Do you have a website for your business in Devon?

A central information point

First and foremost, your website is a central point of information. It is the place where current customers can find information about you, where old customers can come back and find you, and most importantly: where new customers will find you. Your website should be armed with every piece of useful information about your business, it should be easy to navigate through, and very comprehensive.

Creating credibility

Did you know that around 80% of customers judge a company's credibility based on their website design? Does that not sound crazy? Before someone has even met you, or your team, they have already made judgements, they have already decided whether they like you or not. Think about how this can affect your overall trends – with a below-average website, or no website at all, you are loosing out on so many customers. And, I can hear some of you thinking “people in my industry don't have websites, they're useless”, which is simply wrong. Everyone is using their phone, using Google, to find products and services, so even if your competition doesn't have a website, you should.

“But I can't afford it”

This is not a case of “affording” something, think of it this way: you are in a small town, and you own a local gift shop. There are 4 other gift shops in this town. Each day, there is an average of 400 customers in the town looking for a gift shop. 350 of these customers are going to look said gift shop online! If your website shows up first, looks the nicest, and overpowers every other gift shop, you will get about 80% of those customers, that's 280 customers.

Now, let's say your website is 4th, and it seems unprofessional, hardly reflecting the actual quality of your shop. You might get 5% of those customers: 18 customers.

And then, you might start wondering: why are my competitors getting all the business, my shop is so much better! It's simple: nobody is going to realise how good your product or service is, without somewhere to look.

After crunching those numbers, you'll understand that the gift shop with the great website is getting about 16 times more money, every day, compared to the gift shop with only 18 customers.

I wrote this to show you how much money you get back from a good website. If it increases your sales by 100%, 50%, or even 20%, the website pays for itself!

Reputation management

With your website, usually comes lots of other great things, like a Google Maps listing, for example (Google Maps listings get a tone of traffic, probably just as much as the websites themselves). This is a place where you can get reviews, which is another reason for customers to come to YOU, instead of your competition. If you have a good system in place for getting reviews, you will experience a snowball effect, where you are getting so much positivity, that clients just carry on coming – it's like paying for advertising, but without the paying part.

Of course, to have a successful, and prominent Google Maps listing, you will need a powerful website – these two highly effect each other's performance.

Utilizing every channel

This takes us to yet another mistake that we see so often: social media.

Social media is a golden tool, and it's free, you literally can not go wrong. But, a lot of you don't use it to its full potential.

We see many local businesses who use Facebook pages, and Instagram, as if they were websites! But here's the thing… They're not.

Social media are amazing to get more people to find your website, and to promote the content on your website. They are not a replacement for a website. Of course, this all depends on what business you own, some models out there don't require a website, as the only goal is to get the phone ringing, in which case Facebook Ads can be a solid option. But most people don't have thousands of pounds a month to spend on Facebook Ads, and most people aren't in the industries that suit this marketing strategy.

I hope this short, informative post helps you understand the importance of having a website, no matter what your business is, and also how important it is for your website to perform well, thereby leaving your competition behind…

Enjoy the rest of your day!