It baffles our team how many business owners still ask “why do I need a website for my small business?” The real question should be “why haven’t I got a website for my small business?” The truth is every single day people are searching Google for small businesses like yours in your local area. There are over 1 trillion searches made on Google each year, 3.5 billion searches every day and 40,000 searches every second. You can actually see the realtime Google search statistics right here to give you a rough idea.
Are you still asking yourself “why do I need a website for my small business” after those statistics?
I am not saying that you need a website that has tonnes and tonnes of pages or special features. Most small businesses do just fine with a straight forward 3 to 5 page website. In our experience we have found anywhere up to 5 pages covers most business areas, such as the homepage, services page, portfolio, about us and contact page. Maybe a few testimonials from previous happy customers too.
With just a few basic pages you can give your customers everything they want to see. This makes the ‘selling yourself’ process so much easier. From setting up a website you could:
1. Gain more customers on Google throughout your local area
As I said above, every single day people are searching for your type of business in your local area. I currently have a mobile mechanic client who receives over 3 jobs per week from people finding his business on Google. You can find out exactly how many people are searching for your type of business on Google Adwords Keyword Planner.
2. A website is usually cheaper than other traditional marketing methods
You would laugh at how many small business owners I’ve heard say a website costs too much money and then go out and spend £800 on a newspaper ad. Honestly, a newspaper ad! Great if we were still in the 1990’s.
3. Helps make your small business look more professional and established
If you were looking for just say a plumber in your local area and searched Google, would you pick the plumber who had or didn’t have a website? Having a website for your small business can dramatically help provide a good first impression and improve customer experience. If a customer can easily find you, what you can provide them with and have proof in the portfolio, that’ll win you customers over and over again. A good quality website that’s easy to use will allow customers to form a positive opinion about your business before even picking up the phone.
4. Allows your customers to find out more about you
For many people nowadays searching directories, asking friends or picking up the phone and leaving a voice mail is far to much work. However, a quick Google search is easy. A website will enable your potential customers to learn more about you on their own grounds and this transparency really does help with converting leads to customers, especially for small businesses.
5. Increase efficiency and help save you time
Time for most small business owners is the most valuable asset ever. If you’re not completing tasks that make you money, then you’re not getting paid. Have you ever had to spend time sending pictures of previous works via email? Or actually drive round the prospects house to take them through everything? This has cost you valuable time which could of easily been saved by sending them a link to your website. Our portfolio is a great place you can take a look at some of our clients who own small businesses and the see how their websites help them save time.
6. Keeping up with your competition
Just quickly take a look on Google and search for your exact type of business in the local area you live in. How many similar small businesses to your have websites? Would you pick the business with the website or scroll through Yellow Pages online to find what you were looking for? You might be thinking “well I get enough customers already, so I don’t need a website.” That’s fair enough but what happens when you have a quiet month? Having a low cost website can help prevent those ‘quiet patches’ with a steady drip feed of leads. These are just 6 simple benefits answering the very baffling question of “why do I need a website for my small business?” Now I’m not saying that a website is a quick and easy solution to growing your small business 10X. I am not saying that by any means! I despise it when I hear that some web design companies still use the typical shady sales tactics all small business owners have probably heard. Getting a website for your small business will take a little time and investment to set up, but if you select the right web design company it should be a simple, easy and reasonable inexpensive process. Our team of web designers have had some clients who have received their first online customer in 4 weeks. Equally, we’ve had some clients where it’s taken 3 months to get their first official online customer. But if you actually think about the potential return on your website investment after it’s been paid back, it’s endless!
