10 Reasons Why You Will Need a Website For Your Business
If your business has
gotten this far without a website, you might be wondering: do I need a website
for my business? What’s the point if my business is already successful without
one?
The short answer is that there has never been a better or more important time to invest in a website for your business. A website offers a wide variety of benefits for small businesses, and most of these benefits increase in value exponentially year over year, just like the Internet itself.
Websites are also known to promote personal interests like music, health and fitness, photography and art, social media influencing, advertisement and so much more. Literally anything you are interested in.
Not convinced? We’ve
collected ten of the biggest benefits your small business can receive from even
a simple website.
Ten reasons why you need
a website for your small business
1. A website makes you
look professional
84% of today’s
consumers think a website makes your business more credible than
companies who only have social media profiles. Your website is also the perfect
place to show off any professional certifications or awards your business has.
Beyond that, having your
own website lets you create a branded email address (e.g. diana@yoursite.com)
which adds a level of professionalism to all of your correspondence,
especially if you’ve used a personal email address to conduct business up until
now.
2. Your website can
attract new customers through Google
You may be happy with the
current size of your business, but every company experiences customer turnover.
To encourage continued success, you need to attract new customers, and one of
the best ways to do it is by making yourself visible on Google.
A well-optimized website can help your business rank well for a variety of search terms and attract a steady stream of new customers.
There are several free SEO tools that make
it easy to optimize your website without any prior training.
3. You can clearly
showcase your products and services
You can show potential
customers what they’ll get when they work with you by displaying high-quality
photography on your website. Take a look at how the UK restaurant Blackhouse has accomplished this on their
website:
You can also use your
website design, along with the featured images, to give people a sense of what
it feels like to enter your physical location. This works particularly well if
your brand is closely tied to the “feel” of your location, like the Canadian
restaurant Stormcrow Manor.
Another thing you can do
is publish important information about your products and services on your
website to make sure you’re attracting the right customers.
For example, if you run a restaurant, you might
want to mark any items on your menu that are gluten-free so people with Celiac
or other conditions that make gluten dangerous know they can eat in your establishment.
4. You can display your
best reviews and testimonials prominently on your website
Displaying your best
reviews and/or testimonials prominently on your website is a great way to
establish social proof.
This might come in the form of personal customer testimonials, like this review
on the website of the non-profit organization STEAMLabs:
If your business has
appeared in articles from newspapers or popular local blogs, you can also
feature those, as Stormcrow Manor has done below:
Publishing your best
reviews on your website also serves the secondary purpose of creating a
permanent archive. This means that even if third-party review sites close at
some point in the future, you’ll still have access to your best reviews.
5. A website can
encourage customers to contact you
A website is a great
place to make your contact information easily available to potential customers.
You can even publish your contact information in a header or footer so it
appears on every single page. Snakes and Lattes,
a small chain of board game cafes, has placed phone numbers for all four of
their locations in their website footer:
Modern website builders (more on those in
a bit) also make it easy to create a contact form, which
can protect your business email from spam.
6. You can integrate your
website with Google Maps so people can find you more easily
A website lets you embed
maps directly into your content. Some businesses, like STEAMLabs, have a map
embedded directly onto their home page:
An embedded map makes it
easy for people who don’t spend a lot of time in your area to find your
business. This is particularly great if you host events, as they might attract
people who wouldn’t otherwise spend time in the neighborhood your business is
in.
7. Your website
establishes your place in the industry
If your competitors
aren’t online yet, they probably will be soon. Establish yourself as a leader
in your field by building a high-quality website first.
If your competitors are
online, you have a different kind of opportunity: you can build a website
that’s completely different from your competitors’ sites, showing potential
customers what makes your company stand apart.
8. A website is no longer
intimidating to create and manage
Modern website builders like
Squarespace and Wix make it easy for you
to build an attractive, mobile-friendly site without any knowledge of code.
Even WordPress, the most popular
way to make a website, has transitioned to a block editor:
In other words, it has
never been simpler to create a functional, aesthetically pleasing website.
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9. A website ensures your
success over the long term
In 2020, almost 4.54
billion people (59% of the global population) use the Internet,
and more and more people are getting online.
Without a website, your
business is invisible to these people. As we progress further into the digital
era, your business will become invisible to everyone unless you invest in a
website.
So to stay competitive in
this increasingly digital world, your business needs to get online.
10. You can get all of
these benefits without spending a fortune
Building a website isn’t
just easier than it used to be; it’s also more affordable. If you’re willing to
follow a simple, non-technical DIY approach, you can build a website for as
little as $70 per year.
WordPress, which again is
the most popular way to build a website, is 100% free for the core software. If
you add a free WordPress theme like Neve or Hestia and cheap website hosting, you can be up and
running at a very low cost.
Learn more about how much a website
costs 👈
So, do I need a website
for my business? The final verdict
Hopefully,
by now you’ve realized that the question isn’t “do I need a website for my
business”, but “can I afford to not have a website in the
digital era”. And the answer, if you want to continue thriving in the long
term, is no. A website is one of the best investments any business can make in
its future.
If you’re ready to get started with a website for your small business, check out 3 Best Web Hosting Service Providers.
Again, WordPress is the most
popular way to build a website – it powers over one-third of all the websites
on the Internet. It’s also accessible to non-technical users,
which is a big part of why it’s so popular.
Finally, if you have any questions about launching a website for your small business, ask away in the comments section below!
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