Should All Small Businesses Have Websites?

By Jelena Salatic

Should all small businesses have websites? The answer to this question should be a simple YES! But... do all small businesses actually have a website? An article in Inc magazine quoted a study that found that more than half of all small businesses do not have a website.

If you don’t want to grow your business and reach as many clients as possible, then yes, you do not need a website. I have a hard time believing that! Not so many business fall under that category!

Here are some of the most important reasons why you should have a website.

1. It’s a MUST for your MARKETING!

• It’s a great way of reaching out to potential clients and showing off your services or products. Creating a website does not have to be expensive. There are a lot of free online website builders (such as Wix.com) with a big selection of templates that you can customize to make your website look wonderful. You only need to pay around $15 for your domain and around $50 for hosting on an annual basis.

• Another great feature is that you can link your webpage with your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or any other social media site! And we all know that these sites are great and FREE ways of advertising and communicating with clients.

2. CUSTOMER SERVICE

• This is a great way of “answering” your client’s questions. By creating a FAQ page you can give answers to the most common questions and “save yourself” the trouble of doing that over the phone over and over again. You can answer as many questions as you want. Put them in categories and sort them the way you want. This saves a lot of time - both for you and for your clients.

3. IMAGES

• Another MUST for your website! Good-quality images are a huge plus for your business. Images are an amazing way of showing your services and products. Businesses with a lot of good images on their website are more likely to expand faster than those without.

4. COMPETITION

• Let’s say you do not have a website and your competitor does, where do you think your potential clients will end up going? You are right, they will go and get products/services from your competitor. Why? Because of bullet points number 1 and 2! Your competitors are offering valuable information on their website - your potential customers do not need to go or call them first!