The Value of Web Presence for Small Businesses
Okay, so have you ever thought about how important your web presence is for a small business? According to recent statistics, over 90% of people find businesses online before showing interest in them in person. That is an amazing statistic that has huge implications for small businesses. The result of this finding is that many people will never step foot inside your doors if your website doesn't show any information about the business and are not able to answer their questions. It is a great idea to make sure that your business has a website and if it doesn't have a web presence it is time to get one.
To help understand the value of a web presence, consider this story:
A man was shopping for his first home. Before he went out to look at homes, he asked his real estate agent what the website address for all the houses where they were going to be going would be so that he could show up online before they got there. When she told him that not all of them had a web presence, he was very surprised but insisted on knowing all of their addresses anyway since many did not have websites.
What this man wanted to do was use the internet to find out the foreclosure rates for each home he was going to be looking at so that he would know what houses to avoid. He was using the web as a resource and if your business doesn't have a web presence, chances are you are missing out on great resources that people are using every day.
Maybe you don't need to check foreclosure rates before you buy your next car but there is probably something else you need or want to know about a business before going there in person. And most likely, if you can't find it quickly with a search engine, then other people won't be able to find it either making them more likely not to stop in and check it out.
Your web presence will also directly affect your SEO ranking. If you don't have one and you are selling on ebay, etc., you are going to get a lot of people's attention that probably won't be interested in your products or services.
So why do you want a web presence? Why not just go to the local meta forum? You need to stop thinking that a web presence costs money, it doesn't. It is easy to create a website and the tools for doing so are very affordable now. Finding out all of the different ways in which this will benefit your business is important so that it is something to think about when creating your business plan for 2010.
What are the benefits of having a web presence?
It is free and it can be created quickly.
You can view a wide variety of information about the business on your site.
It helps people to find you when they are doing research and the more information that is out there about your business, the better.
It will expose you to people who just might like what you do for their specific needs and you could have an opportunity to sell them something or refer them to someone that might satisfy their needs. The possibilities are endless but remember, before making it happen, think about all of the different ways in which your business could benefit from having a website.
What do you need to do to start?
There are two different things that you need to do and they will cost the same. The difference is that one of them will take a lot more time.
You will have to choose whether or not you want to hire a web designer or create your site yourself. This can be done easily as there are many free templates available with some of them even having free hosting options included. If you choose to have a web designer create your site for you, then it is important to get in touch with them and tell them exactly what you want for your site. Make sure that there are no hidden costs and that everything is spelled out in the contract so there will not be any misunderstandings. You can even see if they will accept payment in the form of barter so that you don't have to pay anything up front but this will only work if they are a legitimate company. Getting into something like this without knowing what you are doing can cost you a lot of money so be careful.
The other option is to create your site yourself. The good news about doing this yourself is that you can do it almost for free. You will just need to find a web host, a template and some other helpful applications that will make the whole process much easier.
There are some great tools available such as Wordpress which allow you to have a website up and running in no time at all. Just stick the template on and add your content, images, etc. and then publish it online. It really is that easy.
There are also many other resources out there that can give you more details about what it takes and it doesn't take a lot of time to get your web presence up and running. If you want, you could spend a lot of time figuring all of this out but like I said, this can be done with very little effort if you use the right tools. Most people don't have much time to do all of the different things that are available to them so why not save some time by taking advantage of these great tools for having a web presence? You will be glad that you did and now your business can have one as well.
Start making your web presence a priority today. It is important to your business and you can have it up and running in no time. It doesn't cost much to create one, just some time and effort on your part. Remember, if you want quick results then take advantage of the tools that are available to you right now. There is no reason why you shouldn't have a website for your business if you want one but don't wait any longer, make it happen today!
If it seems like people are much busier than they used to be, maybe they are! With the economy being in a downturn and many people losing their jobs, more people around the world are starting their own businesses.
The reality is that there is a huge amount of competition out there, so if you really want to make your business succeed, you will have to learn how to be different from your competitors and how to get noticed.
You are not going to stand out amongst the crowd without a good website design and search engine optimization. The way that you present yourself online is just as important as how you present yourself in the real world. If people can't find you online then they probably aren't going to take the time looking for you.
It gives them something more than just a telephone number or address when they look at it in their browser and they can get more information while they are searching for it on Google or Yahoo.