10 Reasons You Need A Website First

I just started my business and want to get online.. where do I start? So goes the question we get time and time again. Well, the quick answer is "start with a website".

Why?

In this blog post, I will present Ten compelling reasons why you should start with a website in your online marketing endeavors.

The Purpose of a Website

So let's dive into the Why you should start with a website first:

#1. Presenting Your Business

One of the cool things about your own website (not to mention one of the main purposes) is the ability to present your business professionally, answer common questions, and build customer trust on auto-pilot, 24/7.

What this means for your business, is your website does the heavy lifting for you in terms of sales, answering questions, etc.

Customers contacting you after finding you online, frequently come to you - already "presold" on your company products or services.

Setting up your website first means all your other online marketing efforts support your same message...which brings us to:

#2. Brand Congruence

An important part of any strong brand is congruence across your online faces.

Treating your website as the "hub" of your marketing wheel instead of an after-thought, helps consolidate your brand and message across multiple online platforms, like social media, Google Mybusiness and search engines.

Think, for instance of the companies represented below.

Most people will be able to identify these at a glance. This easily demonstrates the power and importance of building a congruent brand, even on a smaller scale.

#3. Drive Leads

Another important function of online marketing is "funneling" or "driving" leads. This is the process where people find you online through an advertisement, click through your content, and ultimately contact you, fill out a form, or purchase an item or service you offer.

Both Google and Facebook have powerful advertising platforms that allow the user to place ads strategically throughout Google and Facebook platforms to target and re-target your ideal market. 

If you plan to utilize paid advertising at all, you'll need a website first, to have somewhere to send the traffic to.

#4. Control Your Own Content

While social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube can be an excellent method of creating and sharing content and building a loyal fan base, you are limited to the whims of those tech giants and the laws that get passed around them.

When you own your own website, you can create your own content, and not need to worry about getting censored, demonetized, deleted, banned, or your sensitive personal data falling into the wrong hands. You own it, you control it.

#5. Google MyBusiness

A sometimes overlooked aspect of getting found online, Google MyBusiness adds a Google Maps listing to your repertoire - Especially useful for local searches. 

With a website connected to your listing, searchers can find you easily in local areas, and click through straight to your site to learn more about your company, and services.

Google MyBusiness setup comes Included for all our websites packages!

#6. Local SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimization tells the "Googles" what business you are, where you are located, (For instance, "near me" searches) what services you offer and how relevant your business is to a particular search term.

Imagine if, in all the thousands of local searches made for local businesses, yours would be among the top of the online results page!

This is entirely possible. While a website doesn't guarantee you'll get there without effort, the easiest way to get there is with a good website.

#7. Content, Content, Content

Right now, content is generally king in terms of online visibility.

While Facebook, YouTube, & other social platforms are great, they often don't provide the content the "Googles" like.

Combining video content (YouTube) with your own website blog and photo gallery provides the ideal combination of A) you owning and controlling your own content, B) the social aspects and visual appeal of videos and photos, and C) the search-ability and information rich aspects of a blog.

The clear conclusion here is again, get your website first, and start building out your content from there.

#8. Contact Information

Bottomline, if you have a business, you need a way for people to get in touch with you. 

With your own website, you can funnel visitors straight to what's the most important - your contact information.

Being highly visible, and painting as large a target as possible in your visitors mind, will help you make a lasting impression, vs getting lost in the crowd.

#9. Build Trust

Your website is the place to showcase your best work, share testimonials, and tell the visitor about yourself and your company in order to build trust. 

Bottomline, people buy from companies they like and trust. Because an online search is frequently the first point of contact people have with a company, having a website with this kind of information on it, give those businesses a clear edge over their competition.

#10. Last but not least - It's Easy!

Building your own website is easier than ever, due to ever advancing technology. Only a few years ago, you needed to pay a custom coder exorbitant amounts, or know how to write website code yourself, to have a website.

Now-a-days, building a website is relatively cheap, and easy enough for even raw beginners to do, thanks to free platforms such as WordPress, (we WordPress) and affordable drag-and-drop design interfaces such as Thrive Architect.

In Conclusion

While building your business with little or no online presence is entirely possible, it is increasingly more difficult to edge out the competition that Do have websites and an online presence.

Check out our list of recommended resources below to get started on Yours. Or shoot us an email if you need help!