There are 1.7 billion websites today. However, that is a nebulous number because while there are thousands of new websites that are launched each day, many are also lost and discontinued. Nevertheless, it is still a huge number of websites that you’ll be joining if you plan to set up your very first business website today.
Many questions are in the back of your mind. How and where do you begin? Should you design the website or outsource it? How much budget should you set aside? Is there a website launch checklist that can guide you? All your uncertainties can be summed up in a final query – is having a website worth it? We’ll answer you straight up – it is. This article will present you with seven reasons why.
Is Having a Website Worth It? 7 Reasons Why It Still Is
Is It Worthwhile to Have a Website?
Some schools of thought say that if you’re just starting your business, having a website is optional. Understandably, you have made a sizeable investment that went into setting up a business, and your priority is on ROI, not a website. The fact is that over a third of small business owners think their business is quite small to have a website.
The other side counters that you need a website more so in today’s cutthroat competition. This is especially so with the projection that in the next few years, the majority of consumers will do their purchases online. So now more than ever you need to firm up your online business presence.
Your “smallness” is not a valid justification for not having a website. Your competitors are doing it, why are you not? There are dozens of advantages to having a website but we won’t go into that. The items below are adequate to drive home the point.
1. It is Low Cost and Easy to Set Up
According to WebFX, it will cost you between $12K to $150K to build a website with a freelancer or a design agency. The good news, they are not the only options. If you do it yourself with a website builder platform, the cost goes down to anywhere from $0 to $500 per month, and routine site maintenance is between $0 to $5K+ per year.
It may not be zero cost because you have to shell out some amount to cover expenses for hosting, site security, domain registration, and the like. But these will not break the bank or cost you your mortgage. More often, these extras are provided as freebies or included in the website builder subscription plan (see below the pricing plans of Wix).
Image credit: wix.com
As you can see from the above example, you can choose from a variety of plans to fit your budget. More sophisticated websites (ex. e-commerce site, online store) with complete functionalities and components like checkout counter, payment processing, online booking, etc. will have higher-priced plans, although still relatively affordable. Simple, basic websites will cost far less.
Now, designing and building a website using a website builder, especially an AI website builder, is a straightforward process. These are codeless web-based builder platforms that use a drag-and-drop interface. You don’t need web design and coding skills and you can have your initial website go live in a matter of hours, not days.
2. It Helps People Find You Easily
If you don’t have a website, where do people find your business? The old way of finding your establishment by alphabetical order in a thick book of local business directories is passe. Consumers now don’t have the time to do that and it’s very localized.
Today we’re talking of instant information by way of a fast and simple online search. People can find your store anywhere in the world. And even if you don’t have a physical store, you can have a virtual store on your website that can be accessed by customers from around the globe.
One study bares out that up to 80% of people research a small business before they visit or make a purchase. And they do this online. Without a website, you miss out on a large number of people who are potential customers. So, if you want people to find your business and know about it, a website (coupled with your official social media page) is your best bet for a searchable online presence.
3. It Builds Customer Relationship
There’s a whole science to customer relationships. There’s even a separate software category for it. Customer relationship is all about managing your interactions with your customers. There are three types of them – your past, present, and future customers.
Imagine how you can manage them without your website or with a website. It’s easier with the latter.
A website is an interaction hub for you and your customers. In a HubSpot survey on what consumers want to see on a company website, the number one item among 67% of respondents is contact information (please see the chart below).
Image credit: blog.hubspot.com
Notice all the other items – About Us page, social media icons, live chat, product images and videos, physical address, case studies, blog, and newsletter sign-up. Many of these are points of customer interaction in one compact location – your website.
You can engage with them through a chat widget, a comment section in your blog, a regular newsletter or email, or even offers and CTAs. You can’t do any of these without a website as your vehicle.
4. It Boosts Business Credibility
Without an online presence or at least a website, people may outright question the legitimacy of your business. It ties into the previous item number two – how will people find you? In the online world, you’re a non-entity. Your business will not flourish, it will suffer. The credibility of your business will take a hit and that’s the worst thing that can happen.
Having a business website shows your professionalism, that you’re serious about your business, and that you’re for real. It proves to one and all that you care for your audience, visitors, and customers, willing to provide them helpful information about your products and services, pricing, as well as company policies and background.
Remember that people do research first before interacting with a business, and the best way they can find useful information is through your website. With great SEO strategy and implementation, you can rank high in search engine result pages, further boosting your credibility.
Without reliable knowledge and quality information about your business, people will do the next best thing – read up on others and go to your competitors for what they need.
5. It Can Translate to Positive ROI
It’s human nature for people to do business or buy from establishments that they know. And that’s the advantage of having a website – it opens opportunities for your business to attain positive ROI by getting leads, expanding your customer base, and increasing sales – things that would have been more challenging without a website.
With a website, you can do many promotional and marketing strategies. Using readily available and inexpensive tools, you can design landing pages, popups, deals, offers, ads, and place or launch them right from your homepage. These improve your chances of generating leads and getting conversions.
A business website itself that is professionally designed with enticing visuals, engaging content, and attractive aesthetics, will be a magnet for visitors. There are several ways to optimize a website for SEO and conversion and ensure that it provides a steady stream of traffic, impressions, click-throughs, conversions, and returns. Sans a website, these are things you can’t do and achieve.
6. It Gives a Lasting Value to Your Investment
An effective and optimized website will provide lasting and continuing value to your investment. Think of it this way – the returns for you putting up an advertisement online or on traditional mediums like newspapers, TV, and radio will only last until those ads are up. When the ads stop, their value ends too.
It’s a losing proposition to continue putting up ads since they’re expensive and unsustainable unless you have lots of money and a litany of advertising ideas. Even then, you’re not sure they’ll give the desired returns for the high cost of your investment. Not with a website, which is an economical instrument for the long run.
With the relatively affordable cost of building a website and maintaining it year after year, you get a value that will last as long as the website is up and running. Again, it’s a comparatively low-cost investment with a value designed for the long term and returns expected on a continuing basis.
7. It Provides a Great Source of Information
Your website can give you valuable insights about your site’s visitors and customers. Powerful web analytics tools can be utilized in tandem with your website to provide you with information on your website’s performance and visitor behavior.
Among the most common metrics that are sought by website owners include:
- Pageviews – The number of pages viewed by website visitors as well as the most viewed pages.
- Time on site – The time spent by visitors viewing content on your site.
- Sessions – The time visitors spent staying on your site per visit.
- Bounce rate – Number of people who land on your website and then leave without continuing on.
Analytics tools can also give you data on many other things such as what items customers are buying from your online store, what they are adding to their carts (or discarding), read-through rates, what device they’re using to browse your site, and many more.
All these are vital information in the sense that you’ll know what aspect of your site is working and what is not. You can then make modifications to improve website performance. There are free tools you can use (like Google Analytics) or those with free plans (such as SimilarWeb).
What this boils down to is for you to better understand your customers so you can provide better service and at the same time enhance your bottom line. Without a website, you give customers a disservice and you shortchange yourself. Do you think you and your customers deserve that?
Build Your Website Now
This is where we nudge you in the right direction, and that is to build your website now. The wealth of advantages (those we discussed above are but the tip of the iceberg) is way too beneficial for you to dismiss. You can explore web design service options for small businesses to get you started.
One of those options is for you to DIY your website to reduce cost and personally manage the site-building process. As we’ve mentioned, today’s website builder platforms are affordable but robust and simple to use. Make your move now and give your business rivals a run for their money.
