[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Having a website for your business is a no-brainer in this digital era. And especially after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is here to stay. Even for buying essential goods like medicines and groceries, people turn towards eCommerce websites that deliver home. And most of this information is accessed by customers on the company’s website or mobile application.
Multiple studies have proven that 97% of customers browse through a company’s website before purchasing. Currently, there are about 24 million eCommerce websites on the internet. When developed with a unique domain name, with necessary SEO, and a user-friendly theme in place, your website will not get lost in the sea of other sites. It will only act as an anchor of your company that speaks for its genuineness, credibility, and trustworthiness.
Most importantly, a website acts as your company’s identity online. It is the face and future of your company. According to Nasdaq, by 2040, 95% of all purchases will be done online through eCommerce websites. Hence, creating an easy-to-use, optimized website is of utmost importance to ensure your company’s existence and future growth.
Still not convinced? Scroll down to find out the top 8 reasons why all companies, irrespective of size, product type, location, and industry, must have their website.
1. Testament to Credibility and Authenticity
A website is the first social proof that you provide to the online world about your existence. It is similar to handing out visiting cards. According to multiple studies, 75% of online users admitted that they judge a company’s credibility purely based on its website. And just having a website doesn’t fulfill this quotient. You need to develop a website with all the necessary markers to achieve this. This includes features like easy navigation, clear display of numbers/emails to reach customer service, client testimonials and security symbols, buttons of social media handles, no grammatical errors in blog content, etc.
2. Control Your Company’s Story
Creating your website gives you total freedom to customize everything from mission statement to checkout page design. You will have absolute control and the final say on all critical decisions. This means you can control how your target audience will view your company. And this has a significant impact on generating sales. You can decide how and where to include a product description, number of videos and photos for each product, type of content to create for the blog etc. With 5.6 billion searches on Google per day and 63,000 searches per second, it is essential to prove your existence online, and the most effective way to do this is to have an optimized website.
3. Ability to Learn More About Your Target Audience
Thanks to immense growth achieved in software technology, one can know everything about their customers from just their browsing pattern. Through website analytics, you can learn and analyze window shoppers’ behavior and learn to convert them into regular customers. Demographics such as age, location, interests, and more can be known through your website. Also, you can target them through several email campaigns and further improve your business with their feedback with the help of surveys and questionnaires.
4. Unite Your Social Media Handles
A website is a perfect platform to unite all your social media marketing efforts. You can display your company’s various social media handles on the website. This results in more followers and hence better visibility on social media. This also further enhances your company’s credibility. And the exciting part is, this works vice versa too. More customers will be able to fund your website through social media. This helps in generating organic traffic and hence improving your search engine results page rankings. You can harness the power of both social media and your website together and will avoid being entirely dependent on either one.
5. Enhance Brand Awareness
There is nowhere like a company’s website to find reliable information about itself. And this helps in projecting your company’s brand value to potential customers. And no matter how excellent your services or product may be, there is no future for your company without people knowing about it. And a website is the first step in announcing to the world your brand’s arrival into the market. Here are a few innovative methods of building brand awareness in 2021. Creating a blog on your website is another effective way of enhancing your brand’s visibility. SE-optimized content will help you gain popularity in search engines, bring your target audience to your website and help in increasing ROI.
6. Low-Cost Generator of Leads
Creating a website is either accessible or very affordable nowadays, making it a low-cost, high-return investment tool to generate organic leads. People find your website, contact you to buy or render your services, and voila, you have a new customer. Without placing expensive advertisements in newspapers or television, one can quickly build their clientele. It is accessible by all, at any time of the day or night. You will not lose out on any sale due to any limitations put forth by distance or time. And the best part, your website will be online without the need for any human support.
7. Ideal Window for Digital Marketing
With optimized content, the website by itself is a very proactive tool for digital or online marketing. Using many website analytics tools available like Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Trends, etc., you can improve your website’s rankings online. This increases its visibility and enhances its credibility for search engines, which will rank your website much higher in an online search. Studies have shown that 85% of users click the first three websites on an online search, hence driving organic traffic to your website. Also, 94% of online users click on organic results (not paid ads) on SERPs. And SEO alone can bring in 36% more revenue to any business. And all of this is possible only if there is a website created in the first place.
8. Beat Your Online Competitors
Customers expect any business that exists now to have a website. Why? Because everyone has one, and this includes your immediate rivals in the industry. And they already have the upper hand as they have already established trust with their customers, secured high SERP rankings, and have a focused set of loyal customers. The only way to measure up to them is by creating a website and following all necessary steps to establish yourself as a potential player in the arena. Every minute you are delaying this process means losing your customers to competitors who have already mastered the art of digital marketing.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]