Do i need a website?

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know about the importance of having a website for your business. But perhaps you feel that your business is doing pretty well without one, so you’re good for now. Or maybe you’ve put it on your mile-long to-do list, thinking you’ll get around to it…eventually.

On the other hand, maybe you do have a website. Many small business owners like yourself reason this way, “I don’t have a large, well-known brand so I don’t need anything fancy. Just something basic will do.” This thinking often leads them to use DIY tools to create their sites, and maybe you’ve done this very thing.

Whatever scenario above is closest to your reality, you must understand the importance of not only having a site, but having a quality one.

Why You Need a Website

There are many reasons why you can’t afford to go without a website in this day and age.

1. It’s One of the First Things Potential Customers Search For

When potential customers drive past your physical location and want to know more, they head to your website—if you have one. When you appear in local search results and they’re interested in your offerings, they’ll do the same thing—if you have one. In just about any circumstance, potential customers will check out your website right away. But, of course, they can only do this if you have one. If not, they will quickly dismiss your business and move on.

2. It Gives You Online Visibility

In instances where people don’t know to search for your business specifically, you can actually point them in your direction. A site that’s optimized for search engines has the potential to stand out in your search results. As a result, it will likely be seen more often and earn more traffic than sites that don’t rank as high. In other words, with a website comes exposure, without a website comes…nothing.

3. It’s a Powerful Way to Nurture Leads

Once you get potential customers on-site and they show a definite interest in your offerings, they are considered leads. But leads are not yet ready to become customers. So how do you get your leads to become prospects and your prospects to become customers? You can nurture them progressively by means of your website.

4. It Facilitates Interaction with Existing Customers

In addition to connecting you with potential customers, a website will enable you to maintain your connections to existing customers. Whether through logging into online accounts, checking for company announcements, or for any other reason, having a website is a benefit for both your customers and for you.

5. It’s the Core of an Effective Lead Generation Strategy

In social media marketing and email marketing, you are encouraged to direct traffic to your site. If you wisely follow that advice, you will be able to nurture leads, promote conversions and keep in contact with existing customers, as mentioned. But what’s more, you’ll also have a way to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts overall, such as the most common sources of traffic.

It goes without stating that you receive none of these benefits if you don’t have a website. But if you do have one that’s not as high-quality as it could, you risk:

• Not being seen online, potentially due to lack of optimization
• Hurting your business’s credibility and reputation
• Deterring potential leads either because of poor user experience or some other issue

The way to prevent or fix these issues is to enlist professional help.

5 Benefits of a Professionally-Built Website

1. Greater Credibility & Authority

You can trust that people will take notice of a well-planned and executed website. It’s no surprise that most consumers are more likely to trust such a site than one that was clearly a DIY project.

Take two stores, for example. The first is a rickety structure that was apparently built by someone with little to no construction knowledge. It has a layout like a maze and is a bit of an eyesore. The second is a sturdy, well-designed building with a sensible floor plan. In other words, no worries of getting lost or having the building collapse on top of you! Which would you choose to shop in? The second, of course!

It’s much the same with your website. You will gain the respect of more visitors with a professional site and website copy that they feel safe and comfortable using than with its DIY counterpart.

2. Stronger Branding

There are plenty of options out there that allow you to pick a template and/or drag and drop web page elements to create a website. While this is a cheap and easy way to go, it doesn’t really do your brand justice. A custom design by a professional can set your business apart from competitors and really highlight the things that make your business so outstanding. This, in turn, can make your brand more memorable, leading to more referrals and sales down the line.

3. Positive User Experience

Research suggests that consumers tend to make decisions based on intuition rather than on deliberation. In other words, instinct is a more prominent driving force than conscious thought.

When you click onto a website with a poor user experience, your instincts will most likely lead you to exit the site. But because professionally-made websites tend to provide more positive user experiences overall, you won’t have to worry nearly as much about losing potential customers.

4. More Leads & Customers

An effective website has the ability to generate leads for your business 24 hours a day. How? Among many other things, it must have effective calls to action for users in each stage of your sales funnel, along with ways to track the actions site visitors take. Often, marketing expertise and testing are necessary to get such important elements set up and working as they should.

Needless to say, a professionally-built website will bring you more leads and, ultimately, more customers than a drag and drop DIY site will.

5. Fully Optimized

As consumer behavior, device operating systems, and so on continue to change, your site needs to be able to change with them. Hiring a professional will ensure that your site can be used comfortably on any and all devices.

Our development and design services use a pragmatic approach to build systems and infrastructure, which helps you to address your critical business needs, covering site inspection, site readiness, deployment, integration, migration, customization, testing and optimization for organizational Network, Audio-Visual, Custom Software, Web Solutions, Hardware Setup and Configuration Services, among other Technical Services.