As a business owner, you should know by now that having a website is a necessary part of your marketing strategy if you intend to survive in today’s evolving digital world. A website serves as a digital address of a business where online visitors can find out about a brand and the products or services that it offers. As such, not having one for your website would mean limiting the growth of your company.
Many expect that almost businesses these days have a website – except small business owners. In fact, this post by Inc. highlights the survey by Redshift Research, which reports that almost 60% of small businesses lack website development.
SEO is an Investment
The rationale that these small business owners hold for not having their own website varies, but the answers typically include the time and cost associated with building and maintaining the site, that it is too complicated, and that their business will do just fine without it.
What these small business owners don’t realize is that the consumer landscape has changed significantly in the last 10 to 15 years, all due to the internet and technology. The number of internet users worldwide continues to rise at an unprecedented rate, and there are an estimated 1.92 billion global digital buyers in 2019. It’s a completely different world for businesses.
These driving forces can be very easy to miss if you’re busy running a local store and most of your customers are repeat customers or referrals. However, it can be a risky deception that could cost you your business soon.
Having a business website offers a lot of significant advantages that many small business owners tend to miss. First is that it allows the business to be on par with its competitors in terms of market reach and brand awareness. Even the most unique and innovative product or service can fail to generate profit if its target customers are not aware of it or can’t find crucial information about it. By having a website, you can promote your offerings to a wider audience than ever before, and highlight their most important features and details more competitively and efficiently.
Another major advantage of having a business website is that it helps build loyalty by providing a satisfying customer experience. A well-built website not only highlights the company and the products or services it offers but also allows customers to reach the business directly and even initiate real-time communication through their mobile device, which then results in more efficient customer service. Such efficiency is extremely crucial in the Business to Business (B2B) sector, wherein decision-makers cited lack of fast interactions as their number one pain point – even more crucial than price.
That being said, having a website is surely a huge step towards success, but having one would still be meaningless if it does not appear on top of search engine results pages (SERPs). Enter the Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is the strategic key for small business to dominate the organic search results and ensure visibility to the right customers.
If you want your business website to become successful in the long run, then you should definitely invest in SEO. To find out why check out this SEO is an Investment in your Company’s future infographic from Landau Consulting.
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