The Importance of a Professional Website for your Small Business

At one point in time, having a website was a nice commodity to have to display your products or services. Today, it is no longer a choice but a necessity- one that can make or break your business.

As a matter of fact:

The importance of having a professional website goes far beyond just displaying your products or services; in reality, it signifies your position as a market leader or authority figure in your particular industry.

Throughout this article, we will tackle questions such as, “what is the importance of having a professional website for my small business?”, How will I get more clients with my new website?” “and what am I losing out on when I don’t have a professional website in 2019?”.

Here we go:

I have come across people that say, “I just sell one product such as donuts or I have a service that just repairs vehicles, what do I need a website for?

The answer is, “you need a website because the majority of people who live in your area or surrounding areas use search engines, such as Google to type in “best donuts near me” or “repair shops near me”. And guess what, if you don’t have a website or one that is optimized for the best search results, then you just missed out on that sale. Don’t be that company that loses out on local customers finding your establishment.

Facts: Over 60% of all internet users search to find products or services through their mobile devices. This means that when someone is looking for a bakery shop, there’s a good chance that they’re already next to your business. And guess what, this number is only growing. So, the longer you wait to get a professional website, the more opportunities you’ll be missing out on to reap the benefits of having a professional website for your business.

Here are some other eye-popping statistics for you to consider

Likewise, Google My business is a service offered by Google that allows you to optimize your business for local searches in your vicinity and the local areas surrounding it; displaying your business address, phone number, email, and reviews. The service also provides a Map to show your potential clients your exact location.

Imagine this; out of 100 people within your area of operation, 80 of them use the internet. This means that approximately 50 of these 80 will use their mobile devices and if you don’t have an online presence, they’re going to buy from your competitors.

Ask yourself, are you willing to lose 50 out of every 100 potential clients because your business isn’t taking advantage of Google’s free services.  If you’d like to learn how to optimize your google my business listing, Neil Patel has a great tutorial for you.

Bottom line: if your small business doesn’t have a professional website, your competitors are taking away a good percentage of your “bottom line” day after day.

Sure, you can have a business without an online presence. However, building a solid relationship with your clients is a staple that can have a lasting impression on your sales. The LTV (lifetime value) of a customer increases every time they engage with your business in one way or another.

This can be in the form of reading your latest blog posts, where you educate them on a particular issue in your specific field or it may be posting on social media networks. Regardless, your website is the hub that connects all these digital marketing avenues together with its textual and visual content to show the masses that you are the authoritative figure in this space.

There are many examples of companies that do much more than just sell you a product or service. We have always adhered to the 80/20 rule. We educate and provide useful information to those who are interested in learning about digital marketing and we only sell to them 20% of the time. We recommend this approach to all entrepreneurs to establish a foundation of success.

Bottom line: When you can build trust and expertise in your field, you gain the attention of your potential customers who are now more willing to buy from you; but to build this trust and expertise requires, that’s right, a website.

By now, many of you have heard about SEO (search engine optimization). There are specific ways that a website is structured or should be structured to take advantage of important keywords that describe your business.

For example, we are a digital marketing agency located in Reseda, California.  If you search, for example, “digital marketing agency Reseda”, you would find us at the top of page 1 in search engine results. We have achieved this status by properly structuring our website and taking advantage of our experience to comply with Google’s vast algorithm that continues to progressively change. Our seo experts focus on the best industry practices to ensure optimal results.

We have seen so many companies that have a great product and a great location only to fail due to their inability to understand how essential digital marketings role plays to their company’s success.

There are also so many directories that have a large amount of traffic where your website would be displayed, assuming you have one.

Bottom line: Having a professional website allows you the opportunity to capitalize on local SEO traffic as well as steering your competitor’s traffic right to your establishment.

I don’t know about you, but when I search for anything online, I expect to find a website for that particular product or service. For instance, last week, my friend told me about a great restaurant he felt I would be interested in. I asked him what the website name was but he could not give me an answer; the reason, they didn’t have one. Luckily, I found some information about the restaurant through yelp. 

However, not many new businesses have an established reputation through review sites such as Yelp and Google reviews. This is why it’s essential to market yourself on your website, where you have complete control of what people see and say about you. Imagine if the yelp reviews were bad. That would be the lasting image your potential customers would have about your business. Is that something you want to take a chance on.

Can you think of a professional company that doesn’t have a website in 2019? In our line of work, we have many clients who come to us, not only to build them a website, but also to redesign one. A 6-year old website can look completely outdated and stale. Most of these websites are not optimized properly and are not mobile-friendly. Keeping up to date with the technological boom will determine your businesses success moving forward.

In today’s fast-paced world, every business must get their hands dirty in digital marketing. A strong presence online can spread the word about your company. 

Think about it: You might have 1 or 2 social media pages, perhaps a LinkedIn page but not a website. It’s like buying new tires and windows for your car without actually having a car. A social media page, on average, has a very low conversation rate because most people need additional information before making any decisions. A website gives you that extra real estate your customers are craving for to learn a little bit more about products/services and about you.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I could probably think of 50 more reasons why a professional website is essential to the success of any startup or small business but that would blow your mind. The point here is that in a world where information moves and changes faster than ever imagined, it’s up to every small business to keep up with the times. As the large businesses continue to advance their technological grip on the digital landscape, they are devouring all those that stand in their way. Don’t be that company that eventually gets replaced by another one that sees the benefits of having a strong online presence.