According to one study, about 71% of businesses have a website.
The number one reason (31%) businesses say they don’t have a website is because they use social media profiles instead.
The most popular social media site is Facebook. They have made it very easy to setup a profile. Over a billion people have Facebook and know how to use it. This makes using Facebook for marketing a small business online pretty easy.
The business manager knows Facebook and most of the business’s customers are already on Facebook.
So what’s the point of having a business website?
Here are a few considerations…
1. Definitive Source of Brand Information & Brand Building
One survey found that 36% of consumers are more likely to contact a local business that has a website.
There is a natural distrust about information. People want to know the source of the information they’re finding online. That’s true for news and history and it’s true for business information.
There is a reason that most social networks have a verified icon for some people and businesses. Mostly for people. Their users want to know they can trust the source of the information.
Having a business website provides the definitive source of your business’s information online.
This in turn also helps to establish your brand online. Over time, if you’re doing things like creating content, you’ll earn authority indicators like incoming links, online mentions and more.
2. Trust
This builds on the last one. It’s not that simply having a website creates trust. It’s that a potential customer wants to see that your business provides information and that you’re accessible.
A website allows consumers a gateway to your company. They can read through all the information on your website. What you do, pricing, etc. They can read case studies and testimonials.
They can also read your About page to learn who you are. They can read blog posts and watch videos. All to better get to know your and what your stand for.
And they can find contact information. It makes customers feel more at ease knowing they have someone to contact if they choose to do business with you and need to get in touch for some reason.
3. Brand Authority for SEO
SEO is important for just about every business. Most struggle with it. One of the main reasons is that they don’t have a website or if they do they don’t have a branding and content strategy.
Search engines, like people, look for brands they can trust. One trust factor is having a website. A business website that’s been online for awhile is usually more trustworthy than a social media profile especially if not all social media content on the profile is not public (thus not available to the engines).
If you have a website and have signals (incoming links, online mentions, reviews, etc.) indicating that your brand is valuable and trustworthy you’ll earn rankings for relevant keywords.
4. Non-Branded SEO & Content Marketing
Content marketing is creating content, usually on your website, as a way to earn non-branded SEO traffic.
People that search for your brand name will find you if you just have a Facebook page.
But what about non-branded terms?
When people search for regular keywords they’re not often finding social media posts. Especially Facebook posts.
But they do find things like blog posts, guides, ebooks, video content, etc.
By having a website and creating regular content that answers the common questions your customers are asking about your industry you’re going to bring in people that would otherwise never know that your business even exists.
5. Change
Social media sites are just about always making changes.
These frustrate businesses every time a new change comes along.
If you commit to a social media site you’re running the risk that they can change the rules in the future.
You invest all the effort, time and money to creating content on a site. You build your brand recognition there. Then they take away your reach and even your ability to market to your own followers.
A website gives you a place to store all your main brand content and your content for content marketing.
You can then siphon traffic from social media sites and if they ever change the game you still have the content to repurpose in other ways.
Conclusion
Social media is a great tool. It’s definitely worthwhile to build profiles and attract attention. But it’s still more valuable to have a website. A definitive “home” for your business online. A home that you own and control. A home that will weather online changes.
