Website Benefits

Small Business Website Benefits

Website benefits come in many forms. For example, having an online presence will be one factor in getting your business to operate smoothly.

Do you have a small business? Would you benefit from having an online site? There are many questions and many answers. You’ll learn some of the benefits of having your small business website during your time on the site. You will also learn some improvements you can make by having a business website. Having a website for your small business is like online dating. You can look at a person’s profile to get to know them before meeting in person. You want to be thorough and vet the person you’re going to meet. That is exactly how customers want to shop. Customers want to shop for the best prices, products, and customer service.

Credibility

Having a website can give a small business more credibility. This is like having a Facebook attachment on your online dating profile that makes you more real to potentially interested parties. According to the Ecotone Digital Solutions article 18 Benefits of a website for small businesses, recent studies show “just about 50% of all small businesses don’t have websites”. This seems very high considering the world’s technological advancements and the web. But then again, catfishing is still a thing even though we have skype and snap chat.

According to The Small Business Authority article “How Much Is Online Presence Helping Small Business?” on the Forbes site, a study called Benefits and Barriers of Bringing a Small Business Online: Perspectives From Global Small Businesses. The study states, “those small businesses, most of which don’t have IT people, think that using a social medium to host a web presence is easier than doing it themselves.”

According to the article, businesses think using a secondary site is easier “Primarily because these sites offer a simple template that has to be populated. In fact, among those involved in e-commerce, sites like Amazon.com, Etsy, Shopify, or eBay seemed to be as good a place as any to set up shop online.”

Value of a Solid Domain Name

“The value of a domain for a small business is far more significant than many realize. It provides the foundation for one’s home page and can also be used to point to one’s Facebook or other social media site. It may even be used for branded email – a hallmark for “real” businesses.” Having an online identity is a vital part of branding your business. You want to tell your customers and clients who you are, why you’re here, more importantly, why they have come to your business to fulfill their needs. Having a website is the first step to doing that.

Website Benefits with Discoverability in Mind

Making your business discoverable is vital to a website’s benefit and business success. If no one knows your business exists, then how will they connect? A study by Verisign reported that 9 out of 10 consumers rely on the internet to locate and evaluate local goods and services.” Understanding the data of consumer online habits makes it hard to believe that more small businesses don’t have websites. The same article says, “46% of small businesses do not have a website.” The other 54% do have a website. They have a chance someone runs across their site and makes a purchase. The additional 47% isn’t even considered because they don’t exist.

Gaining new customers is a Core Website Benefit.

A website opens up significant possibilities for new customers wanting to learn more about your business. Whether it’s from seeing an advertisement, reading something on social media, or simply typing what they are looking for into Google. When customers can find your business online and order products, your business is making new customers in places you haven’t been able to reach because of distance or convenience. Gaining new customers will help your business grow and thrive to achieve its goals.

Website Address on all Promotional Material

Putting your website on all your promotions and social media will give your small business new customers. It will also help keep your current customers informed of your products and promotions. According to the Ecotone Digital Solutions article, 18 Benefits of a website for small businesses, “Placing your website address on all of your promotional material will help you gain additional exposure and encourage the visitors to first check your site for the information they are seeking.”

Having a website can be more cost-effective.

Advertising has various forms of print, media, radio, and television. Advertising is costly. Article 13, the advantages of having a website for your business, says, “Investing in advertising is necessary, but it takes a lot of money. Having a website will make promoting your company less expensive.” Many versions of online advertising available on the internet are sometimes free. For instance, Facebook posts cost virtually nothing. You can advertise sales and new products there. You can also send emails containing promotions to potential customers once you’ve set up the site.

Keep Track of Your Business in Real-Time

The article 10 Benefits of a Website for a Small Business says, “One of the most significant benefits of having a website for a small business is that you can keep track of its performance in real-time through analytics.” The article says, “Analytics will provide valuable data on how your business has been moving within a period.” Analytics is a way of saying the study of data. It’s information you can learn from.

One critical analysis that the article talks about is the number of unique visitors visiting your website. This would allow you to gauge how many different people visit your site. This is important because you could get many views on your website, but you could tell whether it’s new or returning customers with this information.

“Free Advertising” is a tangible Website Benefit.

Article 13, the advantages of having a website for your business, discusses SEO (search engine optimization). This determines where your business shows up when a search engine looks upon either something you sell or your business itself. The article points out, “Having a good SEO service provider can boost the ranking of your website, which quickly results in increased sales.” This is an essential aspect of advertising. Suppose you aren’t one of the first options seen. You might not make a sale. If you are seen immediately, you have a higher chance of making the sale because the buyer sees you first.

Capturing Reviews

Connect your website with Angie’s List, Google My Business, Facebook Page, Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc., to capture reviews, gain trust, and provide excellent customer service to drive more customers to your business and back again. It’s word-of-mouth marketing at its finest! When customers leave well-thought-out reviews, it’s helpful because it gives your product more reliability, credibility, and trustworthiness. It’s helpful in a world of different products to know which ones are worth the consumer’s time and money.

If customers leave a negative review, it would also be helpful to know what issues you need to fix. Essentially, this would tell the business owner what people like and don’t like about the product or service provided.

– Stay Ahead of the Curve

Knowing what your customers like is a unique tool. As a business owner, this allows you to be ahead of the curve and react to the market. Knowing what your customers don’t like about your products gives you vital insight. This allows a business to stop re-ordering or producing that product again. This will enable you to save potential losses.

“Building Your Business.”

According to 10 Benefits of a Website for a Small Business, “ Before broadband technology became widespread in 2004, website developers designed websites primarily for marketing and informational purposes. Small business websites were designed to function more like a brochure; you put one up to stay ahead of the competition. But there wasn’t much thought and purpose behind the content.”

Website Benefits are part of the brand.

Your WordPress Websites need to cater to the right customer. You need to engage the customer to get them to want to return. For example, minimalist websites and micro-animation are examples of building effective websites. Also, people want others to succeed, and sharing why you started your business in the first place will bring in customers who care. By sharing your values, you’ll also bring in customers who share those values. Hopefully, having values your customers can relate to will ensure their return.