Why Are Websites Important For Small Businesses?

Business owners sometimes dismiss the power of owning a website, because it can be costly and hard work. But they’re wrong. Here’s why small businesses need a professional website.

From branding to marketing, websites have plenty of benefits for the success of a business. In this day and age, having no website is a harmful decision for businesses, as they risk losing many potential customers and cannot properly advertise on social media.

Keep reading to find out why a website is connected to most marketing and advertising activities, and which are the biggest benefits of having one.

Reaches more potential customers

The main reason why a website is important for businesses is very simple: it can be seen by millions of people online. Whether it is through search engines, social media marketing, referrals, link exchanges, there are multiple ways you can attract people to click on your website.

Of course, if your small business is located in the US and doesn’t ship all over the world, you don’t need someone from Malaysia to learn about your products and services. But that is why search engine optimization exists.

Here is an example: if you search for ‘laundry service’, you’ll get hundreds of results. If you search ‘laundry service in Skopje’ (my current location), you’ll narrow down your search, and get only the laundry services that use the proper keywords to let the search engine know where they are operating. Moreover, if your search engine is set to your current location, local results will automatically come up.

With the proper SEO strategy, your business can be discovered based on location and keywords, and even people asking for broad answers on search engines can discover your business.

With content marketing and proper copywriting, you can help people that are considering, or already have researched your business in detail, to make a decision and purchase.

It is a lot more than a print ad in your county or dealing leaflets in a mall, isn’t it?

Enhances the brand image and company’s commercial success

A website is a one-stop platform for a company to include all its branding elements and identity. From the logo, colors and typography to mission statements, vision and team, through good web design you can display all the information that will help visitors learn more about what your brand stands for, not only what it sells.

Web designers base a custom website not only on trends and behavior, but also on the brand guidelines a company will provide for them. For example, ManyPixels’ website displays youthfulness, dynamic, approachability, resourcefulness and an easygoing spirit.

A bank’s website, on the other hand, will infuse a sense of respect, tradition, loyalty and security.

The graphic design used on your website will greatly improve your commercial success, for more than one reason. A well-designed website has a much wider impact on your business: a website that is professionally designed will also help you build brand recognition, as more people visit your site and increase its ranking and domain ranking.

Helps you inform customers 24 hours a day

A website doesn’t have an opening and closing time. People can learn about businesses on their daily commute, while they’re working when they’re browsing online to buy something. If you make the copy on your website clear and informative, you will be able to help people learn about your business, service and products at any time of day or night.

Improves your digital marketing and online presence

Apart from the fact that a website is an actual platform where a company will advertise its business through organic searches on search engines, it is also a key asset to help your social media advertising not be done in vain.

Why is that? Well, most social ads have a particular call to action, which prompts viewers to take a particular action. If that CTA or button leads them back to the social media profile, where they can find exactly what they are looking for immediately or doesn’t offer enough information, they’ll just bounce back.

Social media advertising is usually used as a way to help viewers reach the website, where the main information, products and services are displayed in full and supported with additional details.

Even creating an official page on Instagram or Facebook has a website field, and as a manager of that social media profile, you’ll keep being reminded that the page is more reliable and can reach more people if you add a business website.

At the same time, you can use your website as a platform for content marketing too. By answering questions you are experts about and using targeted keywords, you can help your website get discovered by plenty of people, who can then realize that they might use your products or services instead of trying to solve the issue themselves.

Helps you stay relevant during the pandemic

Plenty of small businesses had to rethink their strategy, pivot towards a more digital and contactless model, and survive during the multiple lockdowns. Your small business can keep operating with the help of e-commerce, online scheduling and reserving products and services, as well as delivery and/or shipping.

But these things are hard to handle and manage if you don’t have a single platform where people can see dates, products, and use a widget to order and buy something from the comfort of their home.

Conclusion

Above reputation and visual representation of your brand, a website can make a huge difference in helping you reach customers and maintain your relationship with them. For these reasons, and many more, you should not hesitate to build or update an informative and branded small business website.