With the abundance of marketing channels online and offline these days, investing in a website may seem like a waste of money and time. But before you decide to opt-out of building a site, you’ll want to consider your niche, audience, and business needs, as well as whether there are alternative channels suited to each.

Only with this thoughtful consideration can you get the best answer to the question: Do I need a website to meet my business goals?

Focusing your resources is a smart move whenever you’re building a digital marketing strategy. However, it can be hard to narrow down exactly which channels you want to invest in, especially when each one offers its own unique benefits.

This article will get you a step closer to perfecting your strategy by helping you decide whether a website is worth it.

Does my business need a website?

If you’ve ever considered creating a business website, you know that the process isn’t as simple as plugging in content and pushing it online. While websites have become more affordable over the years, they’re still an ongoing investment. The average website costs hundreds of dollars each year to host and maintain—even a basic website design can cost you $3,000.

This price tag can be prohibitive, especially for small business owners with limited funds. Plus, consumers are continually seeking the best user experience possible, which means you can’t just look for the cheapest web design and web development rates. Fast load times, mobile-friendly pages, and a clean interface are just some of the basics that website owners must maintain if they want to make a good first impression.

Despite the financial drawbacks, professional websites are a necessity for many companies. Let’s take a look at nine reasons a website is necessary.

Why is a website necessary? 9 Reasons

Practically every business today needs to have a website or be in the process of building one. While it may be true that almost 46% of small businesses don’t have their own websites, the majority of larger businesses do. This figure demonstrates how essential websites are for continued growth in the digital age.

A website is crucial for any business that wants to reach any of the following sales and marketing goals faster:

1. Capture and convert more leads.

Contact forms and lead-capturing tools like Podium Webchat are easy to embed on websites. On the other hand, marketing channels like Facebook pages and LinkedIn pages may get many visitors who leave without even thinking of providing their contact information.

2. Reach more potential customers.

With a website, your business can reach leaders from different parts of the globe. It is something that’s impossible to achieve with just a brick-and-mortar store or social media accounts.

However, you need to focus on search engine optimization (SEO) on your blog, web pages, or landing pages to help people find you when searching on Google.

3. Get more insight on consumer behavior.

Your website can also serve as a marketing tool. You can use powerful analytics tools in conjunction with any website to get an insight into everything from page views and read-through rates to what shoppers are adding to their carts and purchasing. You can use these pieces of information to improve your marketing campaigns.

4. Build your brand.

A website is one of the most effective tools for building your online presence. It tells new customers (and current customers) everything they need to know about your brand and what it stands for, so they don’t need to hear it from anyone else.

5. Improve customer service.

Customers ask questions and raise concerns all the time, and they usually want to get an answer fast. You can hire a customer service representative (CSR) to handle the queries and issues. But for a small business, hiring a CSR means additional expenses.

Building a website will still cost money, but you can use it to improve customer service in the long run. You can set up high-quality chatbots to answer simple questions, so the customer doesn’t have to wait too long for a response.

6. Control the narrative.

People will always have something to say about your business. It’s important to control your reputation online as it can affect your bottom line.

A good website website can help you control how people will perceive your business. You can do this by making your website look professional and including all the good things about your business that you want your potential customers to know. And don’t forget about positive customer reviews.

7. Stand out from competitors.

Not all small businesses have or are considering creating their own website. So, if you build one for your business, you’re already one step ahead of them. A well-designed and crafted website can bring endless opportunities for your business.

8. Be in business 24/7.

With an optimized website, potential customers from across the globe can find you and learn about your business even when you are asleep. It means your website could be generating leads and profit even after you go home and rest.

9. Reach larger audiences.

Simply put, a website puts your business in front of more customers. This is especially true for websites that are optimized with relevant keywords and content. Once you achieve this with your website, you can expect more potential customers to find your website.

More importantly, a website is an important tool for your digital marketing efforts. You can include links to your website in emails you send customers and on social media platforms. This helps improve the traffic your website gets.

When a Website Is Optional

Creating a new website is often one of the first steps that business owners take after writing a business plan. However, there are a few situations where a website can be optional. We’ll give you three examples.

First, if you’re running a new business and only have enough money to invest in the cost of making your products, a website may be a secondary need—at least in the beginning.

For example, many artisans start off without an e-commerce website, as they only have enough cash to purchase materials for their crafts. Initially, they may generate much of their income through Etsy. However, once they develop a brand and greater sales, they can transition to their own website and avoid seller fees.

Second, you may not need a website if your target audience is not online. Admittedly, this is rare since 90% of the adults in the U.S. are Internet users. However, this may be the case if you largely serve elderly, rural, or financially disadvantaged groups.

As a final example, a website may be optional if you’ve already built a successful social media-based brand and your cash flow is almost entirely dependent on building your social network.

This is often the case with social media influencers—particularly those who don’t sell their own products or run a blog. Though a portfolio may be helpful to influencers, their real selling point can be seen just by visiting their social media channels.

Regardless of your situation, it’s still a good idea to invest in your own website when you have the means to do so. Even though social media platforms and similar channels have become more advanced in recent times, websites remain one of the most versatile marketing and sales tools out there.

How to Create and Build a Website

If you think a website will be beneficial for your business, the next step is to learn how to create one. Website development used to involve coding and graphic design, but modern website builders provide drag-and-drop functions to ease the process.

Below is a quick guide on creating a website.

1. Purchase an attractive domain.

A domain name will serve as your unique identity online. Free domains are available but not recommended for businesses because they usually make a website look unprofessional. So, it’s always best to invest in a paid domain instead.

Here are a few of the top domain registrars you can buy your domain name from:

Domain.com
Bluehost
Hostinger
Network Solutions
GoDaddy

Your domain name will be one of the first things your potential customer or audience will see, and it can affect their impression of your brand and website. It’s best to choose something that is concise but memorable, like Podium.com.

2. Choose a website builder.

If you don’t have money to pay for a professional website design and development service, you can use a website builder instead. A website builder makes it possible to create a website even with zero coding knowledge. These products come with ready-made tools and templates you can choose from.

Below are some of the commonly used website builders. They are not made the same, so take time to review each option you come across.

Wix
Squarespace
WordPress.com
GoDaddy
Shopify

3. Create a brand.

Your website should accurately represent your business. Think about what logo, visual design, and tone of voice will clearly reflect your company and its values. This is crucial because customers choose brands that they share the same values with.

4. Optimize your website.

There are billions of websites on the internet. Website optimization is important so your site can be found by your target audience and achieve your website’s goal.

There are various ways to optimize your small business website. Search engine optimization or SEO can help your website rank higher on search engine result pages. When you rank higher on these pages, people are more likely to click through to your website.

How to Optimize Your Website

Having a website is a must for most entrepreneurs, and even when it’s optional, it’s still highly recommended. Your website presents new opportunities to build credibility, capture more leads, and learn about the shoppers who visit your site. It can also prevent potential customers from slipping away to competitors who have a more well-rounded, website-driven strategy.

Once your website is up, you can start taking action to ensure your marketing efforts are worth the investment. Learn how to make your website work smarter, not harder, and start maximizing your online presence today.

1. Get customer reviews.

Testimonials do more than encourage potential customers to make a purchase. It also helps improve your SEO ranking, helps your site or storefront appear in a search result for a local product or service, and guarantees referral traffic.

If you want to get more reviews but don’t have the time and resources to reach out to every customer manually, consider using tools like reviews products and Google review link generator.

2. Add a web chat tool.

Not all customers prefer text or email to communicate. So, a web chat can be a great addition to your website. A web chat tool allows your website visitor to have a real-time conversation with you or your staff, resulting in a better user experience.

3. Make your website mobile-friendly.

More than half of web traffic worldwide comes from searches on mobile devices. Making sure your website works when opened on mobile and other devices like tablets helps with optimization.

4. Create a blog.

A blog can help position your business as a thought leader, establish a dialogue with the target audience, gather leads, and boost your SEO. However, your blog should be optimized to achieve all those results.

You can start by identifying your target audience. You cannot get your desired result if you create a blog about dogs if your business is all about fitness. Once you know what to write about, find relevant keywords to include in your content. Aside from keywords, include a strong call-to-action (CTA) and social media share buttons.

5. Speed up your website.

Patience is growing thin these days. A potential customer who clicks your website is likely to exit your page if it takes forever to load. Aside from this, it’s important to speed up your website because Google has considered page speed as a factor in search rankings. The slower the page, the less likely it will appear on the first page of the search result.

There are several ways you can do to speed up your website, like:

Using a content delivery network (CDN.
Finding a better type of hosting.
Reducing the size of any image without compromising its quality.
Reducing the number of plug-ins.
Use website caching.

6. Build backlinks.

Backlink building is a part of SEO. It is when you insert a link from another website into your content. Google will likely consider your site trustworthy if you have quality backlinks. So, make sure to use links from authoritative sites.