In 2020, more than 4.4 million new businesses opened in the U.S. Many of those businesses were digital-first, meaning they were tech-focused and fully online from opening day. In this new digital economy, what makes your business stand out? Not a storefront or a welcoming lobby, but a website. Having a website for your small business can be a game-changer for your sales, marketing, and growth strategies.
The world is becoming increasingly digital-first, and this is shown by the fact that just 28% of businesses in the USA currently don’t have a website. Having a website for any kind of small business: either service or product-based is hugely beneficial. Websites give your business a new presence – and one that can be accessed at any time, anywhere, which a brick and mortar storefront simply cannot do.
The Benefits of Having a Website For Your Small Business
So, what are the benefits of having a website for your small business?
This blog will explore five key reasons to encourage business owners to create their own websites. While it might seem like a costly and time-consuming process, I can assure you that it is incredibly worth it in most cases. The five reasons that I will discuss within this blog are as follows:
- A website will increase your Search Engine Optimization ranking
- A website will help your business look professional
- A website will make you look more credible as a company
- A website will help your brand presence and connect you with your ideal client
- A website will enable you to gather analytics
So now that I’ve covered the outline, let’s deep dive into this further!
A Website Creates Credibility
70-80% of potential customers could be lost to businesses without a website. This is because many consumers tend to search for a website online before purchasing any kind of product online. But, why?
Firstly, to check the legitimacy of the company they’re buying from. In fact, even in 2015, 84% of US consumers believe that a business with a website looks more credible than one that only has a social media page. That statistic will be even higher as the world converts even more to digital-based products and services. This is a huge reason to create a website that will look attractive and legitimate to any potential leads you might have from your other sales and marketing funnels.
The importance of having a fully-functioning, optimized, well-designed website cannot be underestimated for small business success. It’s effectively the shopfront to a whole new global market. If you want your business to thrive in 2022, looking professional online with your website might be a key way to do it.
Search Engine Optimization
I cannot overestimate the importance of the benefits of having a strong SEO strategy for your online business. In fact, as of June 2021, Google.com is the most popular website worldwide, with 86.9 billion total monthly visits.
But wait, how do SEO and Google connect? Well, an SEO strategy means optimizing your website to rank higher on a search optimization site, like Google. This blog, for example, is one of the methods I use to get higher up in ranking on search engines. Now, imagine how much your small business will benefit if it starts to feature on the first page of Google! Well, in short, a lot. The first five organic results on any Google page result in 67.6% of all clicks related to that specific search. This actually drops to just 5% on the second page, which highlights the importance of a strong SEO strategy for your marketing funnels.
It’s clear that investing in a website for your business and creating a strong SEO strategy could potentially benefit your business enormously in terms of potential leads and sales.
You Will Increase Your Brand Awareness and Connect with Your Ideal Client
Brand awareness is critical for a small business. In order to grow, you need to have your own distinct brand – what makes your business unique, special, and stand out from the plethora of small businesses in the market today.
You want your business to be recognizable and have one clear distinct presence. You might have achieved this already with an in-person shop or social media group. However, as your company grows and expands, your branding needs to be a unified presence across all platforms. In fact, presenting a brand consistently across all your platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%, and 59% percent of customers tend to buy from brands they recognize. In fact, a staggering 90% of consumers expect a brand to be consistent across all of its platforms. What better way to prove this consistency and reaffirm your online brand than with a website?
Plus, there comes the added benefit of connecting with your ideal client avatar. Your ideal client is who you aim all of your messaging towards – whether it be via email, socials, or newsletter. A strategic website can hone in on this messaging and drive your ideal client to connect with you, purchase from you, and turn from a lead into a loyal customer.
Your Website Will Help Your Business Look Professional
A business can be more than just their social media or shop front presence. When a small business has a website to support its services and offers, it simply looks more professional to a potential lead.
It’s a hub of information about you, your products, and provides credibility to those wanting to buy from you: they can access reviews, pricing, offerings, and so much more. And, as it’s all professionally wrapped up in a branded website, it is both visually appealing and incredibly informative to those needing that information.
Plus, let’s not forget – plenty of people think that having a website makes a business look more credible.
You Can Gather Analytics
Metrics are a hugely important reason to have a website for your small business. It’s a way of knowing that your business is progressing; whether new leads are hearing about you, visiting my store, accessing my website, and how many of these leads convert into customers. I regularly track my own website metrics here at Steph Corrigan Design!
Now, you may be asking yourself – why do I need to know this? Well, to put it simply, it helps you to know your business on a deeper level. You can understand every move your leads make and track every kind of measurable statistic. From this, growth and marketing strategies can be developed. So, what can be tracked?
- Organic traffic
- Visitor engagement
- Conversion rates
- Bounce rates
- Average page load time
I give a full explanation of why these metrics matter in my blog post here. Give it a read if you’d like to learn more about measurable metrics and what tools to use to help!
WordPress website templates for creative small businesses
No coding. No fuss. Just intuitive design and all the customization support you need.
The importance of having a website for your small business cannot be underestimated. From looking both more credible and professional to generating more leads and sales through SEO, websites create endless marketing and sales growth possibilities. And, thanks to the intelligence of metrics, websites can directly give you the data that they’re working as they should. So, you can see a direct return on your investment.
I would always recommend any company that I partner with to invest in themselves and their business and create a website. It will almost certainly be a worthy investment in the long run!
Here are 3 ways I can support you in bringing your small business website to life:
- Purchase a website template and customize it to your brand with ease
- Book a One Day Website to get a professional and affordable semi-custom website tailored to your brand
- Invest in my Signature Branding and Web Design Experience if you’re looking to holistically elevate your business from the ground up
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