Take Your Website Seriously

By Glen Williams   I converse with a lot of small business with some who doesn’t seem to understand the importance of their website. The website is in most cases first thing people will see about your business. It doesn’t matter if they read every single word on your page and on your site, what is important they gain confidence and trust in what you are providing. I can go into all kinds of endless tips for SEO, design principles, keyword targeting, online marketing, how much to spend on advertising, but this article is about why websites are important.  

1. Presence

Websites provide the foundation of your business presence. It allows visitors to see that you are in business and what you provide. This is important. If people don’t know what your business offers and about, then how do you expect to develop prospects and connect sales? ALWAYS INVEST by putting your Absolute Best Forward. You don’t have to keep updating or tweaking your message. Make known what you do and how you do it better. Your website is the first point of reference you use in your marketing. A good, reliable website goes a long way.    

2. Awareness

Websites help build who you are and your brand identity. It is the most cost-effective way to get your business and brand out to showcase what you provide. Even if you have a large social media presence and following, if your website does not match what you are presenting, it can have disastrous outcomes. Websites and Social Media work hand in hand. Both require marketing planning, targeting, what message you want to convey, and how it promotes your brand. You want new prospects to feel secure and current clients feel they made the right choice. Keep visible with relative content your targets can use.    

3. Contacts

People feel more secure when they can reach who they’re doing business with. Always have ways to contact through email or phone is possible. The more people feel they can reach someone when they have questions, the better. Always have ways for customers and prospects to connect with you.    

4. Content Sharing

People like to know what’s going on. Share new developments with your business, when you expand, create new positions, new products, new services, announcements. Share what’s going on and websites provide excellent marketing vehicles to do just that.          

5. Learn About Your Customers / Clients

Create engaging social media posts to learn where your customers are and what interests them most. Use this information to incorporate into your overall business model and how you can deliver their interests. You won’t know this until you actively reach out to what they are seeking, and you adjust your services accordingly to meet their needs. This is critical for expansion and lets viewers know you are concerned with their needs. Websites can help provide this information when a well-crafted marketing campaign goes live.      

6. Social Media

Do not rely solely on social media to get your message out. If you only have a Facebook page with followers and likes, that’s only part of the market that’s out there. Plus, solely relying on social media, you are inside of another’s platform, if someone makes inappropriate offensive remarks from a post you made, it can cause dramatic effect. You can spin out of control from shares and posting to other pages, platforms, and sites before you can get a handle. Social Media should be used to PROMOTE from your central source. Relying solely on social media for your business can prove costly very quickly and can take months or more to “clean up” and get back where you were… with a website, you’ve already approved what your message is and simply broadcast it to your social accounts. Relying on a singular source can prove to be a great risk.    

7. Website Maintenance

Maintenance is very important for websites. Plugins and Updates must be kept current. Updates protect against malicious code and threats that can shut your site down and create massive panic and headache, hence why well-known secure templates are a better choice for small businesses without dedicated IT departments. (When and Why To Use Templates) Good templates have legions of people behind them always keeping up with the latest threats and how the template interacts with plugin updates. If you have a hand-coded site, then it’s all is on you and your developer and that doesn’t always go so well. It takes enormous resources to protect websites and your site is under constant barrages daily of intruder break-ins with bots trying to gain access. Take the necessary precautions to always protect and backup your website.      

8. Visibility

With the right SEO (Search Engine Optimization) you can reach more people than you can imagine. Now, this of course is hard because other sites are competing with yours, but if you keep your site updated, and with proper SEO, you should do just fine with little money invested. If you do wish to invest in SEO marketing, then the tighter your site is, the better to rank and be seen.      

9. Automated Websites

Services that provide website builders for you to easily make and create your own site are common. Be mindful however of their limitations and the millions who use their platform have the same ability as you, you can’t add outside features, custom plugins to services that offer pre-built solutions. They may seem convenient until you want to move your site then you can run into problems. They offer backup and site protections, but the unique customization of your site is limited with these services.      

10. What To Know

Your website is a critical part of your business. Do not think it doesn’t matter, even if you have a low visitorship, but you can always have peace of mind whoever visits your site will see your very best and understand what you provide. Websites are designed to be tweaked, upgraded from time to time. Observe where your strong areas are and build, also observe where your weaker areas are and build. Your website is the best cost-effective marketing tool you may have. It provides twenty-four-seven visibility, you can promote across multiple platforms, and you can engage current and prospective customers. Do not ever take your online presence lightly.