Small Business Websites

Affordable Small Business Websites

A website is paramount for success. Small Business Websites keep today’s businesses functioning in this online world. Also, small business websites are crucial to any business growth, be it a professional, healthcare, industrial, small, medium, or large organization. Also, small business websites allow the business to expand further. If you were to own a business, why wouldn’t you want to gain as much exposure as possible? Exposure is vital when selling any product or conveying a message to consumers. The more people view your product or service, the more likely they will buy it. Online exposure is a powerful sales tool that allows customers to interact and participate in the whole process. Small business websites also help provide valuable information to anybody on the World Wide Web.

Website Benefits

The website can serve as an online brochure that can be changed or updated regularly. The primary purpose is to provide information with comfort and ease. Creating a site for your business can allow your existing customers to refer their friends and relatives. A website increases your company’s productivity if the customer has researched your offer. Thus having you spend less time explaining what the service or product is. The Internet allows businesses to break through geographical barriers and becomes accessible from any part of the world by a potential customer with an Internet connection. This makes selling products online cheaper and easier for you and your customers. A website also helps provide visuals of your products or services.

A key benefit of Small Business WordPress Websites

One of the significant benefits of small business websites is that they provide a stable customer base. If you move your business to a new location, your customers can still find you because your website would be easy to change and update. Therefore, you wouldn’t have to worry about losing loyal customers as they will always be kept up to date. You can post job opportunities for available positions, and applicants can investigate your company and apply online. Become or remain the expert by demonstrating knowledge and expertise in your work area. Write blog posts and articles on the site that educate visitors and help them understand your business and offerings.

Gone are the old Yellow Pages and Direct Mail

Yellow pages and direct mail aren’t the only way to advertise anymore. This is the 21^st century. Everything has advanced especially technology. Remember, small businesses have evolved when it comes to marketing. Small companies have benefited the most from websites because they don’t need to pay people to keep their websites running. They can do it themselves. Small businesses with websites say a lot. It shows their customers that they are dedicated to keeping them happy. Customers need assurance that they can always count on your website to find information without making the drive.

Build Credibility

Having small business websites allows you to build your credibility and also discoverability. “Understanding these numbers and the online habits of consumers makes it difficult to understand why. But for the 54% that have developed their business website, they benefit from a clear advantage when considering discoverability.”. It’s clear that websites have many advantages and would benefit your business in numerous ways.

Having an online identity is a crucial 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.

Here is a list of ways having a small business website would benefit any small business owner in no particular order.

1. Discoverability

Making your business discoverable is vital to a business’s success. If no one knows your business exists, how will they become patrons? Understanding the data of consumer online habits makes it hard to believe that more small businesses don’t have websites. According to Web Presence Solutions article 7 Reasons You Need a Small Business Website, a “study by Verisign…reported that 9 out of 10 consumers rely on the internet to locate and evaluate local goods and services.” The same article says, “46% of small businesses do not have a website.” The other 54% do have a website. The additional 47% is not considered because they don’t exist. They have a chance someone runs across their site and makes a purchase.

2. Gain new customers

Small business websites open up significant possibilities for new customers 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 company makes 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 reach its goals. On social media, popularity is a big deal. Everyone wants to have as many friends as possible. They want to be popular. Businesses wish to do the same thing to have as many customers as possible. Having a website is an excellent start to making that a possibility.

3. Improving Advertising Effectiveness

Putting your website on your promotions and social media will gain your small business and new customers. It will also help keep your current customers informed of your products and promotions. 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 seek.

4. Having Business Websites can be more cost-effective.

Advertising has various forms like print, media, radio, and television. Advertising is costly. The advantage of having a website for your business 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.

5. 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 the use of analytics.” Analytics is a way of saying the study of data. It’s information you can learn from. The article says, “Analytics will provide valuable data on how your business has been moving within a period.” 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 with this information, you could tell whether it’s new or returning customers.

Another fundamental analysis the article pointed out is the term bounce rate. “Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your website without exploring past the page they landed on.” This is essential data to a website proprietor because it allows them to see what products customers care about or don’t. It will also help them to know if they need to highlight specific products over others. Or change the website layout to make it more appealing to users.

Having all of this information at your fingertips is extremely valuable! Because getting to know your target market is the best thing, you can do for your customers. The more you know and understand your customer, the more superior product you can serve them.

6. Advertising & Small Business Websites

SEO which is search engine optimization, is key to all Small Business Websites. This determines where your business shows up when a search engine looks upon either something you sell or your business itself. 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. You have a higher chance of making the sale if you are seen immediately because the buyer sees you first.

7. Capturing Reviews

I found an interesting article called 20 Amazing Benefits of Having a Website for Your Small Business. It talks about the many excellent benefits of having a website for your small business. It says, “Connect your website with Angie’s List, Google + page, Facebook Page, Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc… to capture reviews, gain trust, provide excellent customer service to drive more customers to your business and back again”… “it’s word-of-mouth marketing at its finest!”

It’s helpful in a world of different products to know which ones are worth the consumer’s time and money. When customers leave well-thought-out reviews, it’s useful because it gives your product more reliability, credibility, and trustworthiness. 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 dislike about the product or service provided.

Knowing what your customers like is a unique tool. This allows you to be ahead of the curve and react to the market as a business owner. Knowing what your customers dislike 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.

8. Building Your Business.

According to the 10 Benefits of a Website for a Small Business, “Before broadband technology became widespread in 2004, websites were used primarily for marketing and informational purposes. A website functioned 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.” Now your website is your brand. You need to engage the customer to get them to want to return.

The article also points out the importance of aligning values with your brand. “According to Nobel Prize-winning psychiatrist Daniel Kahneman, consumers patronize brands with which they can align their values. A website is a great way to share your story; tell your audience why you started this business, your goals, and what you hope to accomplish with it.”

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.

Many improvements can help advance your business just by having your website. Every business is always trying to progress. Being the best is always the goal of any company. Just like online dating, you want to find your best partner. Here are some improvements I noticed from Ecotone Digital Solutions article 18 Benefits of a website for small businesses

1. Improved customer service.

A small business can be more accessible to its customers with a website. A business owner would have the ability to answer questions day or night at the customer’s convenience. This will help with customer service ultimately.

2. Set up Email Addresses

You can set up personalized email addresses for your company, yourself, and your employees. The article tells you that you can allow your site to accept emails. When you first enter the site, you could have a pop-up asking your customer for their email. This can generate a stored list of emails for you to “email updates, notices, sales, and holiday store hours to your customers.” A great example of how having an email list would come in handy is; if you expand your business to new locations, you can update your website and email your customers to let them know. In the same way, you can send emails to let them know about sales.

3. Build Your Reputation

Building your business reputation is excellent for your clientele expanding and taking your business from small to big. An online reputation will also make the customer’s choice between you and the competition more manageable. Why would customers go with someone they aren’t sure about when they could easily use a reputable site? The article says you should “Write blog posts and articles on the site that educate visitors and help them understand your business and offerings.” in doing this, you will demonstrate that you are the expert they need.