The 5 best small business Web design services

Check out the web design services that most small businesses are using these days - almost all of them offer a free trial.

High quality Web design is crucial for startups, entrepreneurs, affiliate marketers and small business.

Not only does the look and feel of a website's design impact on how customers view a service or product, but it can also affect conversion rates and sales.

If you've decided that your own design abilities don't match up to the best design professionals in the world, then it's time to go in search of high quality, affordable web design services that are leading the world in innovation and affordability.

Remember that Web design is more than skin deep. Websites can look pretty, but be wasteful and slow under the hood - and Google will find this. Web design is about beauty, functionality, and SEO.

Many web design services also provide hosting and a number of other services that allow you to do everything you need in one place. Here's a list of the best web design services that cater for a huge range of business and blogging related website design.

1. StudioPress

WordPress is one of the most popular CMS (Content Management Systems) on the planet, with wordpress.com hosting over 20 million websites, and wordpress.org accounting for millions more.

It's no wonder then that WordPress themes and templates from StudioPress are in high demand.

A good WordPress theme can provide responsive Web design that allows your blog to instantly support mobile browsing.

In addition, WordPress themes can also provide excellent built-in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) features to increase page rankings and organic search traffic.

StudioPress has supplied top class WordPress themes to over 80 000 bloggers, and will set you back around $80 - a small price to pay for excellent Web design.

2. Artisteer

Web design generator, Artisteer, allows you to create cool blog templates for a range of platforms such as Blogger, WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.

It's super easy to create cool designs for your blog or website without having to learn HTML or CSS. Simply download their software from the site and start editing graphics, generating new templates and exporting to whichever website platform you use.

Artisteer was named 'Product of the Year' in 2008 by the Red Ferret Journal.

3. DesignPax

New York based DesignPax has a broad range of web related design options, including FaceBook pages, landing pages, websites, logos, icons, WordPress themes, twitter backgrounds and more.

One of the things that sets DesignPax apart from other web design services is that they promise to have your designs turned around in 48 hours. Perfect for when inspiration strikes and you need a professional looking banner ad to drive traffic to your newly designed landing page.

4. GoDaddy

GoDaddy is best known as a domain registrar and Web hosting service. They've now diversified into Web design too.

GoDaddy provides an online Web designer that uses a drag and drop design interface with point and click features to make designing a website a one-day job. They also offer a library of 120 prebuilt websites that you can customize to match the needs of your own business or blog.

As you'd expect from such a large company, economies of scale play a part, and for only a few dollars a month you get the website builder, regular special deals and offers, free hosting and email, and 24/7 support.

5. design-a-webpage

design-a-webpage.com is the world's first online web design service that focuses specifically on landing pages.

Instead of providing entire website templates, design-a-webpage provides a range of landing page designs that are built, from the ground up, to convert specific types of traffic. For example, there is a landing page to sell a single product, there is a portfolio landing page to show off a range of items, there is a service landing page designed to show off a service (as opposed to a product).

What's nice about design-a-webpage is that once you have created one landing page, their clone feature makes creating additional webpages with the same look and feel as easy as clicking a single button.

Perfect for A/B testing or creating a suite of landing pages that sell similar products, or products from one company.

Honorable mentions

Are there any other web design companies that I have left off this list? If you know of other web design companies that should be included amongst the most innovative and cost-effective in the world, then drop me a line in the comments below.

• RocketTheme
• CyberChimps
• 99designs

What are your favorite Web design services? How have they helped your blog or website get more traffic, or increase conversions?

Share your Web design tips in the comments.