If you have a small business in 2019, you need a website. This statement should be fairly obvious but, if for some reason, you do not have one, stop reading right now and go make one! Even if you know you need one, do you know why small businesses need a website?
The key question: is your website helping you how it should be? No matter what industry you are in, a good website should be working for you in various ways to help grow your business. To ensure this, you need to make sure your website has the right features and content that allows it to help you get new clients, grow your brand and get found easier and more often on Google. Here are the ways your website can be doing these things for you.
Your Website Can Get New Clients
New clients are the lifeblood of any business and the difference between a successful small business and one that ultimately fails is the businesses ability to find and sell to new clients. Your website should be a multipronged instrument that helps you get new clients.
Your website should be your biggest and best marketing tool for your business. Studies show that it only takes people 0.05 seconds to make a decision on whether or not they like a website and want to continue using it. This means your website needs to look good and operate smoothly in order to entice new customers to stay. Furthermore, nowadays a staggering 82% of smartphone users consult their phones on purchases they make in-store and 88% of consumers do online research before they make a purchase. Regardless of where people buy your product, online or in-store, your website will be consulted before this happens so it needs to be on point.
Another way your website should be working for you to get new clients is with email subscribers. Every small business website needs to have a section where people can sign up to receive periodic marketing emails from your company. Email marketing is the best and most cost-effective way for small businesses to market their products and services. Email marketing has an average ROI of $32 for every $1 spent. This can be gold for your small business.
Your Website Can Grow Your Brand
Your brand identity is key to how current and potential customers see your business. The more people relate positively to your brand, the more brand loyalty you will inspire and the more brand ambassadors you will create. One of the best ways to do this is through the “blog” section of your website. Step number 1 is keeping your bog current and posting regularly. When you visit a website and the last blog post was from 5 years ago, that can give you major reservations about the company.
There are a lot of tips and tricks you can find on how to create a blog that builds your brand but the general idea is that you need to regularly post content that is relevant to your target demographic. If you are able to do this on your website, more people will come there to read and interact with your blog and it will ultimately develop your brand which is so important for small businesses to grow.
Your Website Can Get Found on Google with SEO
The stats on Google searches are incredible. There are over 63,000 searches PER SECOND on Google every day and the average person searches Google at least 3-4 times each day. When people conduct these searches, 92% of them do not click on results past the first page and the first 2 results on a page receive about 50% of the clicks. This makes it pretty clear that when people type in what you do to Google, you need to come up towards the top of the results. The way to do this is through Search engine optimization (SEO). To determine results, Google “crawls” your webpage looking for relevant content. The more relevant content you have, the better your site will perform in searches. So, instead of paying to be at the top of the page, you can get there organically and gain a lot more traffic.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the big reasons why small businesses need a website. A website also provides legitimacy, differentiates you from your competition, and keeps your business open 24/7 so you never have to miss an opportunity.
In 2019, you not only need to have a website – you need to have a great one. If you are looking for help creating the perfect site or turning a good site into an incredible one, consider hiring Electric Growth to supercharge your web content!
