According to a Capital One survey, 44% of U.S. small businesses don’t have a website. That means almost half of the small businesses out there are ignoring one of the biggest profit drivers available.
Websites affect almost every aspect of business, from credibility to searchability. If your business doesn’t have a website, you are hurting your current sales and your future prospects.
Why Does My Business Need a Website?
46% of people say that websites are a main factor in determining trust of a business, and 30% of people simply won’t do business with a company that doesn’t have a website. That’s a lot of reasons to get your business a website.
On top of that, only 53% of businesses with a website are mobile-friendly. Some quick math (carry the one, add the remainder…) tells us that fewer than 30% of small businesses have mobile-friendly websites.
Mobile is the future of the internet, and Google is serious about penalizing websites that aren’t optimized for mobile.
If your company doesn’t have a mobile-friendly website, you are losing business. It’s as simple as that. Don’t make the mistake almost half of all businesses are making – get your company a website.
Isn’t Social Media Good Enough?
Social media can do a lot of things for your business, from increasing brand recognition to product demonstrations. You can link to eCommerce sites and engage with your customers on social media.
But there are many things that social media can’t do for you. Your business needs a website in order to be competitive in today’s market.
Social media doesn’t give the same SEO juice that a website can – not even close. If you rely on organic or local search for bringing in new customers then you need a website. If you don’t rely on search to bring in new business, then you’re missing out on A LOT of business.
You can’t get a ROI estimate from social media, either. There’s no way to follow a customer through the funnel without a website, so if you’re interested in getting the best return on your marketing dollars, you need a website.
In addition, social media can’t give customers the same kind of in-depth information as a website.
Product demonstrations, introductions, or ads work well in this format, but in order to convert viewers into leads and leads into sales, you’re going to need to give customers more information.
Websites provide the opportunity for CTA’s and deliverables as well, helping convert leads to sales.
These features are not available through social media. When it comes to providing your business with what it needs to succeed, there is no substitute for a website.
Aren’t Websites Expensive?
Depending on your business’s needs, websites vary greatly in cost and complexity. The more functionality you want to incorporate into your site, the more expensive it can be.
A simple site can cost you as little as nothing. If you only want your website to provide information and gather contact info, you can build a site yourself.
There are many platforms available that require little to no knowledge of coding in order to build a modern and mobile-friendly site.
We’ve put together a list of our top three favorite free (not including hosting) site building platforms that don’t take a hacker to figure out.
Something like 30% of the internet runs on WordPress, so you’ll be in good company if you use this platform. It can create websites of all kinds, from a personal blog to a Fortune 500 company.
It isn’t the most user-friendly builder, so you’ll have a few moments of frustration, but with a little trial and error you can get what your business needs.
All sites are responsive, making them mobile-friendly, and SEO meta data is easy to add.
Plugins and widgets offer almost any functionality you can imagine, and there are templates available that will help you with design.
Some of the features do cost extra, but you can build a decent site without spending a penny.
Knowledge of HTML and CSS will help you perfect the design if you want, but it isn’t necessary.
WordPress can handle simple or complex websites for any size business. This is your best choice for anyone who doesn’t mind a little coding to get it just right.
Wix
Wix is popular because it allows you to build parallax sites through a template. This can be difficult to code, but Wix does all the heavy lifting for you.
The builder is drag and drop, so all you need to do is choose what you want (text, images, etc…) and drag them into place.
Responsive sites are standard here as well, so whatever you design will be mobile-friendly (mobile sites are not parallax, however).
SEO meta data is simple here also, so adding titles and descriptions are no problem.
Wix has apps instead of widgets or plugins that will cover almost anything your business needs, from ecommerce to email marketing.
Again, some features do cost money, but you can build a free site that looks great and gets the job done.
If you’re a small business that needs a well-designed site without any coding, we recommend Wix.com.
Weebly
Weebly is very similar to Wix, with drag and drop building and add-on apps. The styling is similar as well, offering clean, professional designs. They also offer ecommerce and email marketing. It’s basically Wix without parallax.
They also offer additional features for a price, but the basic site has what most businesses need, including easy SEO meta entry and automatic responsive mobile-friendly conversion.
Weebly.com is an excellent choice for building a well designed professional website without coding.
Get Started
Any of the above platforms will allow you to create a beautiful, cleanly designed website that has what your business needs to succeed.
You know your company needs a website, and you know how to get started. No more excuses – build a website for your business right now!