stock online. If you’re looking to sell your goods/services via an online store, a reliable E-commerce provider will make everything easier. For 24/7 support, and a user friendly interface, we recommend Woocommerce. For the simplest of services (although be aware of sellers fees and other overheads) many choose to sell via popular platforms such as Ebay or Depop

5. Project Management

Project management increases organisation and productivity, which can make all the difference for a small business. When you’re juggling numerous enterprises, tools like monday.com can help your team manage everything in one workspace.