10 Reasons Why Small Businesses Need a Website

The thought of designing, maintaining, updating, and managing a website can be a little intimidating to people who are not technologically inclined. And you may be wondering what makes a good website, but a well-made, optimized website is not a luxury only leading digital frontiersmen have access to.

There are abundant resources available for those brave enough to do it themselves, or you can pass the buck to an inbound marketing and web design agency like Reach, which will handle everything for you. There is no shortage of reasons to begin building your online presence as soon as possible. Here are the ten we think are most important!

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1. Ownership

You own your website and every bit of content that lies within its pages. Unfortunately, as much as we all love social media, we don’t own those accounts. The last thing you want is to feel like you have to pivot your entire business plan because an account got restricted, deleted, or a rule change. A website ensures that you have a place on the internet that is your own.

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2. Discoverability

This is a question we often hear, “how do I get my website on Google?” If you don’t have a website yet - did you know that Google handles 40,000 searches per second? That is a lot of people searching Google search results for something. A website allows you to be one of the businesses a potential customer might discover, and once you have a site, you soon will be wondering how to make sure your website shows up on Google.

An optimized website will focus on search engine optimization (SEO), ensuring your content contains your target keywords to rank your website higher on search engine results. With search engine optimization and plenty of content, your website will continue to climb toward that coveted number one position.

Ranking higher tends to lead to more traffic, and more traffic will generate leads, resulting in more customers! There is no doubt that your area (and our area in Kissimmee!) is full of things to do and places to see, so you must be easily discoverable.

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3. Credibility

A well-designed website makes your business appear more trustworthy and professional. When having your website, you will also purchase your domain, which will allow you to have a branded email like johndoe@yourcompany.com, which looks much nicer in business emails and on business cards than a generic @gmail.com, @aol.com, or another email provider.

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4. Gathering Information about Customers

A website provides a home for surveys, forms, and other great ways to gather information for your product or service. The more details you can gather on your customers, the better customer service and user experience you can provide. 

You can use the data you've gathered on your website to create a contact list. Having a contact list allows you to engage with your customers through different mediums. If they have provided their address, you can send coupons in the mail, or if they give you their email address, you can start an email marketing campaign. Knowing who your customer is and how to communicate with them is extremely important.

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5. Accurate Buyer Personas

Buyer personas are essential to marketing. A buyer persona is a fictional representation of the type of person you can solve a problem for, and they will ultimately buy your solution. Having accurate buyer personas allows you to target potential customers who are likely to buy and create a marketing plan with a website, blog posts, and ads they are more likely to engage with. 

Analyzing information from your customers through surveys and other techniques on your website allows you to better look at who is buying your products. If you notice trends on which landing pages are most popular, you can adjust your previously created buyer persona to represent the average customer more accurately.

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6. Connect with Customers

A website allows you to interact with customers at any time, from anywhere, but make sure you can answer their pain points, elevating your authority with your customers and allowing you to connect with them using the language they use. 

There are multiple ways you can connect with your customers. Consider providing links to your social media pages so they can follow or like your pages. You can also provide case studies and social proof to see how your product has been beneficial in other’s lives.

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7. Remain Competitive

The United States is home to 31.7 million small businesses, and Florida has 2.5 million of those small businesses. Competition is fierce in all industries. Businesses at all levels are looking for ways to separate themselves from competitors. An easy-to-find lead generation website rich with information and content can be the difference-maker in a buyer’s decision-making process, especially when it has a great user experience. Hence, they quickly know how they can purchase or contact your business.

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8. Contribute to Consumer Confidence

Today’s consumers very rarely make new purchases without research. Potential customers tend to view multiple reviews, compare similar products, watch review videos, and do anything else they can do to make sure the product is worth their time and money. A professional-looking website with things like FAQs, video demonstrations, and reviews will properly convey the value of your product. A site that has the right information can be the beginning and end of the buyer's journey.

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9. Marketing

With business web design, a well-made, optimized website can elevate your digital marketing efforts. Not only with discoverability, which was mentioned previously, so your site can reach the first page of certain Google searches, but also as a digital home base for your site. When you do any marketing, especially digital marketing, you have somewhere to send potential customers to learn every facet of your business and answer any questions that may come up. You also can create a user experience with calls to action so your customers can find the solution that best suits their needs.

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10. Someone Else Can Do the Hard Work for You

Putting together a website can be a little overwhelming. Fortunately, you can pay someone to handle your website design and development while you sit back and enjoy the benefits. At Reach, our web development services can upgrade your current website or even build your company a brand new website from scratch. We can handle the SEO and hosting of the site, so all you have to worry about is all the new customers coming in.

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Ultimately, having a website is not supposed to be a chore. A well-made website should delight your customers, your company and you as a small business owner. Your website can be used to display recent work or accomplishments. You can blog about things going on in your company, from new products to a particularly fun team-building exercise.

Your website is the digital home of your business, so you can use it to express your company’s beliefs and values to potential customers. Consider your website an employee that works for your company 24/7, taking cold prospects and making them your newest customers. If you’re struggling to determine what your website needs or have questions about building your newest website, let us know! We are experts at helping small businesses get to where their customers are.