IMPORTANCE OF WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

IMPORTANCE OF WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

If you own a small business, you may be wondering whether your business really needs a website or not. Let me save your time. The answer is a yes, you 100% need a website irrespective of the size of your business. You will need one that is professional, elegant, accessible, fast, mobile compatible, and consistent!

As per a recent observation, an overwhelming 46% of small businesses don’t have their website. On the other hand, 97% of individuals look up the internet to find local businesses. So, without a website, 97 out of 100 people won’t be able to find your business.

In this article, we will explain the importance of website development for your small business and why having an online presence is crucial for all businesses.

By 2025, India is believed to have 900 million internet users. So, many will be able to find your business and interact with you if you have a website!

Here are more reasons, why you need to develop a website:

1. 24/7 Business Presence

Over 81% of potential customers carry out online research before calling you or purchasing from your brand. Without a website, there is a 0% chance of your business showing up in search results.

People working night shifts and people who stay up late can access your business only through a website. With such a customer base, you have to ensure that they can find you too.

Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store, e-commerce, or service-based company, a website will keep you online and thus help you to not miss out on business!

With a website and some digital marketing, you will have higher chances of appearing on the top of search results and getting more potential customers.

Website development simply put, is promoting and selling your products and services any time, anywhere.

Also integrating a live chat will help potential customers to communicate with you at their convenient time.

2. Display products and services virtually!

Over 50% of consumers prefer online shopping more than offline shopping. Without a website, only physically visiting customers will know your products or services.

But website development means that anyone with internet access will be able to look up your products and services! It will work as a catalog for your business.

You can display your products with relevant images, descriptions, and customer testimonials to attract people. 60% of consumers felt positive about a company after reading or watching videos about it. Thus a website not only helps people trust you but also makes way for instant sales!

Even if sales don’t happen immediately, there is a high chance that the customers will return to your website later. Another advantage of website development is you can retarget your existing customers!

If you are a service-based company, a website is a great platform to share case studies and how your business helps solve certain problems. Customers who need similar services, will search your business, view the testimonials, begin conversing and eventually become your client.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing plays a crucial role in influencing customers. Regular blog updates, strategic landing pages are used by over 68% of B2B businesses to acquire traffic and leads!

So, your website is a powerful tool for marketing. Be it content marketing or search engine marketing, you won’t have many advantages without a dynamic website.

With digital marketing and your website, you will soon become an authority in your niche, thus building your brand’s authority.

Also, digital marketing is cost-effective, as you can reach more customers than traditional marketing. It helps expand your business without any geographical restrictions and you will enjoy the flexibility of targeting your audience alone!

Website analytics will give you the data on what is working for you and what isn’t. This will help you choose the right online channel for getting leads, conversions and to know the best performing keywords. Thus unlike traditional marketing, you are not marketing in the dark.

Collect Contact Details

Your website can be used to generate leads continuously once you understand what sources are bringing you traffic. Then improve the marketing efforts for these sources to gain more percentage of conversions.

Efforts are needed to convert your traffic too. You can set up forms to collect email IDs and contact numbers. A live chatbot can open better communication for your visitors.

Credibility For Your Business

As a new or small brand, not everyone would be familiar with your business. And if you are not a big brand, the chances are very less that the consumers would trust you.

Therefore a website makes it easier for people to know your business, your contact details, see what other customers are saying about you, etc.

Visitors want to know if you are a genuine business before buying from you. So over 95% of people were found to read online reviews before making a buying decision.

So, customer testimonials are a great way for your visitors to decide whether to buy from you or not without much hesitation.

Your Competitors Have It!

We find many business owners stating that their business doesn’t need an online presence or a website. But that is a baseless argument as 54% of Indians use smartphones and you will lose customers to your competitors who have an online presence.

Now, if you are convinced that you need a website development for your business, let us briefly explain how much it could cost you.

Cost of website development.

Here’s the breakup for your website cost:

Domain purchase and Hosting: A domain is simply the website address (www.company.com) and hosting is where your website will exist (GoDaddy, Wix, InMotion, etc.). You will have to buy the domain and pay for the hosting as well. These are recurring costs depending on the plan you have chosen.

Design & Development: The cost for designing and developing your website depends on what kind of website you want. If you want to develop your website to be more customized or develop from scratch, it will be very costly. If you choose the free “drag and drop” website builder, you will still have to bear the hosting costs. The premium hosting package will cost you slightly higher.

However, it is important that the website is elegant and user-friendly for better conversions! So investing to develop a good website is recommended.

Digital Marketing

If you have someone in your team who knows digital marketing it will work out affordably for you. Hiring a digital marketing firm to work on SEO and content creation will incur some costs.

Summing Up

Website is crucial for any business. Developing a website for your business is one of the best decisions you could make. Not only does it influence your search ranking, but is an amazing platform to gain credibility, leads, and conversions! It will give your business 46% more chances to reach your customers!

If you agree with us and need help developing your website, let us help you!