Why Does My Small Business Need A Website?
Small businesses and bloggers these days should never underestimate the importance of knowing how to create a website, and the benefits of building an online presence.
It’s almost impossible to build brand identity or prepare a business for success without a web presence, especially in the current social climate.
The task of creating a website itself can seem daunting. There is a perception that you need a significant degree of technical know-how in order to build an online presence.
Many businesses may settle for a social media presence alone, which lacks impact. This can also prevent customers from taking your brand seriously.
Other businesses simply do not exist online at all. This is one of the most serious mistakes a business can make in its early days.
The online space is the most effective space for making sales in the current market, especially as the market continues to evolve every day.
To ignore the E-Commerce space, or to have a website that does not perform well, closes your business off from a large portion of the market, and your business loses countless
potential customers.
The Impact Your Website Has in the E-Commerce Space
Especially in the E-Commerce world, your website is the key element that will separate you from your competitors above anything else. A simple, but well-designed website, can give you
the edge over other businesses in your field.
Expanding into the online realm and putting resources into creating a functional website for your business, opens your company up to the possibility of expanding to new markets. It is an
easy and budget-friendly way to reach more customers, and create more conversions.
The Importance of Creating a Professional Website
These days, a company’s website is often the first port of call for many consumers.
A quick Google search performed by a customer with purchase intent is worth its weight in gold to any business.
When a company has spent time optimizing its website for consumer experience and focusing on search engine optimization, the results can be incredible.
In today’s commerce climate, the reality is that for many small businesses, ‘door-to-door’ marketing is simply not effective. It may not even be possible for many businesses to greet
customers physically anymore. Your website is what ‘greets’ your customer and welcomes them to your business.
Your website should portray a polished appearance and succinct message, and guide your customer to exactly what it is they are searching for.
Most visitors will bounce from your site if they can not see a clear, navigable path to their search intention.
The navigability and functionality of your website should not be overlooked. This can make or break the effectiveness of your online presence, and either guide customers to make a
purchase, or drive them away from your business, instantly breaking that brand trust.
Even for small businesses, it is worth the time and effort to source an effective website builder.
Another effective avenue for entering the online space is sourcing a professional website designer. This is an excellent option, to ensure you maximise your chance for sales and make
the best impression on your customers.
What To Consider To Create a Website For Your Small Business
It’s important when considering the design of your new website to keep in mind your business goals, and what you wish to achieve.
What are the objectives your business wants to attain? Brand awareness, customer loyalty, customer education, increased conversions?
Any one of these objectives requires a specific type of website layout in order to best achieve your goal.
Whether you want to inform your customers about your physical store or encourage them to browse the product pages of your E-Commerce site, these factors influence the result of your
final site and affect how it performs.
The Best Platforms to Host Your Website
There are a range of platforms to choose from when it comes to creating a website for your small business, it is important to ensure you choose the correct one to fit your needs and
objectives.
You may want to consider a website builder such as Wix or Squarespace. These platforms make use of a ‘drag-and-drop’ system, which allows you to choose from a small range of options and
themes for your site layout.
These platforms do not require any previous website building experience or technical knowledge, but the price you pay is that your options for customization and flexibility are
greatly reduced.
It can be difficult when using one of these ‘DIY’ website builders to thoroughly implement your brand voice across the site layout, and in some circumstances, the layout of these sites may
come across very ‘generic’ in their style.
There is also a cost associated with these websites, which will vary from plan to plan.
What About a Self-Hosted WordPress Site?
Small business owners who have no prior experience in how to create a website, will want to ensure they choose a website hosting platform that is user-friendly.
Since your website is such a key element of your digital marketing strategy, you can’t afford to have a website that doesn’t seem professional or trustworthy.
One of the most accessible and effective tools for creating your own website is WordPress.
There’s a reason almost 40% of all internet sites are hosted by WordPress.
WordPress is the ultimate solution in flexibility and design. You do not need to be a website developer or have prior website building experience to create an effective, attractive site with
WordPress.
The platform makes it super easy to change features and adapt how your site looks and performs, based on your business objectives.
There are a multitude of WordPress hosting websites out there that will allow you to build and customize your site within. A little research is required to find the one which best fits your
needs.
Designing a Website To Fit Your Needs
However, self-hosting your WordPress site will give you maximum creative control. You can control the way your site performs, improve the experience of users visiting your site, and thus
maximize your conversions.
We specialize in building websites that are specifically designed to fit your needs. We can ensure you are maximizing your potential for sales, by adding or improving the digital
marketing content of your business.
Your website is a key opportunity to showcase your brand aesthetic, improve brand awareness and build customer trust in your products.
We understand how important this is, and we can collaborate with you on every aspect of your site, including a logo and brand design, and product listings or booking systems.
You need to consider that not only does your website need to be built, designed, and maintained, it also needs to be filled with content!
Many small business owners may not feel confident in writing copy or product descriptions that have been optimized for search engine ranking purposes.
Research the keywords which customers are searching for in relation to your niche, and increase the use of these keywords within your site copy and website content.
Some small business owners may also want to implement a ‘blog’ section of their website, which can help in your search engine optimization, and also allows you to increase engagement
from your customers.
When creating a website, you should pay special attention to certain elements of your site.
These include:
- Home Page: This will likely be the first page your customers visit on your site and is your first chance to create a lasting impression. Your home page should include short, snappy content giving customers a clear overview of your business, and should be easily navigable to other pages of your site.
- Product Pages: This is your chance to showcase all you have to offer, and gives you an opportunity to implement more keywords in your product descriptions. A captivating, well-written product description can be persuasive enough to convert a potential customer into a brand-loyal, returning buyer.
- About Us Page: Customers respond to storytelling, and this is your chance to tell your customers your brand story. Your brand story should be inspiring, engaging and let your customer know the message behind your brand. You need to encourage your customer to want to know more about your business and get involved in your brand journey.
- Contact Us Form: You need to give your customer an opportunity to connect with you, to answer any product queries or simply to learn more. This also gives you, as the business owner, a chance to build a real, personalized relationship with your customers. Even in the E-Commerce space, customers appreciate a brand that will connect with them.
Why Is Self-Hosting a WordPress Site Effective For Your Business?
There are other platforms available that may allow you to design and host your website for free. For small businesses attempting to get off the ground, it is tempting to stake your online
presence within one of these free sites.
Unfortunately, for a business trying to attract and gain the loyalty and trust of customers, this is never effective.
Customers can instantly tell the difference between a site hosted on a free platform, from a professionally designed, well-performing website.
Whether your site has those telltale ‘ad’ banners or credited links in the site footer, the first impression you are giving your customers is that you are not willing to invest in quality.
So why would your customers invest in you, or trust other aspects of your brand?
Along with a way to create a website, WordPress also gives you the opportunity to host your website with a .com domain name, instantly giving off an air of professionalism, far more than a domain like free.site.com! This is another telltale sign for any customer of whether they should trust your brand or not.
The Flexibility of Creating a Self-Hosted WordPress Site
WordPress is also extremely effective for businesses trying to improve their E-Commerce or online presence, as you gain ultimate control and flexibility over the appearance and
performance of your site.
This differs greatly from free platforms, which provide a very limited number of customization options and don’t take user experience into account at all.
With a self-hosted WordPress site, we can assist you to choose from a limitless number of themes, ensuring we tell your brand story effectively, and make your site especially attractive
to customers.
We can also adjust the site’s code to your exact specifications, and allow you to create a totally unique website that fits your exact business needs and goals.
How Do I Get Started Creating My Own Website?
It can be intimidating to create a website or to improve an already existing site that isn’t performing well for you. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with technical jargon. Don’t let
this put you off!
We’d be happy to discuss with you the goals you have in mind for your business website, and how best we can help you to reach them. We offer free consultation calls to talk you through
the options available to you.
There is no substitute for a professionally designed website when it comes to gaining the trust of your customers, and also increasing the traffic to your website.
We can ensure your website is optimized for search engines, and give you the best chance of appearing to customers who are searching for your product. This gives your business the best
opportunity to gain an edge over competitors.
We also understand that for small business owners, there aren’t enough hours in the day!
From dealing with product design to writing social media copy, and dealing with customer queries, creating or editing a website is just another task on a long list.
Allow us to cross this task off your to-do list, and take advantage of a done-for-you service, which you can be guaranteed will yield results.
In today’s day and age, don’t cut corners when it comes to staking your claim in the online space. It could be the make-or-break factor in your business.