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Do-Local-Businesses-Need-a-Website

Do Local Businesses Need a Website?


Living in a digital world, every human is a brand in themselves. All one needs is a website to give a face to make it credible and accessible.

Local Businesses tend to rely on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. However, the truth is that the algorithm of these platforms is never in your control. It keeps on changing overnight. So, to take control of your audiences and your reach, you need to build a website— a constant source of organic traffic.

The sole and prime reason for this is to leverage the trend shown in the below image.

how-many-people-shop-online

10 Reason Why Local Businesses Need a Website


1. Website Builds Brand Credibility

Local businesses often get unnoticed by the customers because they are usually not discussed in the households. Therefore, when one looks for a service/product online and notices a shop nearby, they can skim the details on the website without even physically visiting your store.

Additionally, websites give credibility to your business. The website's design and performance are directly proportional to the number of customers you attract.

Tips You Can Follow:

  • Win the confidence of your customer by providing secure payment gateways.
  • Provide all the information about the service/product concisely.
  • Convince them that you can provide quality service in time by delivering social proofs/reviews.
  • Optimize your website on all fronts— images, elements loading speed.
  • Give them what they are looking for in the most exciting way possible.

2. Website Make Local Businesses Accessible

Who doesn't want their business to reach the most potential customers? In a world dominated by the internet, most people enter a search query before stepping out of their homes to finish a chore.

Therefore, when they google about a service/product that your business offers, chances to land in your store increase when your name pops up at the top of the SERPs.

Additionally, businesses can appear in the local 3-pack to attract a lot of local traffic and earn more revenue.

Website-Make-Local-Businesses-Accessible

However, to help the customers reach you, your website needs to be designed to be accessible to most people.

Tips To Follow:

  • Add images with alt text to make media accessible to people who cannot see.
  • Allow users to enlarge font sizes so that people with weak eyesight can easily read your website's content.
  • Keep contrast sensitivity in mind while choosing the colors of the website.
  • Make video and multimedia to engage the audience.
  • Use descriptive URLs to help google crawlers find your website.

3. Website Helps Establish Relationship with Customers

Local Businesses thrive on word-of-mouth. However, with the increase in digitalization, building stronger relationships with customers on the web is pertinent.

Websites help build a community via an email list and a review/feedback section. Customers and service providers can stay in touch 24*7 without any problem now.

Customers can send their feedback any time of the day and can receive a reply just as quickly without visiting the store physically or contacting via a phone call.

Tips For Building Customer Relationships:

  • Work on the brand voice to help customers reach out to you because they find you relatable.
  • Conduct surveys to know your customer views/pain points. Here’s an example:
Website-Helps-Establish-Relationship-with-Customers
  • Create an Email list that helps you send them regular updates about your services.
  • Stay active on Social Media platforms to give your customers trendy content meshed with the services/products you provide.
  • Take Customer Feedback seriously and revert to them as early as possible.
  • Add Personalized experience for your customers on the website. Research shows that 79% of organizations that exceeded revenue goals have used personalized strategies.

4. Website Gives A Way to Online Marketing

As mentioned earlier, before the advent of online marketing, small businesses used word-of-mouth, pamphlets, and banners to advertise. However, you can save all this money if you invest your time and money developing a website today.

Developing blogs and other website content to drive organic traffic is one of the cheapest yet long-lasting ways to do online marketing.

People google everything today, from switching on the television to designing a DIY dress. This gives unlimited scope to businesses like you to grab attention from the right set of audiences and increase sales.

Tips To Follow:

  • Link your website to social media platforms to help it reach a larger audience.
  • Guest blog on other competitive websites.

Use Pay Per Click (PPC) internet advertising to drive traffic to your site. Here’s an example:

Website-Gives-A-Way-to-Online-Marketing
  • Email Marketing is one of the best and easiest ways to market your service once you build a website.

5. Website Firms Your Online Presence

If your business name pops up when you enter the name in the search query, then you are going in the right direction. You are on the right track in building your online presence.

Take a look at this screenshot where a brand name appears on top over other typical queries.

Website-Firms-Your-Online-Presence

Tip:

  • Visibility is a weapon for the day. If your brand name and services become the talk of the room, then you are winning the game!
  • Become gregarious. Interact in communities and share your services and ideas as much as possible.

6. Website Saves Time And Money

Once you have invested in setting up the website, there is no going back. This investment will reap numerous benefits to your overall local business.

Additionally, with the help of the website, you no longer have to worry about attending customer care as automation can take care of it.

Besides, if you have provided relevant FAQs, you don't even need a bot as a customer care manager. Customers can easily read for themselves and understand the details of the services/products.

As far as money is concerned, websites save a lot of it as digital marketing is a lot easier and cheaper than traditional ways of marketing.

Tips To Follow:

  • Invest in an experienced website designer.
  • Work on your target audience and build content that provides value to them.
  • Offer Live Chat on your website to solve your customers' problems in no time. It offers a great customer experience to the audience.
Website-Saves-Time-And-Money
  • Add solid navigation on your site. This allows the visitors to take a tour of your website conveniently.

7. Website For Making Updates And Announcements

Instead of distributing flyers or pasting posters on the store's walls, you can add creative posts on your website. Websites can become a great way to post updates about your service and products, vacancies, new offers, and add ons.

Here’s an example that shows that you can save a lot of advertising spends with your website.

Website-For-Making-Updates-And-Announcements

The website thus becomes your one-stop destination for all your business needs.

Tips To Follow:

  • Keep a separate page for all your release notes. This will help customers look at the history of all your announcements and release notes. This helps chart your progress and builds authority in the industry.
  • Set automatic, personalized email plans to notify your customers even when they are not on your domain.
  • Boost important notifications on the home page or via pop-ups to grab your visitor's attention.
  • Use your website to target a segmented audience.

8. Website Accelerates Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is free of cost; all it takes is time and patience. Most businesses aim to increase organic traffic simply because organic traffic is targeted.

When a user enters a query, and your business can answer it, you are more likely to gain a new potential customer/follower/email subscriber.

Moreover, the website gives you a chance to enter into the larger community of your industry.

For example, if you are a chiropractor and have a website, you can connect with other chiropractors in your region or even in different areas to build a sense of belonging for your brand. Further, it helps get backlinks and guest postings.

Tips To Increase Organic Traffic:

  • Prepare content for humans and their needs. A relatable lexicon and visuals immediately grab the visitors' attention.
  • Create informative, how-to, listicles, and other audience-centric blogs. This type of content preferably ranks well on SERPs.
Website-Accelerates-Organic-Traffic
  • Try to write content in the featured snippet as shown above. For this, you can write the blog in points, short, crispy answers.
  • Spend time doing keyword research using tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, BuzzSumo, etc.

9. Website Helps Compete With Big Brands

As the saying goes, small fish can defeat a big fish. So, can you, along with other small businesses. With the power of digital media, small businesses can compete with big brands. Today, various online stores compete with Amazon and are loved by customers.

Therefore, building a website gives you an edge over other local businesses and opens doors to compete with big fishes in the sea.

Take a look at this screenshot, where the websites have a chance to attract potential audiences.

Website-Helps-Compete-With-Big-Brands

Tips For Competing With Big Brands:

  • Provide a personalized experience to your customers.
  • Study the competitors' websites and learn from their strengths. Besides, look at the weak points of the big brands and try to work on them.
  • Work on the delivery services to provide the best quality in less time than your competitor.
  • Promote your services as much as you can on the platforms where your target audience is most active— make your audience crave for your latest posts.

10. Website Turns Into Your 24/7 Store

Do you wish to work 24/7 but cannot due to the human body you possess?

Well, your business website can make your wish come true. It can work for you all day and all night without even complaining.

Jokes apart, websites are a great tool to sell services/products as you need not physically sit at your store and wait for your customer.

Potential customers can come to your domain and fill their carts at any time of the day. They just need a ‘shop’ or ‘buy’ button on your site.

Website-Turns-Into-Your-247-Store

Tips To Follow:

  • Get verified on Google My Business
  • Focus on the business plan and your target audience, always.
  • Manage your inventory and drop shipping for a smooth customer experience.

Key Takeaways


  1. Build a website to enhance the credibility of your local business.
  2. Work on making the site accessible to as many people as possible.
  3. Establish strong customer relations by developing an all-in-one website.
  4. Use the website as a tool for online marketing.
  5. Invest in developing a website to make a robust online presence.
  6. Save time and money by regularly updating your website instead of printing flyers or posters.
  7. Update your website with the latest announcements and updates about services/products.
  8. Give an organic boost to your local business with a website.
  9. Check your competitors and provide better content and tough competition to them.
  10. See your website as a 24*7 profit-making tool.

Rank Your Website


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Brice Decker

Brice has been handling marketing projects for more than 12 years and he is providing consulting services on SEO, Social Media and PPC. He has a huge expertise in working at large corporations including Accenture Interactive & PwC Digital Services.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Brice Decker

Brice has been handling marketing projects for more than 12 years and he is providing consulting services on SEO, Social Media and PPC. He has a huge expertise in working at large corporations including Accenture Interactive & PwC Digital Services.