If your business has evolved and grown just by promoting yourself on Facebook or Instagram, you’re probably wondering why you would need a website? What’s the point of a website if my business is already successful without one?
The short answer is that it’s always a good decision to invest in a website for your business. You need a website because it brings a number of benefits to small businesses that social media may not offer anytime soon, or ever.
Not convinced? I’ve put together 9 reasons for you why you need a website and it’s always a good idea to have a website for your business, even if you have a big audience on Facebook and Instagram.
Of course, the reasons and possibilities a website can offer are endless.
You need a website because it saves you time.
People search for information every day, at all kinds of hours. When you have a website you make that information easily accessible, anytime without your direct intervention. Visitors should figure out what you do, who you are, and how to contact you within the first 5 seconds.
You probably get messages or phone calls with the same questions every day. You need a website because you can save time by using a “Frequently Asked Questions” page on your website. That way every client will be able to get the information without waiting for you to be available to answer them. I recommend adding the “Frequently Asked Questions” section to the About Me, Services page, as a stand-alone page on your website, or to the Contact page. These are the pages where the visitors of your website expect to find extra information about your process or the services you sell.
With a website you can leave a good first impression.
Your visitors will perceive your website as professional or not, and will generally associate this perception with the quality of your work. A modern, professionally designed website with an easily recognizable logo can give you an important plus.
I hate to break it to you, but your potential clients care about what your website looks like. In just a few milliseconds they can form an opinion about your business and brand through your website. And when they have a lot of results to choose from, the quickest a visitor will distinguish between your site and another through the design and experience on the site. No matter how great your products and services are, if they’re not backed up by an on-site experience that showcases them, you’ll lose potential clients.
Another statistic says that 57% of Internet users say they wouldn’t recommend a business with a design that isn’t mobile-friendly.
You need a website to support your social media efforts.
Social networks such as Instagram and Facebook can be used to drive traffic to your website and therefore increase your brand authority. You need a website to build relationships with your customers more easily, increasing your chances of them recommending you to friends and family.
In 2020, nearly 4.54 billion people (59% of the global population) will use the Internet, and these numbers are growing every day. Without a website, your business is invisible to all these people. Keep your competitive edge in this increasingly digitalized world and invest in a website for your business.
With a website you can build trust.
84% of the consumers think that a website makes your business more credible, than businesses that only have social media profiles. Your website is the marketing tool that shows the most trust. Through it, you can show clients information about your business, yourself, the people you work with, and testimonials from happy clients. You need a website to add various certifications, authorizations, guarantees, and all these things that increase trust in your business.
On top of all this, a website gives you the possibility to create an email address with your own domain extension (e.g. [email protected]) which adds a professional touch to all the emails you send to your clients, especially if you have previously used a personal email address to run your business.
You need a website to eliminate clients’ fears.
Most people are hesitant to buy from a business because they work hard for their money and don’t know anything about you. They don’t know you. You need a website to eliminate those fears. On a website, you can add a contact form, other clients’ reviews, photos, refund details, purchase policy, and more.
Post your best and most detailed recommendations on your website to provide the social proof any new client needs to be convinced your business is for real. Another advantage here is that if your Facebook account is ever terminated, you’ll still have those recommendations saved and they won’t disappear with your business page.
If your business has been featured on other sites, articles, or publications you can refer to them as well for added credibility.
A website gives you access to an untapped market.
Every year, more and more people search for services and products on Google. If you don’t have a website, you’ll go unnoticed, and your clients will go to businesses that are present in Google searches.
97% of people start their search for a local business online according to 2019 Google statistics. Most frequently your customers will search for what they need on Google because their perception is that Facebook is for social and Google is for search. You need a website that is functional and optimized for your niche that will help you gain access to new leads.
You may be happy with the number of clients you have now, but every business has times when the number of clients drops, and to continue to be successful, you need to attract new clients, and one of the best solutions is to make yourself visible on Google. You need a website that is optimized for Google searches specific to your business and niche market, can consistently drive traffic to your website, and therefore attract potential clients.
A website can help you to become an expert in your niche.
If you like to teach others, you can use your knowledge and passion to write articles, create videos about your projects or products, or other ideas in your niche. This will make you a point of reference for information in your field and strengthen your authority, which can lead to more clients.
If your competition doesn’t have a website yet, they probably will soon. By building a website for your business, you can position yourself as the first leader in your niche with a professional website. And if your competition already has a site for their business, you have the chance to build a completely different site in design, strategy, and experience, thus showing potential clients what makes your business different from the rest.
You need a website so you can easily showcase your products and services.
You can show in an organized, easy-to-access way to your potential clients what they’ll get if they work with you, all without getting lost in your Facebook photo albums or Instagram post feed. You need a website with a strategic design so you can guide them through the buying process easily, without distracting them with social media notifications.
In your blog pages, you can write detailed articles about the process of creating your products, the benefits of your services, the values of your business, how to use, top products to buy as gifts, etc. and these articles written on your website can increase the visibility of your products or services, but also the trust in your business.
A website is not hard to create and manage and it doesn’t have to be expensive!
Modern website building platforms like WordPress.org or Shopify make the experience of building a website easy. You don’t need to know coding to build a website that looks good and is optimized for mobile.
If you’re willing to take a simpler route to build your site, a DIY solution where your main investment is time, I have a couple of resources that will make your job much easier: Astra Pro theme and Elementor PRO page builder. Both help you easily edit and build a design that looks great. And for hosting and domain purchasing, I recommend Siteground, the company I trust the most and recommend to all my clients.
So, do you need a website for your business?
Hopefully, by now, you’ve realized that the question is not “do I need a website for my business” but “can I afford not to have a website in this digital age”. And the answer to that question is unfortunately no, not if you want to be successful in the long term. You need a website because is one of the best investments any business can make in its future.
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