As a small/medium business owner, you may be wondering, with our size, why do we need a website? Isn’t a Facebook or Instagram page enough?

We’re here to tell you that the question is not so much why, but why not?

It’s understandable that small business owners fail to see the need to own a website, especially for offline businesses.

They struggle to fill their website with content or to keep them fresh and updated. A website is merely a place for them to place their business NAP (name, address, phone number), which is something that can be done for free over on a social media profile page.

To address this question, we’ve put together a blog post discussing five benefits your Perth business can experience with your website. So, let’s begin.

Increase Organic Traffic

Studies show that 75% of users don’t scroll past the first page on Google.

This reflects a hard truth – if your business is not on page 1, nobody is going to find you on Google.

When you have a website, you can use it to place yourself on top of Google search results, using what is known as SEO (search engine optimisation). With SEO, you can build more attraction, authority and credibility for your business, using organic traffic.

Organic traffic refers to online web users that land on to your website organically due to high rankings in search results.

What makes organic traffic so valuable and powerful to businesses is because they are mostly free (hence the term organic).

The more people you can bring in with your website, the likely you will show up on Google’s first page, and ultimately the higher your chance for your small business to experience growth.

The bottom line is that having an SEO strategy will increase your bottom line. However, without your website, SEO is not possible.

Grow your presence in Perth

Ever notice how major brands like Nike, Maccers, and Coke don’t do a ton of advertising? The reason is only due to the fact that they are already very well-known.

However, how is this relevant to your small business? When you have a website, you have a platform to build your brand’s voice and message, which allows you to grow your presence in and around Perth.

Locals will know your business name, understand what you sell, and more importantly give your referrals business, just because they know you.

This concept also ties directly back to Google and SEO. With a strong brand presence online, Google will trust your website and rank you favourably on their results.

Freedom from Facebook (or any social media platform)

You might be thinking, why bother to waste time and money building a website when I can do the same on my business’s Facebook or Twitter page?

Well, one issue that often gets overlooked is that you have zero control over what happens to your Facebook or Instagram page.

While it’s true you get to choose what you wish to put in your Facebook profile, or what photos to share on your newsfeed, but the fact is, anything you put onto Facebook belongs to Facebook.

Because Facebook and Twitter are marketing giants, they can change their terms of use and policies whenever they feel like without notice.

It may seem unlikely, but Facebook can choose to take down any page or content overnight if they think that it’s not aligned with their business goals or policies.

Even the slightest change in policy can have a dramatic impact on your business’ online presence.

For example, if Google decides that they don’t want to rank Facebook pages in their search results anymore, nobody will be able to find your business if you only have a business Facebook page.

So how do you protect yourself from the mercy of social media? Place your content somewhere you have complete control aka your website, of course!

Adds legitimacy and social proof

Consumers nowadays are smart. They like to do their research online before they buy.

In fact, 90 per cent of consumers says that online reviews help them to make their buying decisions.

You could rely on local review sites like True Local, Word of Mouth or Yelp, to show testimonials of your past customers, but these sites can remove them without telling you.

There is a much better way to resolve this issue – and that is to add customer reviews onto your own website, where potential buyers can read and be impressed by your business when they visit your homepage.

Your Customers Want it

A website is not just something your customers want but also expect.

Six out of ten consumers expect businesses to have online content related to their business on any form of digital platform, with over 50% go directly to the business website.

Customers want to know what makes your business different, what are your offerings, and what your previous customers say about you.

If your business doesn’t have a website, your customers may not be able to learn more about your business or even trust you.

So unless you’re a business owner who’s already had too many customers, or perhaps you are not interested in growing your brand or create a reliable source of customers, you’ll need to own a business website.

Building a business website has never been easier.

Your business website isn’t more than just your virtual storefront; it’s also your sales representative that works round the clock while your business sleeps, making it one of the best forms of free advertising.

Having a website isn’t just about selling your merchandise or services — it’s also about providing something of value to your potential customers.

If you would like to impress your customers with your business website, we can help you. Please contact us today.