Why every business needs a website

I recently had a conversation with a business owner who said “I have a small business and my product really can not be sold online. Do I need a website?”

First, I would challenge the assumption that your product can not be sold on-line. But let’s assume for now that it is true. Let’s just take a look at the bigger picture. The marketing process takes a pool of possible people who may be interested in your product and drives them through your sales funnel to a sale. Not everyone makes it through and different people take different time to get through. The marketing process turns people who don’t know about your product into customers. So how do people find someone or something today?

More and more they are turning to the internet to find solutions to their problems or businesses to solve their problem. And they use a search engine to find them. You may have done this yourself. Have you ever looked up something in Google, Yahoo or Bing? No doubt you have done this at some point, maybe even sometime today!

If you are not on the internet, you can not be found. Period. End of story. People use search engines to research businesses on the internet, comparing prices, products or services offered, and business practices. And they do this quickly, often spending 30 seconds or less on a web site. You have to get them to stay on your web site because the longer they stay, the more likely they will choose you over all the others.

To be found you need to be on the first three pages of Google, and many argue today, with good reason, that you need to be on the first page to capture the most prospects. Many people no longer go past the first page to find their solution. Once found, your web site must present a professional image and provide the information your potential customer is looking for. Pretty sites are not enough; your website must attract the right customer and speak directly to them. Then get them to take action.

So it is not enough just to build a website, you must build the right website, one that is crafted to come up first in the search engines, speaks directly to your potential customer, beams with professionalism, and causes the viewer to take action. Putting all this together will take some time and effort, but the rewards can be massive. You got to get in the game!