The Role of a Business Website
Your Business Website Importance:
We who own a business have websites, and this compilation article is to help focus the why, what, and how we should use our websites to promote our businesses.
[1]For many small companies, having a website may seem out of reach because of the cost and commitment of owning one and keeping it updated. However, not having an online presence can actually hurt your business in the long run.
What’s the first thing you do when you hear about a company? You look them up online. But what if they don’t have a website?
You don’t necessarily have to sell a product or service to own a site. Whether your company is an e-Commerce or not, a well-crafted online presence is essential for any business.
Nowadays, most people are visual. They want to see what your company has to offer, and the only way to learn more about it is to look it up online. If users can’t find what they’re looking for, then guess what? They’re going to look somewhere else. Don’t lose your potential clients for not having a website.
So, what’s the role of websites for your business? Let’s find out.
Credibility
The only thing worse than not having a website is having a poor website design. This makes your company look bad, and users won’t think twice about exiting the page. Fact: 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience (Source: Econsultancy).
A professional, well-designed site not only creates an inviting environment for visitors to explore your company but also builds trust with your potential customers. Your website reflects your business, so if you want to make a good impression, make sure you hire a professional web designer that understands your business goals.
When you can point customers, partners, potential employees, or even investors to your website, it lets them know you are a serious business.
Website Visibility
Nowadays, most people rely on the internet (mostly Google) for almost everything. Since more and more consumers are surfing the internet to research products and services, your business needs to be visible. By having a website, your company is discoverable by popular search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo! when users search for something related to your business.
About 80% of internet users come from a mobile device (seriously, Google it!). This means that aside from your professional business website, you also have to make sure it’s mobile-friendly and that it functions well. Thankfully, responsive web design makes it possible for your website to successfully fit any screen size, from tablets to smartphones or even smart TVs.
Competitors
Let’s talk about the most famous web enemy out there: the competition. There’s nothing worse than losing business over the competition – especially when they have a website, and you don’t.
In this case, company size doesn’t matter. What’s important is what differentiates your business from the rest. If your website is professionally designed, attractive and trustworthy, then chances are customers will choose you over the competitor.
[2]They say the world is now in our hands, and the information is at our fingertips. There are no second thoughts to that. The world of the internet is fantastic. It continues to transform how we connect with people, share information, and live a quality life.
A lot of people spend most of their time on the internet. This could be for buying a product, using a service, reading a blog, entertaining themselves, or various other reasons.
Considering the amount of time people spend on the internet, businesses too have moved online. Having a website for business owners of any size and a presence on social media has become crucial. If you are into a business and do not own a website, you might be losing many potential customers online. Knowing the importance of a website is key to grow your business many folds.
Listed below are 12 reasons proving the importance of a website:
24/7 Online Presence
One of the major advantages of having a website is that it is accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Even during non-business hours, customers can access your website and avail of your services or get the information they need, which is one of the key elements in the importance of a website in the business. The website is always at work to ensure that customers who come in are always served in the comfort of their homes.
24/7 Customer Support
Providing customer support is a tough job for any business. However, providing customer support online is easier and more cost-efficient than hiring personnel to provide support. This is where the importance of having a website becomes clear as customer support through a website can be provided in various ways:
- FAQs – This is the most commonly used medium. All the frequent customer queries are answered on the website, saving your time and resources while also providing precise and relevant information to customers.
- Chatbots – Chatbots on websites also do the job of addressing frequent customer queries through template answers. Chatbots can also provide users with much other important information like signing-up procedures, information about services/products, etc.
Information Exchange
Over 50% of the customers expect any brand or business to have an online presence to access their services. One of the most captivating aspects of a website is how easy it makes information accessible to customers. At its core, a website is nothing but a medium to communicate with customers and provide them with information and resources. Here are a few ways in which websites help in exchanging information:
- Advertisements that update customers about the latest offers on products and services
- Newsletters that update customers about any upcoming events and news
- Contact forms that invite inquiries or requests from customers
Establish Credibility and Build Trust
Like in the old days, when customers expected businesses to have contact numbers and addresses mentioned in their information brochure, customers nowadays expect businesses to have a website or online presence. This is a crucial first step in establishing trust. From this perspective, for a business, a website is essential. To take it a bit further, if a business’s website is superlative in its features and navigation, customers are more inclined to trust the business and avail of its services. Websites are an essential tool for businesses to establish their credibility and build trust with their customers. This can then be further boosted by local SEO services to attract a local demographic for businesses new in the market.
Professional Web Design
Website visitors have no reason to stay on any Web page unless they’re tempted to. Visitors can get bored very easily and expect something unique to capture their interest whenever they visit any website. Hence, businesses must build their websites with immaculate design and architecture so that customers are offered exceptional features and convenient navigation. This will encourage more visitors to take a peek at your website and potentially buy from your business.
Sales
The accessibility of your business grows exponentially with a website, as it can be accessed from any corner of the world. Hence, websites help businesses break geographical barriers and significantly increase their sales.
Revenue
There is no limit to the revenue that your website could generate. If the reach of your website can cross the borders, the revenue can reach sky high. All you need to do is optimize your site and make sure that your audience finds you when they are looking for you. Besides that, you can also give some of your digital space on your website for display ads. Let’s say your site is about reviewing or selling mobile phones. You can give some of your digital space on your website to display ads relevant to these phones. This is just an additional way with which you can generate more revenue.
Cost-Effective
A physical store requires a massive investment for owning or renting a commercial space. Besides that, furniture, interiors, and employees are also additional expenses that cannot be ignored. On the other hand, creating a website is very easy and cost-effective. With CMS like WordPress, Shopify, or Wix, one can easily create a website with little or no help. If you are setting up a complex website like E-commerce or one with thousands of pages, or complex filters and facets, you might need the help of experts. However, the cost can still be minimal in comparison with setting up the physical store.
Visibility
Websites can become your online store, office, or showroom at a very minimal cost. A physical store will have visibility within a particular radius of its location, depending on its type. However, when it comes to a business with an online presence, the visibility or the reach has no bound. Users from any part of the world can access the website.
Marketing
Marketing plays a crucial role in the expansion of any business. Having a website makes it pretty easy to spread the word about your business when searching for them. Let us say your offline business is doing well, and now you want to expand it online If you have a website, you can make it appear on a Search Engine whenever people search using a keyword. There are two types of marketing method that makes this possible. One is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and the second is Search Engine Marketing (SEM). The SEM is sometimes also referred to as Pay Click (PPC). Besides SEO and PPC, you can also market your website using social media, display Ads, and other techniques. You can set up a target audience of your choice and use demographics like age, gender, location, and more for the same. You can go as broad as you want or as niche as you wish.
A digital marketing agency with proven success records helps you create and execute a marketing plan for your business to drive relevant users to your website.
Portfolio
Do not limit your website to just selling products or services. Create a portfolio that shows how well you are doing in the business. Let us say your business is into travel and tourism. You can create a video portfolio of a family that shows their overall experience, from booking tickets to taking trip pictures of all the fun. You can ask them to share their feedback in a video format and add it to the portfolio video. Such portfolios help build the trust of people in your business.
Having a website has become crucial in this digital age. A business with no website loses multiple opportunities that can come online. Apart from these essential benefits, a website has to offer, and it also helps in numerous other ways. For example, a website can provide a map or directions to their business locations or offices. If someone wants to know about a business at their convenient hour, a website can help them with the same since it is accessible at any time. A well-designed and engaging website can strengthen the brand image. To become a successful business person, you must have a professional website.
Growth Opportunity
A website can act as a company’s portfolio or resume. This can prove beneficial for businesses as the website can act as a reference for potential investors to be acquainted with your services, what you have achieved so far, and what your plans for the future are as a business.
[3]Importance of a Website for Marketing
The importance of a website for marketing extends to every aspect of your digital marketing strategy. As the backbone of your online presence, every type of communication, piece of content, or advertisement you put online will drive the consumer back to your website. As such, your website must give consumers a clear idea of what your brand is about and what types of products or services you offer.
Let’s start with your social media marketing. Though you use third-party social media sites to reach and engage with consumers, you have to have a place to send consumers to when they want to learn more about your business. Similar to our social media post below. We tell consumers we are an SEO company, but if they don’t know what SEO is, they can learn more by following the link to a blog post about SEO.
[4]Consider these statistics:
• There are more than 1.7 billion websites on the internet, and according to one report, 52% of all web traffic comes from bots.
• One marketing analytics firm found that almost 50% of all Google searches are “zero-click searches,” meaning that the user ends their search without clicking on any of the results pages.
My point is that generating quality leads on the internet is getting harder and more expensive. There’s a lot of competition to get on the first page of Google, where 71% of all search traffic clicks occur. That’s why it’s critical to have a website that operates like a well-oiled machine. Make sure it’s easy to navigate on mobile phones, desktops, and tablets. Make sure it welcomes visitors and has an easily recognized path to services, bios, testimonials, and most importantly, your call-to-action points — online forms, phone numbers, and reservation boxes.
Take website development seriously by conducting a functionality and design phase. To use another brick and mortar analogy, launching a website with a poor design is like running a business on Main Street with no sign, no lights, and no door. Make sure you have on-page SEO elements, that your site is optimized for mobile, have security installed (SSL), and have clickable phone numbers. Also include qualifying data like testimonials, case studies, or a client list, and list several different ways for visitors to contact you.
Don’t simply hire the local hipster you met at the coffee shop to create your business website. You wouldn’t do that to fix your car, so why would you do that with something so important to your business? Ensure your website developer has SEO, marketing, lead generation, and programming knowledge because your competitors likely will.
Your website is the mother ship; all the important information is exchanged and where the most important digital actions occur. It’s not something to be taken lightly, and it’s not something to skimp on.
Conclusion:
Article compiled by hughesagency.ca
Reference Article Links:
- https://www.culturainteractive.com/various/the-role-of-websites-for-your-business/ ↑
- https://www.infidigit.com/blog/importance-of-website/ ↑
- https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/importance-of-a-website/ ↑
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/10/04/the-role-of-a-website-today/?sh=6b9b6c4541e8 ↑
