There is only one answer to the question: “Do I need a website?” And that answer is: “Yes, you do.” There is–
Wait. We might be getting ahead a bit. Because not everyone in the world needs a website. If, however, you are a business owner or are thinking of creating a new startup company… then, yes, you need a website. You need an eye-catching, professionally designed, lead-generating website that represents your brand and everything it aims to be.
Why?
Here’s why:
It’s been a while since the world entered the digital age, and ever since then, technology has only become more and more integrated into our daily lives. There is a digital version of anything and everything: books, movies, songs and games. You can buy anything from shoes to hunting equipment to rare stamps online. You can call people over the internet and your friends are just an online message away. Social media is everywhere and a whole culture has even been created around.
We don’t need to say anymore, do we?
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Technology improves at an exponential rate and with technology, comes change. And as technology continues to integrate with our everyday lives, consumer behaviour changes to adapt. Anyone who doesn’t adapt will find that they are being rapidly left behind.
So, in 2019, with technology so integrated into our lives, the biggest factor affecting consumers and companies is the internet. Printed catalogues and phone books, while they still exist, are just relics of the old age and today, people reach out to the internet to find what they need. More than 50% of consumers use Google to find local businesses, and that statistic is from 2011… Today, the statistics place the number at over 90%. 97%, to be more accurate.
That is a staggering number and that is why you need to have a website. In today’s world, however good your business and it’s products and services are… you aren’t getting the success you deserve unless you can be found online by consumers looking for what you provide. For that… You need a website.
So, now, let us reiterate again:
If you are a business owner or are thinking of starting a business, there is only one answer to the question: “Do I need a website?” And that answer is: “Yes, you do.”
If you are ready to take the leap and contact your best possible solution for all your website needs and everything else digital marketing related: Contact RankToday now!
If you’re not convinced yet, however, no fear. Let’s dive a little deeper and explore the subject in length.
First, let’s break down the reasons why.
Before we jump into the reasons, here’s some facts for you. An analysis by Deloitte found that small businesses that are advanced in terms of their digital presence:
It doesn’t matter what industry it is, these facts are applicable. If you want to see the same results in your business, you need to be digitally advanced, too. And that starts with a website.
That being said, here are five reasons why you need not just a website, but a good one.
If you want to be successful in your ventures, you need to take into consideration your customers. Today, in an age where we spend nearly seven hours online, where every Tom, Dick and Harry has a website, people expect companies to have a digital presence and website. Any companies that don’t have one are automatically discounted.
Further, according to studies by LSA (Local Search Association), 63% of consumers primarily use a company’s website to find a business and engage with it. That’s a pretty significant number. Add to that the fact that more than 90% of online experiences begin with a search engine… Do we need to do the math for you? Consumers simply need a website to see that you’re company is worth their time and consideration.
This applies to any and every industry. You might want to argue that your industry is not online – especially if you are a business owner in the B2B, industrial, and manufacturing industry – but you’d be wrong.
75% B2B buyers are of the mind that digital website content has a significant impact on their purchasing decision and around 60% of them say that they finalize their purchase just based on a website’s digital content. People are more than halfway through the buying process before they even want to contact a human sales representative. That’s for the B2B industry. For industrial and manufacturing companies – 67% of purchases are influenced by digital content.
Facts are facts.
You need a website because your consumers expect it of you.
We’ve already established that a lot of people are online a lot of the time. Yes? Okay. That means that any given time, you have hundreds of potential customers online at any time.
By having a website – and making sure that it is search engine optimized – you can be where your consumers are. It’s one of the biggest reasons any company has to invest in a professional website and SEO. Again, we repeat established facts here, but 97% of people go online to find local businesses and 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.
It might sound far fetched, or you might just believe it, but Google receives over 63,000 searches per second on any given day. Broken down further, it means at least 2 trillion searches per year, 3.8 million searches per minute, 228 million searches per hour, and 5.6 billion searches per day.
Statistically, at this very moment, right now, there is someone in your area who is online and looking for exactly the product or service you offer. If you don’t have a website, chances are, you simply aren’t getting their business.
You can have an excellent social media presence, sure, and people can find you there. But in any social media platform, you need to work within their limitations and you don’t have the luxury of presenting the exact experience you want.
Take “The Boat” for example to see exactly how well customized a website can be. It might be not entirely relevant to the subject, but the point we are trying to make is that if you have a website that is all your own, you can control every pixel on screen and ensure that you customers experience your brand as you want them to. This allows you to take full advantage of the “first impressions last” philosophy.
We’ve already established that not having a website makes consumers disregard your business. But having a subpar website doesn’t work either. 75% of people make judgments on how credible a company is based entirely on website design alone. It goes without saying that people will more likely work with companies they trust and a website can do half the job for you in making them trust you.
Your website will also be your customers’ first point of contact and your 24/7 representative. A well-designed website can help your customers learn all they need to know within seconds of opening your website and provide them with the means of contacting you. If you have the right tools at hand, you can even have a virtual assistant on your website to answer any questions your customers may have.
Let’s be honest, you are probably the owner of a small company or a new startup. In whatever industry you are working in, you are likely not the only company. Having website can go leaps and bounds in helping you fight your competitors and even go as far as allowing you to compete with the titans of your industry. You need to have a well-designed website and be extremely well optimized for search engines, but it is possible.
Without a website, you don’t even stand a chance against the titans.
And if you are the only company in your industry? Then get yourself a website and put yourself ahead before new competitors pop-up and do what you do better than you do it. You know that any time there is anything even moderately successful, copycats are close behind.
We mentioned earlier that you may have a social media presence and you might think it’s enough. It really is not.
Whether you’re on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or whatever else it is… so is every other business and brand around the entire world. Having a social media page does not make a website any less necessary because they serve entirely different purposes.
More importantly, with changes to social media algorithms, the rise and fall of trends and a hundred other factors, the efficiency and effectiveness of social media is less than it used to be. Also, going forward, social media platforms are giving paid ads priority and that means you need to invest in social media advertising to see any success in that regard. Just in Facebook, organic reach has plummeted lower than it was already and similar effects are seen in other social media platforms.
We aren’t saying get away from social media entirely. It can help your business grow and allow you to keep in touch with your audience, but it’s not wise to have a social media presence and scoff at the idea of having a website.
We’ve worked with many businesses and we’ve heard our fair share of reasons why you don’t need a website. They’re all wrong. Here are some of the common reasons we’ve heard and why they’re wrong.
This is by far the most common reason that comes up. And it’s wrong.
First, no business is too small for a website. Second, and more important, every business needs to assign a budget for a website because if you don’t do it now, you will need to end up doing it later. And considering the many benefits of having a website, it’s better to have one than not.
Your website doesn’t need to be a fancy experience. With the right web designer, you can build a simple yet stunning and effective website that does the work necessary and can be found by search engines. RankToday offers multiple packages for small businesses. Feel free to contact us to learn more.
Some people try this tack: we’ve never had a website and we are doing fantastic. So fantastic, in fact, that we’re overflowing with customers. Thus, we don’t need a website to bring us any more. We wouldn’t know what to do with them all.
Makes sense? No.
Why?
If you think that your business has more than enough customers and you don’t need a website because you don’t need more customers, you completely misunderstand what the purpose of a website is. Sure, a website can increase sales for your company. However, that is not the one and only benefit of having a website.
A website serves as the first point of contact for you, an online representative for your company, A website allows you to increase awareness for your company. A website allows you to list products, services and more, so that customers can get an idea of what to expect. Depending on your industry, a number of widgets and add-ons can enhance your whole operation; a restaurant with reservations, a beauty salon with bookings and more.
Further, you may have more than enough business today, but here’s a harsh truth for you: the way things are today will not be how things are tomorrow. When you don’t have a website, you’re simply allowing other businesses in your area with the good sense to get a website to eventually surpass yours. On the other hand, having a website allows you to pave the road to growth in the future.
The world is continuing to become more and more digital and you should seriously get with the program before you’re left behind.
Sometimes, the excuse is not “we don’t need a website”. It’s “we don’t need to pay for website design.”
No.
Just no.
Nine out ten times, free websites aren’t really free. After all, if you are in business, you should already have heard the phrase “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”. If you have a close friend who is a professional web designer who is willing to spend the hours necessary to create, fine-tune and optimize a website for your needs… then you are very lucky. But chances are, you don’t.
Website designing is a hard job. A lot of work goes into having a function website: SEO optimization, file compression, responsive design, content creation, schema markup, etc. People just don’t go around offering to do it for free without some catch.
We cannot emphasize enough how bad an idea it is trust people who offer free websites. Best case scenario is that you will be left with a barebones website that barely functions, but lacks any touch of professional design.
Huh?
What?
In today’s world… nearly everyone uses computers. If they don’t use a computer, they use a mobile device: a phone, an iPad or an iPod or a tablet or something. Point is, nearly everyone is online – a whopping 90% – so “Our customers don’t use computers” is not a valid argument against the fact that you need a website.
Do we really need to say more?
We’ve already covered this above, but we will mention it again.
The statement that some industries don’t need an online presence or a website is factually wrong in every level. You might not have an online shop, but you still need a website. B2B, manufacturing… doesn’t matter what your industry is. Your customers still need a way to find you, learn about you and your services and see that you are a professional, trustworthy company. For that… you need a website.
This is the big question, right?
“How much does a website cost?”
Here’s the answer.
A website costs anywhere from free – with some catches – to north over 100K.
With some hosts, you can have basic websites for free, with options to upgrade later. You can also pay a low monthly fee and get a website with a domain name and all with many online services like SquareSpace or WordPress. Conversely, you can also pay a few thousand dollars to a professional digital marketing company to create a website that is made for you and you alone, customized just as you need it.
If you are absolutely unable to pay for a website, at least get a basic free website to start with. You can consider upgrades later. RankToday has services allowing you to transfer content from one website to another, so even if you decide to move to a custom website later, you don’t need to worry about your content or the time spent creating the website.
There are several factors that contribute to the cost of a website:
Making a website is not that hard today. You can simply Google for “web builder” and find any number of free services allowing you to make your own website. If you search for “website designer”, you’ll find a number of companies offering their services.
The most important thing you need to know is about the available website platforms. Some of the best ones available now are WordPress and SquareSpace.
WordPress is one of the biggest content management systems in the world. It allows you to create anything from free website to complex paid ones, and they’ll even deal with the hosting and domain names for you. You can create masterful websites that are extremely user-friendly and adaptable.
SquareSpace is nearly equally as excellent for beginners and ecommerce. All of SquareSpace’s tools are extremely easy to use and if you decide to switch platforms later, the transfer is incredibly easy.
You can take a stab at creating your own website using one of these tools or something like Wix, sure. But we recommend that you hire a professional website designer for your company. Because the simple fact is that the price of having a website is lower than the cost of getting left behind.
If you don’t want to be left behind, accept the fact that you need a website.
And if you decide to hire experts to help you in that matter, contact RankToday now.
