420 Design Blog
Do I Really Need a Website?
01 Mar 2005 | Angie H
Not every small business needs a website. Perhaps that's a shocking thing for a web designer to say, but frankly, it's true. At least, it's true if you're a one-person business, busy with loads of work and you don't have a real desire to grow into a multi-person company. There's nothing wrong with that. But that's not necessarily the mot common scenario since most of us who own small businesses expect and want growth. In short, if you want more customers and increased revenue, your business should be online. But what are the real benefits of having a website for your business?
Exposure Websites, when created correctly, and when optimized correctly, will bring your business a lot more exposure from all over the world, let alone your town or county. What's more, the additional exposure you'll get comes at a fraction of the price of traditional advertising and marketing techniques.
Impression In this day and age, it's easy to get behind in all the new technology popping up everywhere. Have a simple website sends a message to your customers that you're keeping up with the times. Having your site focus on making their lives easier wins you even more brownie points.
Flexibility Unlike print ads, a website can be changed as soon as you think of something that needs to be announced or updated. This is also a positive thing for search engine rankings - keeping your content fresh keeps the search engine spiders coming back to crawl your site. That translates into keeping your site at the top of the ranks, which means you maintain that exposure you gained in the first place.
Convenience Having your business online is convenient for both, you and your customers. While you're concentrating on other areas of your business that demand your attention, your business is available online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It allows customers to find answers to their questions without having to contact you. Or what if someone wanted specific information about a product? You could easily point them to your site for exact specifics while giving them the "human" version over the phone.
Increased Productivity In many ways, having a website for your business allows you and your staff to be more productive. Often, having FAQs will significantly reduce customer service calls, which allows you to perform other tasks. Increased productivity almost always results in increased revenue.