Your website is a chance to establish yourself in the marketplace. Make sure your site brings prospects and customers to you.
Let’s face it – your website is vital to the success of your company. In the digital age, online interactions and impressions are arguably more important than any other aspect of your clients experience. Small business analyst and Forbes contributor Nicole Leinbach-Reyhle reminds us that a website can be a “professional destination that gives customers the impression you mean business and the motivation to want to engage more with your business”. Your company’s online presence is an opportunity to extend your brand influence, reach new customers, and maintain existing clients. Here are four simple reasons your website matters and should work for you.
Consumers rely on technology to make decisions more than ever before. Search engines like Google, Yelp, Yahoo, and Bing are essential to the consumer experience. Modern users rely on search engine services to deliver customer reviews, location, pricing, and industry information in a second’s notice. Having a website that responds well to keyword searches online is key to driving the growth of your business.
Websites are an opportunity to add value to your product or services in a variety of ways. An e-commerce or online shopping cart is a proven way to eliminate the barrier of a physical point of sale. Moving your storefront online will often reduce the costs associated with a physical storefront, streamlining the process of delivering your goods and services and increasing efficiency for your business. It also adds to the user experience by offering the option to act immediately and make real-time consumer decisions from the convenience of the web.
It’s hard to overstate the value that brand recognition and influence represents for your business. Your website is arguably the most efficient tool at your disposal in communicating a well-crafted brand to your existing and future client base. Leinbach-Reyhle tells us in regards to customer loyalty that, “79% of customers would take their business to a competitor within a week of experiencing poor customer service”. Increasing customer retention and reducing client-turnover is one of the best ways to help your business. Your brand reflects the reliability and consistency that should define your business, your website is the most effective way to bring your brand and business together.
We spoke earlier about the importance of using your website to drive search engine engagement and optimize traffic to your product or service, but it’s important to note that the alternative can be devastating. Having no website can make you impossible to find. Many small businesses rely on social media pages or local business listings alone and are consistently overlooked by engaging consumers. The mechanics of search engine optimization can quickly render a Facebook Business page useless, keeping it from ever appearing on a detailed google maps listing, and placing it so far down the list of relevant search engine results that it is may as well not exist. Without a website you run the risk of relying strictly on word-of-mouth association without excuse.
Whether your company consists of a few agile creatives, hundreds of employees performing services, or a retail experience that you’d like the world to see, these basic principles of website development will hold true. Engaging your customers, enhancing their experience, and highlighting the important parts of your business are key. It’s imperative for your business to embrace the importance of an individual website and consider the areas within your industry at which that website could work for you. To learn more about your web needs
contact us!