Do you need a website? That’s the big question, right?
I hear it all the time. Does my business really need a site? Do people even use websites anymore? Aren’t they just being replaced by social media profiles and personal blogs?
Well, fortunately, or unfortunately, the answer to that question depends on your particular business needs and preferences as an individual. However, while almost every company could benefit from having a website (regardless of whether you have social media profiles or not), not every company needs one. Depending on your target audience and business model, different digital marketing channels may be more beneficial than others for reaching those customers and meeting their needs.
If you’re still unsure, check out these considerations before making your final decision:
Check your potential customer base
If you’re in a business that deals heavily in B2B (Business to Business) transactions, you will most likely have to build a website in order to satisfy your customers and meet their expectations. This is especially true if you have a highly specialized product or service that is likely to appeal mainly to other companies. Both smaller and larger companies will often use a site as a resource for answering questions about their product or for setting up contracts with other businesses.
Companies that deal with consumers, on the other hand, will likely have different expectations. You may still need a site, but it likely won’t be as vital to your overall sales strategy.
How You Currently Reach Your Audience
Another key factor to consider is how you currently reach your audience. Do you use social media to reach out to customers and inform them of new products? Are you putting a good amount of time and effort into building a following on various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter?
If so, building a website may not be the most efficient use of your time. On social platforms, it can take a long time to build up a substantial following and get people excited about your brand and product(s). I’ve seen countless businesses start out on social media with a bang and then suddenly fizzle out and die within a few months. Because social media is mainly based on organic reach, the more followers you have (that like, share, and comment on your posts), the more people you reach on each post. When you first start out, however, you reach very few people.
Social media is great for generating interest and reaching a large audience, but it’s very hard to directly monetize it. Building a website, on the other hand, is a much more direct way of reaching your customers and generating revenue.
How Much Time and Effort You’re Willing to Commit
As with anything, having a website will require a certain amount of maintenance and upkeep. What are the hours of your business? How often do you update your products and/or services? How often do you add new content? If you already have a busy schedule and don’t have a lot of time to put into growing and maintaining your website, you may want to reconsider. One of the main advantages of social media is that you only have to push a few buttons, and then you can forget about it for the most part until you have time to check back, share or like another post.
Determine What You Want to Achieve With Your Site
Another important factor to consider is what you want to achieve with your site. How do you want your customers to feel when they visit your site? What do you want them to do when they get there? What are the main points you want to communicate? And most importantly, how will you achieve all of this?
When it comes to website design, there are literally thousands of different options, layouts, and templates to choose from. Each design will have a certain vibe and set of expectations associated with it. What’s more, different types of websites are best suited to different types of industries and products. If you want to sell a product, you can’t really make a blog out of it. You can make a blog out of almost anything, but it won’t be the best fit for selling a product.
Pros of Having a Website
If you’ve made it this far, it seems like you’re still not sure whether or not your business actually needs a website! That’s okay – I’m here to help!
Having a website can be extremely beneficial for several reasons:
- Companies tend to take you more seriously if you have a website. They assume that if you have a site, you’re probably a legitimate business and not just a hobbyist.
- Customers often trust businesses more if they have a website because they usually assume that a company that goes to the effort of making their own site must be pretty serious about what they do.
- Having a website gives you a central location where you can direct customers to in order to purchase your product(s) or learn more about your business.
- Having a website makes you more accessible 24/7. Even if you’re not regularly updating your social media channels, people can still visit your site at any time and read your information whenever they want.
- Having a website makes you more discoverable in search engines. Since search engines such as Google pull information from websites when they decide what to show in their search results, having your own site makes you much more likely to show up when people are looking for your services.
- Having a website makes it easier for customers to find you and contact you whenever they want. Whether or not you have social media accounts, people will still be able to find and contact you through your site.
Cons of Having a Website
Having a website is definitely beneficial, but it doesn’t come without its share of challenges and drawbacks. If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you need a site, these are some common complaints that businesses without sites often have:
- Websites cost money. Building, maintaining, and hosting a site isn’t cheap. Depending on the size of your business, the level of complexity of your site, and the type of site you choose, a website can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars to create and maintain.
- Websites take a long time to build. When you hire a web designer to create your site, you may have to wait anywhere from a few weeks to a few months before you actually have a functioning website to put online.
- Having a website ties up your domain name. Whenever you put a site online, you’re essentially making that domain name your home base. Once you put your website up, you can’t also use that same domain name for other things such as social media profiles.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, (there, I said it!) having a website is almost always beneficial for your business. It gives you a central location to direct customers to, makes it easier for them to find you, and makes it easier for them to learn about your business. It also makes it easier for potential customers to find you and reach out to you. Personally, I believe that while you can start on one-off pages, if you want to generate sustainable revenue, you cannot keep running a business on pages from free sites or just on social media.
Having a website isn’t right for every business, but to reiterate -almost every business would benefit in some way from having one. If you’re still not sure whether or not you need a site, consider these key factors: your target customer base, how you currently reach your audience, how much time and effort you’re willing to commit, and determine what you want to achieve with your site.
