When you run your own business there is always a lot to do. In some cases, you can afford to take ‘shortcuts’ and still get on well with your sales.
However, when it comes to your marketing – and your website in particular – shortcuts should be avoided.
Having a good website is crucial if you want your business to succeed and to become known. Read on to discover just why having a website (and especially a good website that looks attractive and offers plenty of information) is so important.
A Good First Impression
In today’s modern world, people like to search online for something before they commit to buying it.
This gives them the widest choice, and it shows them just what is available. If you don’t have a website, you won’t come up in search results even if your business is local to these people and you can offer them exactly what they want.
Not only will you appear in searches if you have a website (and the better your SEO, the higher you will appear in the search engine results, which means it is more likely people will click through to your site), but if your site looks good with enough information and some great images, you’ll make a great first impression. With so much competition vying for the same customers, the better your website looks, the more chance you’ll have to make money.
Trustworthy
If you want to show that you are a trustworthy, legitimate company, a website will help you. Your website will prove that you are serious about your business, and the more time and effort you put into it, the more trustworthy it will appear.
A scammer or someone willing to fold their business quickly wouldn’t take so much time over making their website look good, and they wouldn’t include so much information either.
This is why it is a good idea to have well researched, informative blogs on your site, and to check your images with a reverse image search on oberlo.com to check that they are little used, or even unique to you – the more people see the same images on lots of different sites, the less interested they will become.
Sell Online
Even if you have a brick and mortar store, you can make extra money by selling online (and clearly, if you have no physical store then you will be making all of your money through your website).
Online shopping has become the norm for a wide section of society, and they would rather buy through a website and have their goods delivered than go out and get them. Therefore, you can make extra money by having a dedicated online store.
This additional revenue stream can make the difference between a successful business and a failed one, so if you can do it, then you certainly should try. Eventually, you may choose to sell solely online, and this will reduce your outgoings significantly.
