Web Design for Small Businesses: What We Learned Building 30+ Client Sites

Every small business has a story. The website's job is to tell it clearly and get out of the way.

Between 2008 and 2018, LeDo Enterprises built websites for more than 30 small businesses and organizations across Pennsylvania and beyond. Dance studios, law offices, churches, preschools, restaurants, yoga studios, historical societies, real estate agents, equipment dealers, and community organizations.

The Client List

Our portfolio spanned an incredible range. Sue Hewitt Dance Studio needed class schedules. The Law Offices of Coren J. Wise (Cape May and Philadelphia) needed credibility. Sunflower Yoga Studio wanted calm. The Golden Pheasant needed menus. Indiana Humane Society needed to showcase adoptable animals. McCullough Electric, Measurement Instruments, and Arthurs Tractors needed to present technical products to professional buyers.

Content Is Always the Hard Part

The technical work of building a website is predictable. The hard part is always getting good content from clients. Photos, product descriptions, service details — these make or break a site.

Simple Beats Clever

In the early days, we experimented with Flash animations and complex interactive elements. The best-performing sites were the ones with clear navigation, fast load times, and content that answered the visitor's actual questions.

Mobile Changed Everything

When we started in 2008, mobile-responsive design wasn't a thing. By 2015, more than half of web traffic was from phones. Clients who invested in responsive redesigns saw dramatic improvements.

The Evolution

Today we don't build brochure websites anymore. But the skills we developed — understanding client needs, translating business requirements into technology decisions — those are exactly the skills we apply now to ERP implementations, custom software, and infrastructure engineering.