Reasons Why a Website is Important for Small Business

The rapid advancement in technology has touched and transformed nearly every aspect of our lives. Apart from the personal to professional aspects, technology has completely changed the business dynamics all across the world. 

We see more young and aspiring individuals becoming entrepreneurs and establishing their businesses, which was not common a few decades back. We live in an information or digital age where one can answer business-oriented questions without any hassle. 

Why a Website is Important for Small Businesses?

The first question most startup or small business owners ask is figuring out the one element that can help establish the business and make it successful. Both startup and small business owners have a limited budget, so spending heavily on marketing is not viable. However, designing and developing a creative website may be key to success. 

Many small business owners do tend to make a website and run it live just for the sake of it. But none try to take the full value of it. There may be different reasons why websites for small businesses do not give desired results, such as 

• Designing the business website, yourself
• Asking a friend or close acquaintance to design the website
• Employing an amateur Professional Web Design Company to develop and launch the website

Regardless, a strong website for small businesses is essential now more than ever. The utmost reason is that on the online spectrum, the website is probably the only element that a business company has full access and control of, along with an email list. You may think about social media platforms, but their algorithms keep changing, and businesses cannot rely solely on them. 

WordPress hosting is crucial since it improves the functionality of your website, guarantees dependability and security, offers specialized support, enables scalability, and makes WordPress maintenance easier. You may maximize the functionality of your website and provide your visitors with a satisfying experience by selecting a reputable hosting provider specifically designed for WordPress.

Will a Website help my Business?

Nearly everyone owns and uses a smartphone these days, and most even manage tasks using it more than anything else. For example, you can take online classes, mark your attendance, order clothes or food online, and watch a movie or Netflix series, all using your smartphone.

With easy access to do so many tasks, people search for a product or service online before purchasing it. A small business can only be visible to a potential audience if it has a strong online presence. The answer is having a creative website that vows to the potential customer and convinces him to make a purchase. For example, if you run a small hairdressing salon or bakery, most people may know about you through offline marketing. 

A potential customer may hear about the hairstyling services from his friend at the office or may have seen a bakery box delivering food to the neighbors. The one thing the customer will do is search for the company name online to know more about it. As a business owner, you want the website shown on the search result rather than another brand with a similar name. 

A business website gives you an entire platform to display everything about your company that includes

• About Us (Details and pictures of the team)
• History (How the business started, the challenges and goals)
• Products or Services
• How to order online (If the business involves goods that can be home delivered)
• Reviews and feedback (Get honest reviews either in text or small video clips from satisfied customers)

What does an average Customer look for?

People love stories, particularly those they can connect to and relate with. The key is building that trust as people are more familiar with and likely to buy from a prominent brand than a small or startup one. You need to integrate offline and online branding, and it is possible by sharing pictures or videos of your team. 

The second reason a ‘website’ is so important is delivering information. Today, people are more likely to search and find the required information than talk to a customer support agent. Let the potential customer get all the information from the website instead. People generally ask questions, and the best thing is to convert those questions into sellable content online. 

You can direct the online customer even to a specific link on your website if he lands on the Homepage. These days, the one essential addition to websites is ‘FAQs‘ (Frequently Asked Questions), where a small business can answer all the likely questions the customers are searching for. Another popular trend is developing content such as blog posts where customers can get detailed information about the business offerings. The marketing team can interlink the blogs that can help to generate traffic and help to build trust with Google. 

The one question that nearly every startup or small business owner are 

Why a Website is Important for Small Businesses?

However, most small business owners think they are experts in their business but keep their secrets to themselves rather than sharing them. The potential audience will only get attracted if they know all the relevant information. For example, if you run a small business of house remodeling, then you need to develop content on the elements of kitchen or bathroom remodeling and what it costs on average. You can easily write a blog post on it and highlight how your company can provide a fantastic renovation of a particular room or an entire house. 

The search engine algorithm keeps on changing, but an active online presence helps to keep up with the changing trends. Your small business will get the usual traffic due to the generic keywords that customers may search for. For example, if customers search for the best kitchen remodel near me, then your website may show up online to many who didn’t know about your business company. 

However, getting a top ranking on search engines requires a comprehensive content plan and is only possible with an active business website creation. Your business can get the much-needed boost if it has positive reviews on other online platforms and manages active social media. Another necessary step a small business needs to do is to get listed in a local directory, and it will cost just $100 or $200 a year. The three vital steps you need to take care

1. Set up a Google business profile
2. Get the map listing
3. Keep the website active

Best Website Platform for Small Business

Having a website is essential for any business, whether big or small. However, the first part is establishing a unique address for the website on the internet. The business website or domain name is the focal point of all online activities, so you must choose it carefully. You may have to decide on an extension such as .net or .com. The crucial part is ensuring that the domain name is unique and not registered to another company. 

In this digital age, there are many platforms where one can easily design a formidable website. The first one on the list is ‘Wix,’ which many experts suggest is the easiest website builder. Wix is ideal for beginners with little or no experience in website design. The Wix platform offers a wide range of website templates that you can select and edit according to your wishes and requirements. 

There is an easy drag-and-drop feature, which many can find quite easy to use and save time. However, the biggest drawback is that the URL will not display your website address or name. Also, the website will feature Wix ads which makes a business look less professional. 

Apart from the technical aspects, one of the crucial parts is choosing a platform that offers the best CMS (Content Management System) system. A CMS is software that helps develop a website and insert content. For example, the WordPress CMS allows you to make a website without coding. The traditional way was to know HTML to code a website, but CMS has made it very easy.

Having a website hosted on WordPress Hosting is crucial for small businesses as it offers a user-friendly CMS, cost-effective solutions, customization options, SEO benefits, scalability, security, and access to a supportive community. These factors contribute to a powerful online presence and help small businesses thrive in the digital landscape.

What Makes WordPress the Best Free Website Builder

One of the best website platforms for small businesses is undoubtedly WordPress, which has phenomenal features and plugins. According to recent research, more than 34% of websites are made on WordPress, and its CMS has a 60% market share. WordPress is so successful because it is open-source, easy to access, and has a wide abundance of customization options that are not available on any other platform. 

The robust and resourceful WordPress CMS helps you log in to the website dashboard and manage everything from designing web pages to selecting a theme and adding content. The CMS acts as a backend and helps create perfect websites, make an eCommerce store, develop a portfolio, and even write a blog post. 

The WordPress CMS platform allows you to pick a theme and includes a ‘Content Editor’ to develop and publish content. You can add various plugins and extensions to modify the website.

WordPress has dozens of user-friendly and valuable plugins, and one such is ‘WooCommerce,’ which transforms a website into an online store. On many websites, it is the magic of WooCommerce that helps to define various eCommerce options such as 

• Add to Cart
• Shipping
• Payment methods
• User Profile Management

According to Kinsta, WooCommerce powers 22% of the world’s top 1 million online websites or stores. The WooCommerce plugin is free to use, but you can get paid versions with ads such as selling subscriptions and product variations. 

How to Integrate WooCommerce into Your WordPress Website?

You can easily install WooCommerce from the WordPress Plugins Directory. The steps you need to follow are

1. Open the WordPress Dashboard
2. Click on Plugins on the left-hand side
3. Add New, and in the search bar, write ‘WooCommerce.’
4. Click on the WooCommerce icon and install it
5. After installation, you have to click on ‘Activate.’

Once activated, you can open WooCommerce and complete the set-up process. There are several options that help to define the store details, such as Country, City, Address, and Postal Code. You can even define the industry that your small business belongs to. 

There is also an icon of Products Type to determine the products to display on the online store. The next step is selecting a Theme that ranges from free to paid. You will also get a prompt message of ‘Jetpack’ that offers various value-added features such as product promotion, payment options, automatic sales tax inclusion, and monitoring the store from a mobile-friendly device. 

However, you may have to make a Jetpack account by providing your email username, email address and choosing a password. You can also register through your Google or Facebook account. The next step is to click on ‘Finish Set-up’ which will give different options that include

• Customize my store (personalize Homepage, and add the brand logo)
• Add my products (either manually or import files or migrate from another store)
• Set up Payments, Shipping, and Sales tax

The User-Friendliness of WordPress

A few decades ago, building a business website meant business owners had to hire a tech-savvy individual who has all the knowledge of coding and software development. However, today even a person with zero technical knowledge can make a website or logo, courtesy of simple drag-and-drop functionality.

On WordPress, the drag-and-drop option feature in ‘Elementor’ is quickly becoming popular as you can develop a website, and insert a vibrant theme without a single line of code. In short, Elementor is a visual drag-and-drop page builder that allows you to pick any template and quickly make an online store. 

The innovative feature is ‘mobile editing’ that helps customize the website or online store according to mobile-friendly responsiveness. There are hundreds of widgets that you can use to make any page and design any button, headline, or image. Using WordPress for your small business is essential to provide it with bigger online visibility and exposure. Also, WordPress provides more room and options to keep future growth in mind. 

Conclusion

Designing and developing a stunning website is one of the stepping stones to success, particularly for startups and small businesses. Fortunately, in this digital age, it is easy to make a website without any technical skills with WordPress. You can learn from free tutorials and even follow steps to convert your website into an online store and cater to your customers’ growing demands. According to Statista, there are 4.6 billion active users, 59.5% of the total global population, which shows the relevance of having and managing an online website for your business.