Starting a business in this economic climate is a bold step, and congratulations are in order.
Whether you are starting a brick-and-mortar business and targeting a local audience or an online company, building a professional, well-optimized, and informative website is an absolute must.
There are many reasons why startups need a website, and below, you will find the most significant ones.
Why Do Startups Need A Website?
Building your online presence is necessary when starting a business or growing an existing one. That is how you build your brand and raise brand awareness. There are two primary ways to establish a basis for your online presence:
- Create accounts on all relevant social media
- Build a robust and well-designed website
You may think that social media presence is enough while you are at the beginning, but that’s not true. You need a website for many different reasons, including:
- Increased legitimacy
- Brand establishment
- More accessibility
- Product/service marketing
- Lead generation
- Room for expansion
1. A website instantly makes your business seem legitimate
You can trust that if clients can’t find you online, they will find someone else. When they look for a service, even if they see you on social media, they will check if you have a website. If you don’t, they will likely continue their search.
The primary reason this happens is that a website makes your business more legitimate in the eyes of consumers. When establishing a company, proving legitimacy is paramount. You are still building a reputation; there is no word-of-mouth to promote you, so your website and online presence as your best bet at attracting leads.
While you are at the start, you don’t need anything fancy and too elaborate. You don’t need an e-commerce website from the get-go. However, you need your site to look professional and serious. You also have to project the ideas and values your brand stands for.
Your website also has to be fast, sleek, and secure. It’s impossible to overemphasize the importance of website security and monitoring. Therefore, it would be best to rely on experts for this. You don’t want to make any rookie mistakes and lose customers because there is something wrong with your website, and you aren’t even aware of it.
2. Startups need a website to establish their brand
Every business needs to work on its brand. It’s what makes them recognizable and attracts new clients. Even if you aren’t planning to trademark some of your branding elements, your website can help grow your brand until you reach that point.
Even if you haven’t registered any trademarks yet, it helps to post them on your website because doing so:
- Increases visibility
- Improves awareness
- Provides protection and the right to cease and desist if anyone uses your trademark without consent
3. Website makes your business more accessible
If you have a physical store, it can’t be open at all times. A website allows interested customers to visit any time convenient. Even if they can’t purchase anything, a website will enable them to find all the information they need. That may nudge them to choose you once they are ready to make a purchase or schedule a service.
Moreover, to be even more accommodating, you can set up a chatbox to greet visitors and answer their queries. That is immensely beneficial as most people prefer to look for information online than call a phone number.
Customers would even rather solve their issues with adequate instruction and help themselves than call a person for assistance. A website allows you to provide your clients with all the knowledge they need to solve their problems through blog posts, how-to instructions, infographics, and video tutorials.
4. Websites market your services or products
Since your website is always accessible, it is an excellent platform to market your products or services. If your landing pages, meta, and posts are well-optimized, informative, and valuable to the customers, Google and other search engines will reward it with a better ranking in search results.
Therefore, you get an even better opportunity to push your products and services and do so organically, without paid advertising. Although having a website improves the success of paid advertising too.
Moreover, most clients and customers look for products and services online before purchasing, even if they intend to go to a store instead of shopping online. Imagine how many leads and sales you lose if your customers need what you are selling, and they find your competitors online instead of you.
5. Your website is a critical aspect of your lead generation strategy
Once a visitor stumbles on your website and clicks, you have a unique opportunity to get their email address and get them to sign up for a newsletter. You can then use those addresses for email marketing campaigns.
The best way to get visitors to leave their email addresses is to offer them something in return. Once they complete a sign-up form, you can offer them a freebie as a reward. It can be anything from a discount on their first purchase, a worksheet, a link to a free online course, etc. You can even send out samples, although it will require more capital. The important thing is it provides value to your potential clients.
6. Having a website provides you with room for expansion
Having a website enables you to expand your business to other locations. Once you grow bigger and implement online sales, nothing stops you from expanding to the international markets.
The Bottom Line
If you don’t exist online, it’s like you don’t exist at all. Even if you are active on social media and work on your online presence, it fades in comparison to the advantages your website can offer.
It can be anything you want it to be. It’s a place where you can promote your services and products, interact with your audience, and post an ad for a job opening. It can be a place where you will post your latest announcements and news. Finally, it can become your online shop.
There are countless reasons why startups need a website, but what you have just read are the most compelling ones. Ultimately, you can’t afford not to have a website in this day and age.
Read Also:
- Social Media For Business – Ways To Grow Your Business
- 8 Actionable Tips For Launching Your Startup Successfully
- How To Start An Online Business For Free
Author: Sophia Perry
