If you’re a start-up or a small business who’s just starting out, you may be wondering if you even need a website. The answer is a resounding “YES!”. A fully-functional and operational website is essential in today’s world.
Small business just can’t get by with word of mouth marketing or even social media advertising, you need to invest in an optimized and professional small business website if you want your business to reach it’s full potential. There are several benefits of having a website for your small business!
Still undecided? I’ll prove it to you.
In the article below, I’ll convince you why you need to have a small business website and how you can get started developing one today!
The Benefits of Having a Website for Your Small Business
Let me hit you with some stats:
According to Espresso.Digital:
- 30% of small businesses with a web presence generate more than 25% of their revenue online
- 91% of customers have visited a store because of an online experience
- 37% of people use the Internet to find a store at least once per month
- 47% of small businesses spend less than $10,000 on digital marketing
Ok, so what’s my point with those website statistics?
- Optimized websites help to generate consistent revenue for small businesses
- Your target audience expects that you will have a functional website
- Small business websites help to drive foot traffic to your store, shop, or office
- Website and online marketing services are actually more affordable than small business owners realize
Meet Your Customer Expectations
Modern day marketing is all about being available and active online. That means YouTube videos, social media accounts, and updated websites. Having a website for your small business allows you to meet those demands. More than ever before, people are using the internet as their primary method of product research, business reputation investigation, and store proximity searches. Your target audience and ideal customers are searching the web, so you need to make sure you can be found online!
If you’re not online, you can bet that your competition will be. And, you can expect that you’re losing potential customers to them too.
Control Your Brand and Content
One of the greatest benefits of having a website for your small business is that you can create a sense of authority around your brand, products/services, and your business. Optimized and well-designed websites also create a sense of comfort for your target audience. Social media accounts, even a professional LinkedIn business profile, isn’t enough to establish your presence in your industry or grow your brand awareness.
Having a small business website will allow you to have control over your content and image of your brand and work. Producing quality, SEO-optimized content will increase your SERP (search engine result page) ranking, thereby growing your visibility with your target audience.
Take a look at leading big businesses, successful small business, and businesses who started small and became hugely successful. What do they all have in common? They all have modern, well developed, and cutting edge websites.
The better designed your website is and the more frequently you’re results are able to rank in the top pages of Google, the more your brand awareness will increase and the more trust you’ll develop with your ideal customers.
Website and Digital Marketing Services are Affordable
Many small business owners don’t think they have the additional resources to invest into creating a website and then maintaining it. However, the ROI a small business receives from digital marketing is well worth the cost. The overall long term value of a developed website far outweighs it’s initial and maintenance costs.
An optimized website is what your small business needs to help it get off the ground and really start growing! A website does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to advertising, education, and lead generation. In many cases, paying to create and optimize a quality website is a better option financially than solely relying on other marketing options like social media ads, radio/ magazine advertisements, or billboard signs.
Small business have the potential to dramatically increase their revenue, grow their business size, and attract and connect with leads all by using a well-designed website, but you have to want it first.
Spending the money upfront to develop and than maintain a website may seem like a risk, but I can promise you it pays off.
How to Create a Small Business Website
Hopefully I’ve convinced you of the benefits of having a website for your small business.
The next step from here is to formulate a website design and development plan, and select a website hosting platform. You can either choose to do this alone or hire an internet marketing company to manage it for you. However, unless you have a strong background in coding, SEO, and design, I strongly suggest hiring out for these online marketing services.
You’re going to have a lot of options when it comes to hiring and working with a web development company, so make sure you do your research first. Look at their reviews, portfolio work, their blog section, and watch their testimonial videos. You want to make sure you hire an internet marketing company with a comprehensive marketing plan, that will both struggle and succeed right along with your small business.
Once you settle on a web development and design company to create your website, you need to work with them to implement a design and marketing strategy that will work best for your target audience.
Make sure you hit these important topics:
- Mobile optimization
- Image and video optimization
- Keyword research and SEO
- Minimalist site structure
- Content development
- Website analytics
A good website design, development, and management company will offer all the above services and will teach you about them too!
In Conclusion
The benefits of having a website for your small business cannot be overstated. Small businesses absolutely need to have optimized and fully functional websites to meet the demands of the modern customer. There is no better method for revenue growth, lead attraction, SERP ranking, or brand and content management than a well designed website. The numbers are in, if you want to compete and grow as a small business, you need a website.
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