5 Reasons Your Business Needs A Website
1. Your Website Is Live 24-7
At the end of the day when you and your staff are clocked out, your website stays open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. This means that even when you or your staff is not available to interact with people looking to do business with you, your website is available and able to provide information, serve as a point of contact or even allow customers to make purchases or submit orders.
2. Your Business Needs To Be Found On Search Engines
People don’t just browse the Internet to discover companies they want to do business with; more specifically, they visit search engines. 93% of online experiences start with a search engine. And nearly half of these searches are for local businesses.
So, you need to have a search-optimized company website that can rank well in search engine results. This will ensure consumers are able to find, and connect with, your business.
3. Increase your businesses credibility
When it comes to convincing consumers to buy, first impressions are important. Fifty-seven percent of people won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. That’s right consumers make judgments about your business based on the appearance of your website.
Having a professionally designed, user-friendly, and easy-to-use website can help you to more easily convey to potential customers that you are a reputable organization, one they want to do business with.
Use your website to establish authority. When it comes to finding a reputable business, consumers want to know where a brand stands in the industry. The content that you create and publish to your site helps show consumers that you know your stuff. By providing valuable and educational content, you can work to build stronger relationships with consumers and encourage conversions.
4. It saves you money down the road
As a small business owner, especially one that is just starting out, you’re probably thinking you can’t afford a professional website. But you really can’t afford NOT to. Although the cost of designing a website varies depending on your needs and your skill level, once it’s up and running, a professional website is worth the initial investment, especially if built using WordPress, which enables you to add and change your own content regularly, saving you money in updates.
Compared with the cost of traditional means of advertising, such as newspaper ads, radio commercials, promotional materials and even networking events that often include the cost of a meal or trade tables, when you consider the potential market you can reach with a website, it is a very cost effective way to promote your business long term.
Even if your skill levels are slim to none and you need to continually pay your website designer/developer to maintain and update your website for you, the upkeep costs are still lower than ongoing traditional marketing, and the investment is certainly worth the number of potential customers that will find your business online each year.
When it comes to comparing the cost of a professional website with a freebie D.I.Y. website, unless you are fairly skilled, your website will cost you in time and effort that could be better spent elsewhere in your business. Not only that, but if it’s not professional, or can’t be found in a Google search, you will lose customers and that will also cost you dearly.
5. Your competitors already have one
While 36 percent of small businesses don’t have their own website, 64 percent of them do. This means that the majority of small businesses DO have a presence online, and it’s likely that your competitors have a website that is appealing to people in your area.
If you want to stay relevant and competitive within your field, it’s important that your business have a footprint online—it not only helps you stay competitive, but it also helps cement your role as a forward-thinking, tech-savvy business.