I’m often asked why a business that’s never had a website should have one. Or if they have one why should they care about it looking professional, it being search engine optimized, etc.
Well, here are just 10 reasons why every business NEEDS a website…
1. Your competitors probably have their own sites.
This means when people are looking for a site, they see your competitors business and not yours, which means you’re missing out on potential customers!
2. Its the first impression of your business. A quality and professionally designed website will add credibility to your business. A poorly designed website can have the opposite effect. A lot of times, the visuals of a website alone will make the sale for you. Ff someone sees that you have a great design, that is well-laid out, clear, concise, and visually appealing, they will take you more serious than someone who’s site is the opposite.
3. Customers EXPECT businesses to have a website.
Most people use their cell phones for everything. Most of us put a number into out phone and never know the number. If its not in our phone it won’t be remembered or called. (I don’t remember my house number from memory at this point) A domain name is easier to remember than a phone number for most people.
4. Your website is always open!
Your website is your constant salesperson. he never takes, breaks, holidays, calls in sick, needs to go to the Doctor, and once its set up and designed, he only wants $10 a month to brag about your business. You can’t beat those labor rates. A website is accessible to current and, importantly, future customers, 24hrs a day 365 days a year.
5. Its a convenient way to contact you.
Once a customer has found your website they can choose the best way of contacting you. Phone, Fax or Email.
6. You can cut down or repetitive phone calls.
You can answer commonly asked questions on your website thereby providing a more satisfying customer experience.
7. Your website is your brag board.
You can use your website to display customer testimonials, reinforcing customers confidence in your products/services.
8. You can connect with current and potential customers to grab their attention.
You can use your website to tell existing and potential customers about special offers, events, locations, and more
9. No More yellow Pages.
No one uses the yellow pages anymore. A lot of markets have even stopped producing them all together as advertisement in them has gotten so low. Your missing a lot of potential business if your not in front of customers looking for you on search engines.
10. Inexpensive and Almost Risk Free
All the above benefits to having a website for your small business are great. When people first began to adopt the internet these benefits would have been very costly and out of reach of the average small business owner. However, while every other advertising medium has increased in price over the past decade, website development and hosting has decreased significantly. So for a few hundred a year or more, your buck.
There is virtually no risk involved, there is always a 99.9% chance that you get a return on the investment of having the site built. You save on the costly yellow pages ads, and Internet marketing is way cheaper per month than print ads.
There are many, many more reasons why your business needs a website. Get your business online today!
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If you had a plan, you could put together a small portfolio of your offerings. They could range from simply putting up a website for a business, or setting up a website in combination with initial or extended SEO packages.
Very nice layout and wonderful content, what else we require : D.
Agreed! As cheap as it is to own a website these days, it’s really a no-brainer. You don’t have to have a degree in Design to make a decent looking site either. There are tons of options and tools to help with the process. It shouldn’t be as intimidating to people now. If it does intimidate you, or you don’t have the time to tackle the project, there are several professionals that are sure to offer different designs for different budgets.
Also, an online presence allows for your business to go viral more quickly. Word of mouth travels only so fast by mouth, but word of mouth through social media can transform your business over night.
I love your list and have taken parts of it into account in my top ten reasons why a small business needs a website ( http://seoandy.com/why-you-need-a-website-010 ) I think us small business website designers need to really get the message out that this doesn’t take thousands of pounds to get a real online presence
Another important reason to have a website is it gives you a central location to point your efforts at. Lets say you have your facebook and your twitter accounts going. where is the content you provide them going to be hosted?
Writing directly through social media doesn’t give your reader a chance to connect to your products and services since they don’t have to visit your site. You are always better off haveing them click through to some where.
With people using the internet to look up local businesses instead of using Yellow Pages, a web site becomes a definate plus for your business.
A website is your online presence, without you might as well not be advertising on the internet at all. Not to mention that websites are now relevant to local listings on the new google places.
These are the ten reason I usually attached on my proposal for a company with out a website.
We have to be on the web but only if we know how to manage it…
I like your article. It makes some great points about bricks and mortar locations needing to also have a web presence, even if they don’t do online commerce. So many older folks don’t seem to understand this.