“Do you have a website?” said thousands of people today, and thousands of people tomorrow will be asking the very same question.

It’s an important question and if you are serious about success then it’s even more important that you are able to answer them with a confident yes.

Of course I am partially biased when I discuss this topic. I’m biased as a web designer but not because my bias is to make more money. (Okay, it helps) My main bias comes from experiencing with many companies who initially felt a website wasn’t something they really needed but realised after a few months that opportunities have arrived that they would have missed by being absent online.

So do you need a website? Yes!

If you aren’t convinced there would be much interest in having your own website, think about this…

Can you measure the number of people who tried to search for you, couldn’t find your website and chose your competitor instead? It’s a mystery disadvantage that you’ll never know.

Being in business in 2020, customers will expect you to have a website, seriously. Having or not having a website tells two different stories to the potential customer who searches for your website.

If you have no website it may appear to them that…

• You aren’t well established.
• You don’t value the customer enough to provide a website for them.
• You are outdated and haven’t moved with the times.
• You are hiding something, trying to stay off the radar.
• You can’t afford one.

None of these are positive and that potential customer could easily find your competitor appearing in their searches with a website that steals their interest and business but it is important not to assume simply having a website suffices.

Having a bad website tells almost the same story…

• You don’t value the customer enough to provide a quality website for them.
• You don’t bother updating it or keeping it current.
• You are outdated and don’t understand websites.
• You can’t afford a professional design.

Again, none of these are positive and I would go as far as to say that a very bad website can actually be worse than no website at all. A bad website can frustrate users and anger them if it is hard to find what they need, links don’t work, there’s plenty of spelling mistakes or it just looks amateur.

If budget is an issue, a single page website design from PN Design can get you online for a very low cost and let you start off on your web journey.

What should a good website be?

In a nutshell, a website is a place to store text and images online for others to share. Never think of it this way. Let us get into the minds of customers.

A website is the first port of call when people want to find out more about you or they stumble across you on search engines. Not many people will choose to pick up the phone and ask a business to describe themselves and what they offer when they have the option of viewing a website unless they are technophobes or have no access to a computer with internet.

Visualise a website like your most important show piece available. You have a wonderful patch of online space that can be anything you want within budget, where people can come in at any time of day, spend as long as they want and decide when they want to speak to you with no pressure on them.

A professionally designed website tells the customer that you value them and provide your information in a visually appealing, easy to navigate package. Everything that they need to know about you is well presented from the tone of your business voice to all aspects of your branding.

Essentially if they like your web presence and they feel that you fit their needs and you understand them, you have the advantage. Customers need to trust you and a website provides a perfect showcase to demonstrate to them that exactly why you deserve their business.

Online for different reasons

Not all websites are online only looking to create sales. Websites can attract investors looking for business opportunities, people looking for jobs, local businesses relations and other non -sales related sources that can be very useful.

Some businesses are in a competitive market and so they use their website to achieve high search engine rankings, capturing traffic from people searching terms related to their services.

Others are the opposite. They don’t devote a lot of time and work into targeting search results but they use their website as a tool to add value to offline enquiries and meetings. Having a website that perfectly sums up their business and is designed to really capture visitors is all they need. Whenever someone is looking to find out more about them, they simply give out the website address or use it on their promotional material which impresses the enquirer, summarise their business perfectly and provides all they need to know. Much more powerful than a flyer or business card and even more powerful than a Facebook page.

Get yourself online today…

To get your business online and unlock the untapped potential of the web, you can view my portfolio of website designs, check out my website design packages and then contact me to design and build you a professional website.