10 Reasons Why Every Business Needs a Website

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. name@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. In addition, some email marketing tools no longer allow users to send emails from personal addresses. This means that if you want to take advantage of the power of email marketing, you’ll need a business email account.

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 more visible on Google. Social media networks are indexed on Google, and social media posts can be found with the search engine, but a website gives you access to many more tools and strategies for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). And SEO is the key to making your business appear on the front page of Google.

The phrase “search engine optimization” might be intimidating, but in practice, it’s fairly simple. You enter words and phrases related to your business into a keyword research tool, figure out which ones are getting the most traffic on Google, then build your content around those phrases. As a rule, each piece of content should be focused on a different keyword, so that as your list of content grows, your site is able to rank for more keywords. There are some excellent SEO plugins for WordPress that make it easy to do this, no previous training required.

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

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.

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.

Having a website will end up saving you time.

Whether you’re trading emails, taking calls, or sending out proposals – communicating with potential customers takes time. Your website can save you that time by providing answers to common customer questions and inquiries. What does this mean for you? You can spend your time doing more valuable things.

Position yourself and stay in control of your brand.

A website acts as a platform for your messaging and shapes the online perception of your business in a way that your social media channels cannot provide.

The platform allows you to position yourself in the market to get the exact type of customers you’re looking for.

Many business owners have been reviewed online, sometimes unknowingly and/or negatively. How does this affect you? 79% of users who read online reviews, believe them. Combat that negativity by posting your own positive testimonials.

Digital Marketing

If you plan on leveraging digital marketing to increase your leads and grow your business, you’ll likely want to drive traffic to a website or landing page. To do this effectively, leverage historic traffic that has been going to your website so you can target the most qualified customers and get the best ROI on your ad spend. This is something that can’t be set up retroactively, so it is best to get your website running early even if you’re not planning on running ads at the moment.

Websites have become essential to business today. I strongly recommend creating one if you haven’t done so already. You can improve it over time, but the key is to start.

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, 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.

It’s not as hard, or as expensive, as you think.

You don’t need to be tech savvy to get a website. Many web development companies have very simple signup processes which make the process quick and painless for you.

It can be very cost effective. Websites offer a better return on investment than any other form of advertising. If you’re planning to market your business, a website should be your first priority.

Over time the relatively low investment of getting a business website will pay dividends by driving you new customers and building your brand. Plus, it’s a legitimate business expense and a tax write o