Do you need a website when your business already has a social media presence and is reasonably successful?
This article will discuss why you need a website even if you already have a web presence and why it’s an excellent investment, especially now that it’s affordable and easy to build with no-code platforms.
But What If You Already Own a Facebook Page?
It’s common for businesses to have a Facebook page or other social media presence. It provides you with some organic traffic, and you can advertise to get more traffic.
-You Don’t Own Your Facebook Page
But, you don’t own the Facebook Page. Facebook does, and they can shut it down anytime they want for whatever reason they deem suitable.
With the current cancel culture, I wouldn’t bet my whole company’s web presence on the whims of a billion-dollar company.
-Short Attention Span
Plus, social media is full of distractions, and people’s attention span is getting shorter and shorter. It’s hard to get people to spend more than a few minutes on your Facebook page.
Thus, a Facebook page is not a great platform to sell your products or services. With your website, you can control the experience, and there are no distractions.Â
-Search Engine Optimization
And you can’t do any Search Engine Optimization on your social media pages, which means you won’t show up on relevant Google searches.
This decreases your visibility on Google by a lot. For example, you will only show up when people search for “your company name + Facebook.”
Don’t get me wrong, you should still have a social media presence, but with the hyper-competitive business landscape, it’s just not enough any longer.
Here’s why.
Increase Discoverability
The Internet population is growing exponentially; there are 4.66 Billion Internet users as of January 2021.Â
If you have a business and want more customers, Google is one of the best channels to get customers. That’s because you can target people searching for products, solutions, and services.Â
People use Google to solve problems and not because they’re bored (unlike social media).
You can attract new customers with a website using Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s a way to structure the content on your website so that it’s easy for Google to understand and categorize.
Essentially, Google can’t find and send you new customers if you don’t have a website. And if you’re a local business, it’s even more important to have a website. Here’s why.
Mobile Search is Essential for Local Businesses
Virtually everyone has a smartphone and uses it to search for local businesses and services. Have you ever tried searching for the nearest local business like a restaurant, salon, or car workshop?
Google is smart enough to prioritize local businesses if you’re searching with a mobile phone. It automatically detects your location and returns the nearest local business.
People have grown so used to personalized local results that they’re dropping “near me” when searching for local businesses. Instead of “hair salon near me,” people are just using “hair salon” instead.
So if you’re a local business, it pays to have a website.
Look Professional With a Website
Chances are, you’d want your business to look professional and credible.
Anyone can put up a Facebook page; it’s easy and free. Customers know this, so they trust Facebook pages less because anyone could be behind the page. It could be a scam for all they know.
The willingness to invest money into a website shows that you’re a serious business, giving your business more credibility.
Increase SalesÂ
Facebook page is a mess of posts, user comments, and notifications. Some critical comments are not fair or accurate, which might have been left by your competitors.Â
There’s also a lot of spam, which you would need to moderate. All this takes a lot of time and energy. But most importantly, it distracts the customers from finding the information they need.
With your website, you can control the experience by showcasing your best-selling products or services at the top with the proper messaging and without the clutter and distractions.
Reviews and Social Proof
Customers often rely on reviews to decide whether to patronize your business or not. While third-party review sites like Yelp, Facebook, and Google are great, the best reviews are often buried under the latest reviews.Â
Your website is the best place to showcase the best reviews, thus establishing trust with social proof.
Essential Steps In The Customer Journey
Having a social media presence is nice but insufficient because it’s like having a signboard without a store. After a customer visits your social media page, they usually want to visit your website before purchasing.
A study by Google shows that consumers engage, on average, 2.8 times with a business before making a purchase decision. So they might skip your business if you don’t have a website while your competitors do.
Stays Open 24-7Â
What if your business can stay open 24 hours, seven days a week, while your competitors are closed over the weekends and at 5 PM every weekday? Would that give you a massive competitive advantage over your competitors?Â
You bet it will, and that’s what a website essentially gives you. It’s a virtual store that stays open to answer questions and provides extra information to your customers. And this brings us to the next point.
You Can Sell On Your Website
E-commerce is exploding because of the pandemic, but you won’t get a slice of the red hot e-commerce pie if you don’t have a website.
Customers are so used to buying online that it makes no sense for businesses not to have an e-commerce store. And it’s easier than ever to set up an e-commerce capable website now, more than ever.
A Business Website Is An Asset
A thing is not an asset if you don’t own it. And you don’t own your Facebook and other social media pages, so it’s not an asset. A social media presence is a channel; that’s all it is. When you stop paying for ads, your client stops seeing your brand.
But a business website is an asset that grows and gives you ROI year after year. It also gets more valuable the more you invest in it.
Websites Are Easy To Create And Affordable
It used to take thousands of dollars and months to get a website up, but this is no longer true. You can now get a website up and running with less than a hundred bucks and a weekend. That’s because no-code technology has progressed by leaps and bounds.Â
You can use WordPress and landing page builders like Elementor to drag and drop. There’s zero code involved if you don’t want to.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, having a website has a lot of positives and not a whole lot of negatives. But you’re the only one who can decide whether or not to get a business website because you know your business best.
However, a website is an excellent way to generate sales, leads, and brand awareness, so I recommend you get one. A good example of an affordable web design and development provider might be Brimar Online Marketing.