The 3 barriers business owners quote for not having a website aren’t barriers at all
Despite living in the digital world that we do, many small businesses still don’t have websites. Some business owners will tell you they’re too expensive, or that it’s just not relevant to their business. This post is for them.
At XLN we’re all about helping independent businesses realise their full potential, and we think a website is an important tool for any trader. So let’s take a look at 3 simple reasons every small business should get a website.
1. People are looking for you
It really doesn’t matter what you sell, where you’re based or who your customers are, people are searching for your services online.
What you’ll already know is that without a website, people unaware of your business will never find you. That’s fairly obvious. But it’s the people that have heard about your business and are looking for you online that it’s easy to forget about. They want to validate your existence. So when they don’t find a website for you, they’ll question your credentials and probably go elsewhere. Finding opening times, phone numbers and addresses are important pieces of customer information for any type of business.
Top tip: answering some FAQs on your website will help customers understand your business better. It’s a great way to ensure you spend less time turning people away and more time serving the right customers for your business.
2. No maintenance needed
It’s a common misconception that websites are just another arduous thing to think about; that they’re more hassle than they’re worth.
For most small businesses, a simple one-page site is all they need. By restricting your site to content that isn’t time sensitive – like the key information we mentioned and a nice graphic, logo and a short description of what you do – your site will serve as an evergreen billboard.
Publishing weekly blog posts or your latest offers on your site make it easy to find on Google, but they’re nice-to-haves, so don’t let how busy you are get in the way of setting up a website.
3. It doesn’t have to cost you a penny
There’s really no limit to the money you can spend on your website, but a simple one-pager doesn’t have to cost you a penny. There’s a whole host of DIY website building tools out there that are simple to use and completely free. There are restrictions on what you can do with them but a basic page created on something like WordPress will give you a presence online that might be all you need to reach new customers.
If you’d rather get someone to build you something more sophisticated, a site made of three pages that’s ‘search engine friendly’ will only cost a couple of hundred pounds. GoDaddy and Wix.com have a range of subscription levels available and are super easy to use.
Helping you get started
Now you know why it’s so important to have a website, are you ready to get the ball rolling? We’re not website developers, but we can help you get connected. Read on to our next blog about how to build your own website.
