The notion that nearly 50% of small business owners still don’t use social media because they don’t feel it’s important for their business has caused quite a stir. Furthermore, this conversation has slowly morphed into the debate of whether small businesses should even have a website or Internet presence at all.
Wild, right?
Even though you likely know some businesses who are doing well without a website, Ryan Hibbert often wonders how much better they could be doing if they took the time to invest in one. Let’s take a look at five awesome benefits of having a high-functioning company website.
Table of Contents
You’re Not Invisible
By creating a website, you stop being invisible to the people trying to find you online. Research shows us about the “ROBO effect” where customers research online before buying offline. If you don’t have a web presence, there’s no chance of you showing up in search results.
You Control Your Rankings
Fortunately, you can use SEO basics to help control where your site shows up and for which questions. By generating optimized content, building relevant links, and creating a brand that customers want to engage with, you set yourself up as an authority in the eyes of the search engine and increase your chances of appearing for the right searches.
You Create Another Sales Tool
A website is a highly powerful sales tool and one that gives you the power to address your customers’ concerns, give them the information they need to make a decision and create compelling calls-to-action.
You Build Authority
Though the Internet has been around for some time, you didn’t always need a website to find your audience. It was a lot easier to market via direct mailings, Yellow Page advertisements, and local word-of-mouth. However, today your website and your social presence are the factors that customers are looking for when they research a small business. Take time to let people know you’re stable enough to have a dedicated web presence, that you’ll be around tomorrow should something go wrong, and that they can get ahold of you when they need to.
You Build An Email List
Having a company website allows you to track customers’ email addresses more efficiently. You’ll want to create a site that users can trust and then use it to generate and build your email list. Along with your website, that list just may end up being one of your strongest sales tools.
About Carson Derrow
