In an era of social media, sometimes business owners may think that having a website is unnecessary, but that couldn’t be further away from the truth. It is relatively easy to create a social media profile such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn. However, it is incredibly important to have a “home base” from which all your social accounts can link back to. As a matter of fact: VeriSign found that 84% of surveyed customers said they believed a business with a website is more credible than one with only a social media page.

It was also found that over 40% of businesses in 2016 did not have a website.

Thus, merely having a website could put you a step ahead of your competition. A site is one more way to be driving more customers, revenue, and overall value to your business.

Top Ways A Website Benefits A Company

Here are twenty-two of the top benefits of having a website for your small business, along with some ideas on how to get the most out of it:

1. Look Professional

Rather than just being the “corner shop” down the street, having a website (especially a well made one) gives the impression that you are serious, and ready to do business with all kinds of customers. It lends to the credibility mentioned in the survey result above.

2. Become An Information Resource

If your business is in something of a niche industry, having a website is an excellent opportunity to build your reputation as an authority in your field. Create a blog section on your site with informative articles that take advantage of your experience. Potential customers doing web searches on common problems related to your industry will be more likely to find you – and after they read your blog articles, they’ll see how helpful you can be for them. According to one survey, 61% of consumers reported a blog influenced their decision to make a purchase. Even if those who read these blog posts don’t become customers right away, you’ve spread the name of your business without spending a dime on traditional advertising.

Whenever possible, mention in your blog posts your services and a description. For example, if you are a mechanic and your blogs include multiple mentions of “affordable car checkups,” anyone searching that phrase has a higher likelihood of discovering your website.

3. Own Your Name

Creating a site and buying a domain name (www.businessexample.com) helps stake your claim to your business’s name, and is a quick and easy way to improve your brand identity.

You can also get a unique business email that will add to that sense of branding as well ([email protected]). In a 2015 VeriSign survey, 65% of customers said they regard a company-branded email as more credible than a business using a generic email account. Many website creation companies will include custom email addresses as part of their offerings.

4. Improve SEO Rankings

When you search online through sites like Google, Bing, or Yahoo you will see a list of websites with answers to your request. There are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tactics that you can apply to your company website to improve its rankings on those search engines.

Not having a website makes it a lot more difficult for your company to rank and gain free traffic and sales from search engines.

5. Increase Leads From Online

Gaining visitors to your website is good, but gaining customers is even better! With a well-optimized website, you get your potential leads to call, sign up, or purchase a product from your company. You can turn your website into a leading salesperson for your company.

6. Develop A Mailing List

Once you have a website built, add a form for people to sign up for your mailing list. You now have an easily accessed database of potential customers to advertise to. According to one study, email marketing can be up to 40 times more effective in acquiring new customers than social media.

7. Save Money on Printing

Paper catalogs and brochures can still be helpful in point-of-sale situations, but what if item information changes? It is much easier to have all relevant info on your website, where it will be much cheaper to edit and revise. A combination of print and web marketing materials will likely be the most cost-effective way forward.

These savings can apply to marketing costs as well. A traditional full-page ad in a smaller regional newspaper can cost around $1000 or more. Running a website can only cost a few hundred dollars a year.

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8. Be Where Your Customers Are. They’re On The Web.

The research appears to be convincing. The data shows that the web is almost everywhere.

• According to a 2015 study: about 43% of the entire planet’s population, over 3 billion people, have internet access.
• In the US: a study from March 2018 found that only 11% of Americans do not use the internet. That means that most Americans have internet access, across all demographics (including income).

Even having a fundamental website is helpful. For many people, if they can’t find it online, it doesn’t exist as far as they are concerned.

Being on the web means being able to reach people where they are. That includes smartphones:

• Another study from 2015 found that 64% of American adults own a smartphone.
• In a 2013 study, about half of smartphone owners were using their devices to shop online.

Most websites these days can automatically alter themselves to fit both smartphones and desktop computers. If most of your customers seem to always have a smartphone in their hand, then it is a good idea to be able to reach them directly.