In the digital age, it's hard to imagine not having any kind of online presence for a business. Even the most stubborn businesses started operating mostly online during the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year. If a global pandemic and the huge amount of time that people spend on the internet hasn't been enough to convince you that your business needs a website, you're likely missing out on a lot of profit.
Let's look at the top reasons why your business could benefit from having an easy-to-use, straightforward website.
Why Your Business Needs a Website
You might have found that your small business is plenty successful without a website. If that's true, kudos to you, but whatever success you've been enjoying could easily be significantly increased with a stronger online presence. Enterprise businesses have long been taking advantage of what a good website can bring, but smaller businesses may be wary of depending on online traffic.
It's no longer intimidatingly challenging to make and maintain a well-designed website. Plenty of companies offer easy solutions to building your own website and make it straightforward to customize them with your own vibes and stand out from the crowd.
However, the benefits of having a website are numerous for businesses of any size. Well-designed websites offer advantages for small businesses that can't be replicated in any other way. Whether you've already been enjoying a moderate amount of success or not, investing time and money into a website will only expand your audience and profits in the long term.
Increase Credibility
Websites are a great way to show potential customers why they should choose your company over the competition. You can feature testimonials, reviews, certifications, and other qualifications that make your business unique. You can also create emails for you and your team utilizing your website's domain name, which lends an air of professionalism to your business.
Most people would rather shop from a business that has a website and has been reviewed online because it adds credibility. When a store doesn't have a strong online presence, people tend to be skeptical and wonder if they have something to hide or are too old-fashioned in their business methods.
Heighten Discoverability
Most people would rather do research about a brand before making a purchase, and the best way for people to learn about your brand is through organic search engines like Google. When you have a website, potential customers can discover your website and learn about you even if they don't live near one of your stores.
When people can't easily find information about your brand, it can be discouraging and might sway them against making a purchase at your store. For example, if they're looking to see when your store is open, they'll need reliable information to know when to stop by, especially if you keep unique business hours.
You'll also need to continue growing your audience since all businesses must deal with a certain level of customer churn. In an ideal world, previous customers would continue purchasing from your company forever, but the reality is that not all customers can be retained, and you'll need a new influx of customers on a regular basis to stay in the black.
When your website is search engine optimized, you can watch the number of visitors and customers grow. New people can come across your website through search engines and learn more about your products or services without ever stopping by your store.
Enhance Your Store Experience
Companies who have shied away from creating a website since the main appeal is the vibes inside of your shop, know that websites can enhance your customers' experiences and add to the feel of going in your store.
By leveraging savvy web design, you can give your website the same feel as your stores, along with images of your interior, to help create the same vibes at home. This can also be an incentive for customers to visit your physical location.
Improve Convenience
One of the best things about having a website is that it is much easier for people to become customers. By automating payments, you enable people to buy at any time of day without you having to be open 24/7. Websites showcase all of your products or services on offer and give customers the time and space they need to make informed decisions about whether or not to buy them.
Depending on where your customers live, it might be easier for them to buy online than visit your stores. Even if they live locally, the past year has demonstrated that external circumstances might prevent people from shopping at physical locations.
Instead of continuing to lose business while your store is closed and your inventory is just sitting there, a website allows you to continue making money and building your customer base, even if your storefront is currently closed.
The ability to ship items can also make it more convenient for shoppers who are purchasing something that is too large to fit in their cars. By ordering online, they skip the need to drive to your store and pick out something that might be sold out at your location. They can also see which items are out of stock and save themselves the trip entirely.
You can also include FAQ pages, tutorials, and buyer's guides to add context about your product features, explain how to use what you sell, and other important things for customers to know both before and after making their purchases to get the most bang for their bucks.
Adding specific information along with possible issues to expect means that your customers will be informed about your products before buying them, which lessens the likelihood of having dissatisfied customers.
Searching Made Easy
With the right internal search engine, you can ensure that visitors can find everything they need to learn about your products and quickly purchase what they were looking for. It's even easier when your site search recognizes and can parse natural language.
When your site search allows customers to search queries the way they'd word them to another person, it increases the likelihood that their search results will be relevant without focusing exclusively on keywords.
When customers can rely on your website to deliver rich content and direct answers to their burning questions, they're more likely to have a better experience and convert. The majority of customers nowadays want to find answers to their questions without contacting your support team.
With a comprehensive site search and straightforward navigation tabs, your customers will be able to have productive site searches, and you can save money by reducing the amount of time customer support representatives are on the phone.
Display Reviews
By showing off user-generated content like testimonials, reviews, case studies, or similar posts, you add credibility to your products or services and verify that normal people have used and enjoyed your offerings. Establishing social proof of usefulness is an important part of attracting new customers in an age where it's easy to use Yelp.com to check on businesses before buying from them.
You can also link out to affiliate partners or independent reviews of your business from your website to add more credibility.
Give Contact Information
When customers want to contact your support team, websites can give them more options than just calling your phone number and waiting on hold for hours. Websites can list your store address, business hours, phone number, email and also give live chat or chatbot options to people who want answers to their questions now without the wait.
This can also help people find your physical location by integrating with Google Maps and other navigational applications. An embedded map can help people find your location, especially if they don't spend much time in your area otherwise, and your store is located somewhere difficult to find.
Stay Abreast of the Competition
We're willing to bet that the majority of your competitors already have websites or are currently creating them. If you want to keep your business going in the modern age, you'll need to get on board with maintaining a reliable website full of relevant information about your products or services for new and existing customers to peruse.
If you make a website that stands out from the crowd, customers may even switch over from your competitors and bring their business to you.
In Conclusion
It's a no-brainer to create a website for your business, no matter what size it is. Having a good website gives you more credibility and makes it easier for new customers to find you, make purchases, and increase your overall visibility. The brave new world of the internet may be intimidating, but the profits are well worth the effort.
Click here to learn more about why the right website can give your business the boost it needs in attracting and retaining customers.
Sources:
Why Every Business Needs A Website | Forbes
Do I Need a Website for My Business? 10 Reasons Why the Answer is Yes | Themeisle.com
