Indiana Small Business Development Center

Small website updates make a big difference

The Indiana Small Business Development Center is one of Kicks’ longest client relationships — and as a small business ourselves, it’s one of the ones closest to our hearts. We got the band back together to update their website to make it easier to navigate, easier to find on the web, and easier on the eyes, too.

What we did

Colors

Submarks

A modern aesthetic for tomorrow’s entrepreneurs

Let’s address the elephant in the room: government agencies aren’t exactly known for having the flashiest websites out there. More often than not, they look like they were built in the ‘90s (minus all the dancing baby GIFs) and left to gather dust. Fortunately, the Indiana SBDC isn’t like the rest.

When we built the Indiana SBDC’s website back in 2017, we all understood that it would be a living, breathing project. Times change, and so do best practices for modern web design. So when the Indiana SBDC reached back out to us in 2021 to give their website a face lift, we were eager to hop back in the mix.

Peep our design chops

Web accessibility is Hoosier hospitality

For all the cool functionality and snazzy design you can slap on a webpage these days, at Kicks we think every site should be judged first and foremost by one criterion: can you navigate the site without getting a headache?

Since the Indiana SBDC operates from 10 regional offices throughout the state, helping the user find the right point of contact in the right region is a must. We built an intuitive tool to point users in the right direction. Simply click on the map or select your county from the dropdown menu, and voilà — you’re instantly presented with the information relevant to your region.

Easy navigation was a great start, but the Indiana SBDC wanted to make sure their site was a breeze to use for everyone in our state — including the 8.8% of Hoosiers who primarily speak a language other than English. Kicks baked a translation tool into isbdc.org so it’s accessible to all users, regardless of their native tongue.

Growing SEO for growing businesses

With a fresh coat of paint and better navigational tools in place, all that was left was to ensure more eyeballs land on isbdc.org. Kicks identified an easy win to give the site a modest SEO boost.

The Indiana SBDC’s previous website featured some fairly robust information on their service offerings, but that information was hiding in PDFs throughout the site. We assembled all of that information and built out service and program pages that are a bit easier for Google’s crawlers to index.

Users will now find information on location, staff and regional updates, as well as tips on how to grow their small business — all without diving into linked PDFs. It’s one small step for search engine optimization, and one giant leap for Hoosier entrepreneurs.

Get that SEO Sparkle

QUOTE HERE

Deven Wisner, Partner Viable Insights

About Indiana Small Business Development Center

The Indiana SBDC helps Hoosier small businesses at every stage of the entrepreneurial journey. With a network of 10 regional offices throughout the state, the Indiana SBDC helps entrepreneurs and small businesses start stronger, grow faster, and work smarter.

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Even the most intentionally built website could use a refresher every so often. With fresh design and accessibility tools, the Indiana SBDC is better poised than ever to help small businesses off the ground. Kicks can help your web project do the same.

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