There’s no denying that in today’s highly competitive market, having a web presence is very important.
It’s more like giving a face to your business. But, if your business is doing good without a website, you might wonder: how a website will help you more? What’s the point if the business is already running with a boom?
Well, that’s because modern digital-savvy customers will reach it. Studies suggest that over 70-80% of customers look online when deciding what to buy next. And, if they will look for your business and can’t find anything, it would cue as if you have stopped services or you don’t exist!
Why Websites Are Important:
The importance of having a website for business is for visibility and to let customers know that you are offering great services.
Further, to any brick-and-mortar business, having an impressive location is everything. They only think of having a store where customers see that you can offer a huge boost to the business as it helps them increase traffic.
Having said, modern businesses also offer services to clients at remote locations and have never been to the business location.
So, here are ten reasons to have a good website:
1. It’s Like A Professional Digital Card:
Do you know that over 30% of the customers don’t consider a business well reputed if they don’t have a website? Customers do expect that any business of any size should have an online presence as it makes your business look more credible. This could be your professional wall to showcase all the certificates courses or any testimonials you have ever received. Besides, it let you create a branded email address that will help to add a level of professionalism.
2. It Will Help You Show Your Roots:
Having a website means having a platform where you can share your history and business story. You can show your customers how you started and how much you have evolved.
Besides, you can also give them a glimpse of how your business is going to change in the future. Discussing these things will help buyers know how long you have been in this journey, which will create trust among them.
Also, they will have the satisfaction that they are buying from experienced and professionals of the niche. So, create an impressive content marketing strategy and don’t forget to mention the goals for where you want to take your business in the coming decade. This strategy will show your confidence and ambition toward your business.
3. You Will be Able to Reach Clients From Other Locations:
While you might be satisfied with the success, every business at some point experiences client turnover, so, to continue being successful, you need to attract more customers.
And the best way to do this is to give your business exposure and have its presence on Google. A highly responsive and well-optimized site can take your business to new heights and attract lots of customers from varied locations.
4. You Can Showcase Your Services and Products:
Display high-quality pictures, videos, and gif on the website and make the clients see what you offer. Let’s say you are a restaurant owner; on the website, you can show impressive images of food, services, and everything.
You can also give insights to the kitchen to let clients know that you offer hygienic and fresh food. Besides, online marketing through website design will give you a glimpse of what your physical location looks like.
5. Website is For Credibility:
When it comes to convincing buyers to make a purchase, the only thing that matters is the first impression. So, if you are moving on a website, make sure it works properly. It should be well optimized and fully responsive.
Buyers make a decision on your business based on what they see and how appealing your website looks. That said, over fifty-seven percent of people don’t suggest a website with a slow interface and poor design.
On the other side, having a professional website will help you convey to customers that you are a reputable business.
6. You Can Show Testimonials:
Showcasing the best reviews and testimonials will help you show social proof. If your business has appeared in newspaper articles or popular blogs, you can also show them on the website.
Displaying these things on your website also lets you create a permanent proof of being published in them. This also means, if ever the third-party review sites plan to shut their business, you still have access to all your best reviews.
7. You can Integrate it With Google Maps:
You can easily embed your website into Google maps to make it easy for customers to approach you. An embedded map will make it easy for customers who don’t know your location.
This is also a great option if you host events, as it can attract people who otherwise won’t find time to be in your neighborhood.
8. Your Website is 24/7 Open:
Unlike your business that operates to fixed hours, with the website, you can operate around the clock. The site can remain open at 24 hours per day and for the whole week.
This also means that even if your staff is unavailable to connect to customers, your site is accessible to them and will be able to provide relevant information. In addition, this will also serve as a point of contact in your absence and will not let customers go empty-handed.
9. The Website Ensures Future Success:
With a whopping amount of people and businesses going online and using the internet, it is very important to make your business go online. In 2020, around 59% of people around the globe use the internet with many new people joining the league.
Therefore, without a website, your business will not be visible to people and will not be able to reach its long-term goals. So, to stay in the competition, take your services online and get more customer base.
10. You Don’t Need to Spend Much:
Creating a website doesn’t mean you have to spend a load of money; instead, it’s a lot more affordable and easy. It will cost approximately $70 per year if you are willing to follow a straightforward, non-technical approach.
There are many website builders available in the market that can make the process easy. You can create a website through WordPress as it is completely free and is used by most of the novice designers.
How Much Does it Cost to Build a Website?
When it comes to taking businesses online, another important question that comes to businesses’ minds is the overall cost that would need to build a website. Well, the actual cost of the website depends upon your business goals and budget. Ideally, website building can be categorised into the following:
- A small website with minimal or less budget
- An advanced website with full-fledged features
- An online store
- Custom-build website
Depending upon your choices, the website price may veray. If you are looking for a feature-rich, fully-responsive, and custom-built website, the price can become over budget and can hamper your pocket.
Have a good budget for installing web hosting and domain names.
Tools That Define The Cost of A Website:
- Domain name
- Website builder
- Web hosting
Domain Name:
A domain name is more like a website address like xyz.com. This is what your customers will type in the search browser to reach your website. Once you have registered a domain name, you will have the authorship of the website for that particular time (a year or three- depending upon the plan).
Also, you need to renew the domain with the same name as long as you are willing to keep the name. And, in case you no longer find it helpful, you can sell it over to someone or can let it expire.
Types of Domain Name:
Domains are available in various extensions, with .com being the most popular one. Besides, there are domains like .co.uk, .org, .net, .tv, .info, .io and many more. Among them, .com is the most popular and the most recommended extension.
TLD, Top-level domain:
TLD is usually the extensions of generic domains, which are listed in the highest level in the name system. There are various TLDs, but the most used ones are .com .org and .net.
Also, other TLDs like .biz, .club, .info, .agency are less known.
Country-code top-level domain- ccTLD:
Country-code top-level domain- ccTLD are basically country-specific names that end with the extension of country code like .uk, .in, and more. These are often used by global websites that want to target audiences on a broader spectrum.
sTLD- Sponsored Top Level Domain:
A sponsored top-level domain is for promoting a specific set of communities that are only served by domain extensions. For instance, .edu, if only for education-related organizations and .gov is for government websites only.
Website Builder:
Another thing that is involved in website designing is a Website builder. A good website builder will help you create a fully functional website without having a knowledge of code and other technical aspects.
This usually contains a pre-built template, with pre-existing features, all you need is to pull it on your website. The templates in the website builder are designed by the coders and web experts and adhere to the latest design standards.
Here are a few reasons why you need a website builder:
Helpful for People With No Technical Background:
For using a website builder, you don’t need any development experience. All the technical things and frameworks are pre-built in it.
Easy Drag and Drop Accessibility:
Another most impressive feature of having them is that they come with easy drag and drop functionality. All you need to do is to drag the elements you need for your website and drop them to the site template. This way, you will have complete control of your template and the layout.
Easy to Make Edits:
Apart from building your site, the website builder also lets you make required changes with ease. And, you don’t even have to change to CSS and HTML to adjust new things. You will have full control to change the website’s theme, colour, font, images, delete sections, and more in one click.
Contain Website Management Tools:
Creating a website and taking it online is not just enough; you need to do statistical analysis and reporting. That’s when a website builder comes in; a website builder contains site reporting and statistical tool integration, ecommerce integration, website email address, and other marketing tools to give you complete insights.
Also, there is social media integration to help you know how your website is performing on social media channels.
Web Hosting:
If you think that registering your domain is enough to keep your website going, you are wrong! Web hosting is a place where the files of your website are stored. It’s more like a home to your site where everything resides.
Another way to think of this is- if the domain is the address, hosting is where the house is pointing to. You will not find any website on the internet without hosting. The files stored in hosting are usually in CSS and HTML files, medial files, and other files.
So, if you are buying a hosting, it means you are buying space for your website.
Here are a Few Reasons Why you Need Web Hosting:
Having full control and access:
With web hosting, you will have full access to your website. For instance, you have created a website on a free platform; there might be a risk of losing a profitable site. However, with hosting, your data remain safe.
Plenty of customisation options:
Another good reason for switching from a free hosting is co-branding. In simple words, you are sharing your branding with other free hosts. This will decrease your credibility with customers and will also affect the overall design of your website.
When you are using free hosting, you will not be able to customize and expand your website. You will also have limited access to all the tools and plugins, and the growth of your site will also be restricted.
Your website will be safe:
Without hosting, you can ever be sure about your site’s privacy and security. However, when you have CMS and other security plugins, you can ensure that your site has high visibility and is safe.
Types of Web Hosting:
You don’t need to juggle much to find the best hosting available; here’s a rundown of the complete list:
Shared hosting:
It’s one of the most affordable options available; using this, you are only renting a server space along with various other sites. In this, all the resources on a single server are shared among all sites that are on that server. But, to access this hosting, you need to have a little technical knowledge.
Cloud hosting:
Cloud hosting is all about the network servers that help host your site. This is perfect for websites that have a very high volume of traffic. In this, the server load is distributed among various different channels. Also, it is flexible and ideal for large websites.
Dedicated server hosting:
This hosting lets you control and customize as your website is the only website at its sever. With this, you can have more access to the server’s tools and resources, and your site will have improved performance. However, dedicated server hosting is a bit expensive and can be confusing when you are using it for a new website. Also, it’s a must-have for high traffic and resource-intensive websites.
VPS hosting:
Having VPS hosting, every server is divided into various other individual servers that perform in the same way as the dedicated servers. These server resources are often shared with other websites. VPS hosting is the best choice for websites that need more resources and control, but don’t want to spend much on individual servers.
How Can You Estimate the Cost of a Website?
Before you hop on any service provider to buy a fully-fledged website, you should know your needs. Plus, you should also understand your goals so that you don’t end up overspending. Have a look at them:
What is your actual budget for a new website?
Without any doubt, planning a budget is the most important thing. And, having a website that will cost you a lot will sink your business in the future. So, before buying plugins and themes, cross-verify your budget goals. Make sure you keep your cost as low as possible when you have just started out.
What type of website do you need?
Having a pre-built WordPress theme is one of the easiest ways of having a new website. Not only will it help you save money, but it will also eliminate the option of having a developer.
What features do you need?
You surely won’t need all the features on your first website. So, write down what you need the most. This will make the process streamline and will help you focus on high priority plugins and features.
I hope this article has enough information to help you have a new website. If there’s more you wanted to know, get in touch or write your comment below.