Do I Need a Website for My Business?
There are many small businesses that do not have a website, instead relying on an Instagram or Facebook page. That night be good to start a business with but if a business intends to grow having an online presence is crucial for its success.
Whether you own a small local shop or a service organisation, having a website can make a significant difference in how you reach and engage with your target audience.
Here are some of the most significant benefits of having a business website.
Establish Credibility and Trust
One of the main reasons why you need a website for your business is to establish credibility and build trust with potential customers. Anyone can easily create a Facebook page or an Instagram account with fake data, business name/handle, and the profiles may look identical to the original; it’s free and can be done in a few minutes, and this can take away much of the credibility of a business social media page. Customers don’t know who’s behind an Instagram or Facebook page, where they are, and whether it’s all a scam.
On the other hand, creating a business website is not free and indicates that you’re relatively serious about your business. Having a professional-looking website can therefore instill confidence in your brand and make customers more likely to choose your business over competitors who lack an online presence.
Increase Visibility and Reach through Google
This means that people are actively looking for businesses like yours online, and a well-optimized website can help you appear on the first page of Google search, attracting new customers that weren’t looking specifically for you but were just researching a topic. There’s a much bigger chance of someone ‘stumbling upon’ your website than a social media profile.
With your social posts and social ads you can direct the traffic straight to your website where your leads will have all the details to make an informed purchase, and a call-to-action to motivate them. Pages with built-in popup forms and web push notifications encourage website visitors to stay in touch and come back.
Without a website, you are missing out on valuable opportunities to connect with potential customers who are actively searching for what you offer. By investing in a website, you can tap into this vast pool of online users and attract them to your business.
Establish your place in Your Industry
Have Complete Control Over Content
Since your website is your property, you get absolute design freedom, unlike with social media platforms.
You can for example:
- Display your best reviews and testimonials prominently to establish trust and social proof
- Add videos to keep you visitors engaged, eg showcasing how your products are made.
- Add images of your products to showcase them in the best possible light, highlight their unique features and benefits, and provide all the necessary information that potential customers may need to make a purchase decision.
- Publish important information about your products and services on your website to make sure you’re attracting the right customers. For example, if you run a restaurant you might want to mark any items on your menu that are gluten-free so people know they can eat in your establishment.
This absolute design freedom gives you an opportunity to present your brand in a unique way and showcase its voice and personality, and encourage customers to contact you by making your contact information easily available.
You can also provide easy-to-use actions such as a Contact Forms, a WhatsApp buttons and even an Instagram/ Facebook Messenger buttons to increase the likelihood of potential customers contacting you.
Your webpage is also your owned media. You don’t have to follow the ever-changing rules of social platforms, and while the platforms themselves come and go (remember MySpace?) your website can stay in business forever. Also, any Internet user can engage with your website without creating an account.
Social Media is Hugely Competitive
Instagram and Facebook are massively competitive, and having your business listed on them means that you’re constantly fighting off competition from several other companies and from your potential client’s Instagram/ Facebook friends.
You can add social media advertising to allow you to be more competitive with targeting specific demographics and reach a wider audience, increasing the chances of attracting new customers. However many people find advertisements annoying, especially when they want to interact with friends, making them ignore your business posts or ads.
On the other hand, a business website ensures that you have a potential client’s full attention. So while you might do some legwork to get them over to your website, once they’re on your website, the chances of patronage are higher.
It’s not that you shouldn’t have an Instagram or Facebook page for your business, but instead your social pages and other social media should support your website and not replace it.
Control Over Your Online Marketing
Social media posts can be found with the search engine, but a website gives you access to many more tools and strategies for online marketing such as for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and SEO is the key to making your business appear on the front page of Google.
By implementing effective SEO strategies, you can improve your website’s ranking in search engine results and drive more organic traffic to your business.
SEO might be intimidating, but in practice it’s fairly simple. It involves:
- finding the keywords that your target audience are using to find businesses like yours, and create your website text around them,
- designing your website to present your brand in a unique way that shows your personality,
- making sure that your website design follows the standard SEO guidelines such as having Headers, and has certain features that increase conversion such as Click-to-Action buttons (Book Now, Contact Us, etc)
- making sure your website loads fast and is mobile-friendly
- etc
You can find out more SEO tips in How to improve your website.
Essential For Local Businesses
Many small business owners don’t see the need to invest in an effective business website. However, they’re currently missing out on an incredible source of revenue.
The following statistics show how important a website is for a local business:
- 46% of search on Google includes local intent
- 97% of users use search to find local businesses
- 28% of users purchased an item after a local search
- 70% of users will visit a store because of what they found online
A business website will help you capture all of this potential and make your business even more profitable.
Lets You Sell Online
Ecommerce sales are exploding. The growth rate worldwide is expected at 9.4% in 2024, 8.6% in 2025 and 8.6% in 2026 at 8.6%, which will bring total ecommerce sales to $7.5 trillion. In 2027, global ecommerce sales growth is expected at 7.6% as overall sales surpass $8 trillion for the very first time.
Even if you aren’t a traditional ecommerce business, having an online storefront is the only way that you can maximise the advantage of this growth, and it even helps you continue selling even when your physical store is closed and/or your prospects are in different time-zones.
Easy to Update & Expand
A website allows you to constantly update and expand your product or service offerings. With a content management system (CMS) like Wix or WordPress, it’s now easier than ever to manage a website. We recommend Wix because its very easy to manage your website, and you don’t need any technical skills to keep your website up to date. You can easily:
- add new products,
- update pricing information,
- introduce special promotions or discounts.
This flexibility gives you the ability to adapt to changing market trends and customer demands, ensuring that your business remains competitive in the online marketplace.
Not Expensive
The use of a CMS like WiX means that creating a website has never been easier, and there’s no coding required. Wix allows you to:
- choose a domain (which will be registered and configured for you),
- pick a professionally designed, mobile-friendly website template that suits your needs,
- add your menu, pages & text with a drag-and-drop editor
- decide on any extra add-ons you want to add such as ecommerce, membership, etc
All you need to have beforehand is the structure of your site and the images & text you want to add, and you can do it yourself. The only price you need to pay is the charge for Wix which is about $125/annum.
However its not recommended that you do it by yourself since there is a science to the design and SEO to make sure that you get found on Google – why have an amazing website when you cannot get found?
Its better to hire a professional to help you develop your website, and this is not expensive – we charge from Rp8,000,000 to develop your website which is about Rp650,000/mth. We also make sure that it is fully SEO-optimised to get you found on Google, and we’ll train you to update your website yourself, and be there to provide you with any support you need in the future that you cannot handle yourself.
Conclusion
In conclusion, having a website for your business is no longer just an option; it is a necessity in today’s digital landscape. A website can help you establish credibility, increase visibility, showcase your products or services, engage with customers, and provide accessible information. Investing in a well-designed and user-friendly website can significantly contribute to the growth and success of your business.
So, if you’re asking yourself, “Do I need a website for my business?” The answer is a resounding yes! Don’t miss out on the countless opportunities that having a website can bring to your business.
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