There is one reason to launch your small business website: Sales.
That’s the reason we all do something related to marketing.
Every business is out to get sales. Without sales there would be no business. Even organizations are out to get donations and contributions. It’s about selling.
With that in mind, though, here are 6 additional benefits of having a quality small business website.
1. You Control The Official Message
People are going to say what they’re going to say about you online. You can’t control what others say about you.
What you can control is your official message. And the Internet gives you a platform for doing that.
With your own website you can be the source of official information from your brand. People respect the official opinion and often discount any rumors based on the official word.
2. You Influence What Others Say About You
Again, you can’t control what people say about you online.
You can, however, influence what people say about you online.
The best way to do that is to make sure you offer great products and great service on every level of your business. It’s not something you can make happen overnight, but you can start right now to build your reputation.
To a lesser extent, you can influence what others say about you by using your website as the main source of information from your company.
People will cite the content on your site including videos, blog posts and pages like your about page when they create content about you and your company.
3. You Own The Content
The trend in the last few years has been for businesses to invest heavily in social media. This is great, but when you put a lot of effort into creating social media without a website of your own you’re giving up content ownership.
The items you share on sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. are owned by those sites.
Own your content by putting it on your website. Then share parts of it on social media to entice followers back to your site where the good stuff is.
4. You Control The Platform
The other issue with social media sites like Facebook is that you don’t control the platform.
Every time Facebook makes a change people go crazy for a few days. People are averse to change, but businesses have to scramble even more to make changes to profile images, header images and the content shared in the feed.
When you have your own website you control the platform.
5. You Influence Your “Google Blueprint”
What happens when you google your name or brand name?
If the results aren’t exactly what you’re looking for then you don’t have control over your Google Blueprint.
The best way to take control is to create a quality business website. Google recognizes the official site for information when it comes to searches for your brand name.
6. You Appeal To Changing Consumer Preferences
Your current customers might prefer to find you in the yellow pages and other traditional channels, but consumer preferences are changing.
If you want to attract new audiences you have to appeal to their preferences and today people are looking online for information.
Creating a website today is like creating a yellow page ad back in the good old days.
Your website becomes the source of information for your company. It can be your online salesperson and the great thing is you don’t have to pay them an annual salary and they’re always working for you.
These are some of the reasons a website will benefit your small business.
To learn more about the web design process see How The Web Design Process Works.
