Why Your Website is Important
Your website is one of the biggest keys to your success and your #1 marketing tool.
It is how potential customers will find you and judge your business.
If you do not have a professional looking website, customers will presume your business is not professional.
Investing in your website is something that you have to do to continue to grow and elevate your business.
Reasons Why Your Website Is Important
Some businesses do not have a website yet, or even worse, one that drives customers away because it looks shabby or outdated. The quality of your website will reflect how customers perceive the quality of your business. Not having a website at all sends off warning signals to people searching for your business. Why doesn’t this business have a website? Are they even legitimate? Having a site that looks outdated also makes your business lose credibility with customers. Business is all about trust, and customers who trust you are more likely to do business with you.
Does this mean you should settle for a website made quickly and without regard to what your business offers? There will always be people willing to build you a website for next to nothing. The problem with hiring a code mercenary is that no research or planning goes into building your site. Hiring your nephew or niece to build your site might save a few dollars up front, but the result is lost sales down the line. A professional web designer will always research your business goals, your competition, and your unique offerings before ever touching a line of code. A quality site looks modern, communicates a cohesive message, and inspires the customer to take action.
A website is a business cost that should be planned for, but one that can pay for itself quickly in the form of increased revenue and profit.
Targeted messages + professional appearance + search visibility = More Sales.
Why Facebook Pages Are An Inadequate Solution
I see many local businesses that rely only on a Facebook Page for traffic. Depending on a social network to be your de facto website is building on shaky ground. Social media platforms should be a complement to your website, not the main platform. The reason I say this is Facebook constantly adjusts your Page visibility to your followers. Only a small percentage of your Facebook Page fans see what you post (unless you pay for Facebook Ads). Facebook also owns everything you post there; they consider it their property. Anything that you post on your website is your own copyrighted material, and each page on your site has the potential to rank high in Google and be found by potential customers.
Anecdotal
I sometimes talk to business owners who do not have a website, or who have a very unprofessional looking one. When I ask them why they do not have a site, every single time the answer is that they get all of their business from referrals or that they have too much business to handle. Sorry, but this does not ring true to me. I cannot comprehend a well-informed businessperson who says no making more money or growing their business. I also know that I and most consumers think less of a company or business if they have either no website or a very neglected looking site. If a business is making money, and they cannot be bothered to have a website that looks decent (or one at all), I begin to question all the other aspects of how they do business and wonder if they neglect those areas as well.
In Conclusion
Your website is the face of your business. People will judge you by it and spend their time and money accordingly. Once you have a site built and deployed, you should budget to have it refreshed every few years. Many things change as time goes on, such as coding best practices, design conventions, social media platforms, and the needs of a business as it grows. Investing in your web presence is investing in the infrastructure of your business. It is a necessary cost, because your website is important to the survival and growth of your business.
