Do I Need a Website for my Business?

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Do I need a website for my business? This question is one of the most commonly asked questions in entrepreneur groups. I see many answers, and some people say yes while others say no. I am 100% in the yes category. In today’s world, you need a website to be taken seriously in business. 

A website makes you look professional

Customers are going to try to look you up online. If they can’t find you, they may find a competitor instead. And you just lost your chance at earning their business. A website is a minimum requirement for a local or online store today. 

What if I build my business on Facebook or Instagram instead? 

Building your business on a social media channel is a BAD idea for many reasons. The most important reason is that you don’t have control over the channel. It’s someone else’s, and you’re borrowing their audience. Due to this, you have to play by their rules, and we all know the social media algorithm updates can (and do) frequently impact business pages. Building your entire business on a social media channel is like building your home on someone else’s land. You wouldn't do that, right? Why would you build your business on rented ground then? 

Building a website is too hard

I hear this over and over, and I get it. Creating a website is time-consuming and can be difficult, but there are so many easy to use website builders out there today that this shouldn’t be a limitation. Start with a website builder and go from there. You can always upgrade later on. Your first website isn’t going to be your last or your best. It’s going to be your first website, and it’s going to help get the job done. 

I don’t know what to include on a website

Your first website can be straightforward. You should have a homepage that tells potential customers how you can help them. You want to address their needs and issues right away and show how you solve their problems. 

Have a contact page, make it easy for the potential customer to find out how to get in touch with you. Have a company or about page if it makes sense in your industry. If you sell products online, then you’ll have a product page. If you want to blog, set up a blog page too. 

You may have a few different pages, but the most simple website can be just a couple pages and still provide value to your customers and help build your business. 

Do my URL or email address matter? 

Register your website domain (URL) and set up a business email address. Don’t use your business name at Gmail or Yahoo! Or whatever, it doesn’t look as professional as having an email address that’s set up as name@businessurl.com. Spend $5 a month with Google Suite and set it up or have it set up through your website hosting company. 

Establish your website domain too. Don’t do something like mybusiness.wordpress.com go ahead and set it up the right way from the beginning and have mybusiness.com as your website address. 

Add a little SEO

If you’re going to go ahead and build your website and register your domain name, set up your email address and everything else associated with setting up a professional business, then you need to complete the process and work on some SEO for your new site. You don’t have to do everything today but make sure you add Title Tags and Meta Descriptions for each page. Don’t use the default ones from Yoast SEO (if you’re on Wordpress) or even worse, leave them blank. This post highlights some of the basic SEO you can do when you’re first starting out. 

Make the Right Impression

Setting up a professional looking website with a professional email address helps your business look more legitimate to a potential customer. Spend a little time and complete the process so that your business can grow. You don’t want your lack of a website to cause a potential customer to find the competition instead. That would be bad for business. 

Register for our FREE Marketing Training Workshop program and join thousands of other small business owners who have learned how to create their marketing plan with our help! Click here to register today.