Does My Small Business Need A Website?

Whether you’re a small or big business, a business website offers plenty of advantages. Here’s 12 significant benefits and reasons to have a website for your small business.

A Business Website Makes You Look Professional

Everyone can make a company page on Facebook; it can be done quickly and it’s free. The low barrier to entry will reduce a lot of the credibility of a business social media page. Customers rarely know who’s actually behind a Facebook page, where the account creator is located, and whether it’s a scam. In fact, there are people who spend all day impersonating legitimate businesses with look-alike pages.

Creating a business website is not free and is an investment in time and money, that says you’re serious about your business. A website makes your business look more professional and credible.

Your Website Is A Step in Your Customer’s Journey

Ultimately, an effective website is where you want your audience to end up, coming from all the other channels. The website is where you can inspire action from potential clients and generate sales.

Think of your website as a physical shop - people walk by it until they come in to look at what you offer. Even if they don’t buy something the first time, they might buy something on later visits.

Customers come across your business via different channels like social media feeds. If you’ve created something interesting, they’ll probably visit your website to find out more about the business. If there is no website, the next logical step in the customer journey is not available to them.

A Website Increases Your Visibility

Google has processed over 8.5 billion searches per day since the beginning of 2023. ‘Near me searches’ have seen a 900% boost in the last 2-3 years and 97% of people go online to find a local business for their needs. Without a website, your business is invisible to the people online.

A Website Is Essential For Local Businesses

Many small business owners know they need an online presence but resist investing in an effective business website. They’re missing out on an incredible source of revenue for their business.

The following statistics show how important a website is for a local business:

• 46% of all searches on Google include local intent
• 97% of users use search to find local businesses
  
• 28% of local searches result in same day visit to store or business
  
• 76% of searchers visit a local business within 24 hours
  

A business website will help you capture all of this potential and make your business even more profitable.

Your Websites Offers Social Proof

What customers say about your business matters and often affects whether or not others patronize your business. Review websites like Yelp are good, but your website is the best place for people to get more information about your business.

You can display your best testimonials on your website, establishing trust and social proof. When you curate testimonials and publish the best reviews on your website it ensures that third-party review sites don’t minimize the good things people are saying about your business.

Your Business Website Provides Long Lasting Value

Among the best things about investing in a business website is how it will continue to generate and add value to your business even years after your initial investment.

If you pay for an ad on social media, potential clients might see your ad while it’s running for as long as you pay to run it. If they don’t see it, you’ll have to pay to run the ad campaign again.

A business website will give you ROI over time. Even if it doesn’t give you returns immediately you’ll learn things about your visitors and have time to tweak pages and optimize CTA’s constantly improving performance and adapting to industry changes and shifting tastes of customers.

A Business Website is Easier and Cheaper Than Most People Think

A lot of business owners resist building a business website because they believe it’s difficult, time consuming, and expensive to create an effective website. Not true, it’s a necessary investment in one of the most important parts of your business, not a cost.

Creating a website and hosting is pretty straightforward for a professional like Coinmismatic and it’s never been easier and more affordable. A good looking, fast website that ranks high and reflects your business gives a good first impression and inspires trust in the business.

 A Business Website Lets You Sell Online

Ecommerce sales are exploding and are projected to increase by $483 billion in 2023. By 2025, ecommerce will exceed $7 trillion. No sales of products or services happen online for a business that does not have a website. Unless you're selling on third party platforms and then they’re sharing your profits.

If you're not a traditional ecommerce business, having a business website can aid in attracting new customers and work for you even when your physical location is closed.

Your Website Gives You Complete Control

Your business website is your property, you have absolute freedom - unlike social media platforms. You won’t have to follow the constantly changing rules of a social platform. You can share whatever content, user reviews, videos, images, and whatever else you desire or feel that your customer needs to hear or see to make the sale.

A Business Website is Easy to Manage

Managing a website used to be a challenge for all business owners. A good content management system (CMS) has made it easier than ever to manage a website. Additionally, you don’t need a whole lot of technical skills to keep your website up to date.

A Website Improves Customer Service

An effective website will contain all of the important information your customers need. Therefore, there’s no need for them to call about location, hours of operation, and other simple questions. A website that helps customers improves the overall customer experience.

Additionally, allowing the website to answer customer questions will improve efficiency for your workforce allowing them to focus more on processes and productivity.

A Website Helps You Compete With Competitors

Even if you're a small business, you’ll have competitors and some of those might be the “big boys” in your industry. An effective website allows you to compete with competitors and levels the playing field a bit. A well designed and optimized website makes outranking competitors possible and allows your business to get quality leads organically from search engines.

My Thoughts

The decision to create a website for your business or not is ultimately yours to make. However, if part of your business goals is to improve sales and lead generation, visibility, social proof, and authority, then creating a website is a good investment and first step to achieving your goals.

If you’re looking for a local company that understands your region and can work closely with your team to design your website, give Coinmismatic a call at (757) 752-8857 and we’ll evaluate your needs and deliver the experience you want your customers and clients to receive.  

If you need any more help deciding whether or not your local business needs a website, check out my article titled, "5 Reasons Why Your Virginia Beach Business Needs A professional Website."