Does Your Business Need a Website?

[Chris Bates]

Learn HTML, learn CSS, learn usability, learn copywriting, learn marketing, learn sales, learn all the OTHER stuff that goes into a website beyond HTML...

As Mark pointed out, there's certainly a market for DIY/cheap websites - but that doesn't mean they're the ultimate solution for businesses... In fact, in many cases a DIY/cheap site will be costing the business in missed sales.

[madebetterbiz]

Yes, well said, except for the last statement ..... in many cases, but not all cases .... it is more important to realise that incorrectly targeted keywords loose more sales than any other factos!

[Chris Bates]

Having the right keywords doesn't mean sales, that means traffic. Traffic != sales...

The effectiveness of a website isn't measured by how much traffic it gets, it's measured by how many conversions (leads, sales, downloads, signups) it generates. The effectiveness of that is a combination of MANY things, a lot of which are equally important - having good SEO (keywords) isn't a metric of on-site conversions, that's an element of a higher level strategy.

Really I could go on, but if I told all my secrets people wouldn't need to hire me to make the web work harder for them

[v2Media]

DIY/Cheap websites costs ALL businesses sales, no exceptions. So many people are mislead in believing the role of a company that produces commercial websites is simply to publish a series of related webpages that look pretty and provide a vehicle to wrap around the copy written by the business owner in their spare time. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Web design companies are the digital/online counterparts to traditional advertising companies. Ad companies provide clients with branding strategies, print, radio and tv advertising strategies, PR management, full ad campaign conception, action, evaluation and reporting. This list goes on. All of these services are fine tuned into a package with the sole purpose of delivering more business to the client's doorstep.

Web design companies provide clients with similar services but because the medium of delivery is quite different to print, radio and tv, the two industries are separate and distinct. When a professional web design company has access to all of these areas of specialisation, they're in a position to deliver more business to the client's doorstep than inexperienced or under experienced web studios or freelancers. That is indisputable.

Insofar as DIY/Cheap websites are concerned, if all you get is your logo slapped on a template used by 100's of other sites and formatting the client's copy into the templates, perhaps a few meta tags to assist search engine indexation, where's the value? Sure the site may get visits, it may even generate some leads. But the untapped potential is a liability.

I actually appreciate the cheap, low budget operators and freelancers out there. Their work is more attractive to businesses that are unsure about web related promotion and with less risk involved, they enter the market more readily. Many businesses then get a taste of the potential of the web and compare their sites against the competition. More often than not, these timid entrants to the market are after more robust services 12 months down the track. This is one v2Media's primary markets, redesigning atrocities into solid business generation assets.

[madebetterbiz]

Well said, there are many different market sectors, there are always options and alternatives. We opened the options to the small businesses which is otherwise not available to them, we grow with them. This is what I call small business helping small business. We relate better to the mom and pop, understanding their needs and budget constraints.

The best part is "the biggest secret is there is no secret!"

[Jason Didsman]

Madebetterbiz has picked a market place they feel they can compete in, that's ok. Best wishes in being successful, its a niche marketplace and it could work for them. I heard of a guy paying 2.5k for a landing page, I don't care how many uni degrees you have and how many circuits you lecture on, no landing page is worth 2.5k.

That said of course you can get websites for less them $100 with word press, get a theme for free, no html skills required, $20-$50 for a quality theme, write pages of content and away you go.

The original question is Do you need a website. Short version I believe is yes... although I am about to start working with a takeaway shop that is going to use socials and direct online only so that will be interesting. A website is the end place that all visitors come to when researching your products and services. All other socials etc are simply part of the net, your website should be where you make your final stand to make the sale.

You can start building a following with socials, sure, but you can potentially make alot more with a website, not all users are yet up to social speeds, every user can search. The question is this, are you missing business by not having one?

[madebetterbiz]

Thanks Jason for the kind words. It would be a dis-service to small businesses to make having a website unaffordable. To the uninformed, good web presence is expensive and I used to be one thinking as such.

Whether you need one or not, you will need to evaluate why you want a website. Merely for a web presence out of ego, nice pictures and beautiful colours then the answer is a big NO, but on the other hand the biggest potential of the web is to generate leads for your offline business, where you can capture your visitors contact details, you can call them or follow up with them for you to promote your services, then it is a big YES. You should also make it your strategy to be able to sell your goods or services online. Selling online will be a good bonus as the acqusition cost of the client is low and their lifetime value will be higher .... there is only one open secret in this industry, that there is "no secret"! Just that different people do things differently.

Ultimately you will need to be able to measure and benchmark your site.

[help_from_ingenyes]

Most businesses should explore social media. But you still need your own online presence to anchor your efforts in social media. Also, in the 21st century, what kind of business doesn't have a website?

There is no reason any business can not have a website. I notice some of these posts have bagged "template websites." Many big businesses (and the Whitehouse website) are actually Drupal websites! You can get a perfectly good website now a days for $40 and that includes the domain name! It is small but you get 900 designs to choose from. It isn't the answer for every need but it gets you emails to your own domain name and a place for a new/small/struggling business to get started. You choose a design, add your pages, fill it up with text and photos and you have a website.

Tell me why a small "brochure" website actually needs a web designer when they can use their own business skills, common sense and software instead? Other than by checking the source code, how will visitors know it is a template website? Check this out at this address.

http://www.ingenyes.com.au/createwebsite.html

Before any one bags me for it - yes, I do work for this company. But even if you don't like us, there are other companies offering the same sort of thing.

Also, read this article on creating a website and some of the pitfalls: http://www.ingenyes.com/2011/10/11/creating-a-website/

[lixgo]

"I think it's no longer a question of whether you need online presence, it's a question of whether you need your own website or can you just go "social."

I agree with JasonD - the answer is "yes" nothing beats a website to establish your branding, your style of communication, communicating your content "your" way. Social Media are channels to get the "word" out there.

The communication in social media can be quite scattered so it is better suited for Campaigns not necessarily the long-term intrinsic value that your company has to offer.

Lix