Does Your Business Need a Website?

1. A Digital Asset

A website is an asset and part of your online real estate. It helps you to be visible online. The more footprints you have online, the better.

2. Credibility

When meeting potential contacts or customers for the first time, the question is often asked ‘Do you have website?’ It helps to position you as a credible business and gives people the opportunity to read about your business after your initial meeting 

3. You are in charge of the content

Whilst posting on social media is essential, you don’t actually control or own that media. The algorithms decided by Facebook, LinkedIn etc decide how your content displaced. If you don’t play by their rules, you may not even be able to post what you want!

4. Not everyone is on Social Media

People in some demographics or just based on individual preferences do not use social media. Secondly, not everyone who has a social media account necessarily access their account on a frequent bases so they may miss your messages on a platform. However, are more likely to use google or another search engine to find businesses.

5. You can Always be found

If someone is looking for a plumber in Peckham or an emergency dentist in Dartford, the first place they will look is a search engine and not social media.

6. Internet and Searching goes hand in hand

The main reason people go on the internet is to search. Think about it, the moment you get on a browser, there is a search bar at the top and a high probability that the home page is a search engine. All browser have are owned by a search engine. Chrome- google, Yahoo- yahoo, ie is Bing.

7. You have the full attention the customer

Social Media platforms are noisy places which is good thing. People are there to socialise online. On the But for a business it can mean that they get distracted from your message. Once on your website, you have the customer’s full attention. We are not saying businesses should not be on social media, as there are ways that businesses can leverage social media to grow their businesses. What we propose is having social media strategy AND a website.

8. Your competitors are online

The chances are, your competitors are already online. So not having a website put you at a disadvantage. Even if most of them most them are not online, it will give you a competitive advantage. 

9. The Internet is global

People can reach your business from anywhere in the world! How amazing is that?! This could be a potential lead or customer or perhaps a company to do a joint venture? Who knows where is might lead?

10. Another opportunity to understand your customers

Subject to having the right cookie and privacy policies in places, you can collect more information on the visitors and conversions to your website. This can help you boost sales by understanding customer behaviour and profile. This requires using tools like google analytics.

Bonus!

Just a few other points about having your own website

Search Engine changes.

Now I mentioned that that social media sites change their algorithms which may affect the visibility of your business. Well, so does Google and other search engines. By having a website that is key word rich, having a good online footprint, good SEO (although this changes!!) can help protect you when it comes to the search engines. At the end of day, a search engine is designed to give you the best search results using its algorithm. And off course learning about the changes and looking how this can be implemented on your website is crucial. 

A mirror or standard site does NOT replace your need for a website

If you are a business owner and opted for an ‘out of the box’ business which included a website, it is still worth considering building your own website especially as you grow.

The type of businesses I’m referring to are franchises, joint ventures or multi-level marketing business. This will very much depend on the site, industry and terms and conditions of the business arrangement.

If you are able to create your own website or have an additional website, you can add full customisation and shape it to reflect the unique aspects of your business. It may also be an opportunity to sell additional goods and services.