The past few years have resulted in rapid digitalization of small businesses in Australia. Even brick and mortar companies are maintaining an active online presence to create powerful lead funnels. Being able to market to customers online is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. For this reason, it is important to build a new website for Australian users.
Keep reading to learn how a powerful website can contribute to your business.
Customers Expect Businesses to Have Websites
Today’s tech-savvy customers expect businesses to maintain an active online presence, which means having a website. Before they decide to part away with their money, most consumers will try to learn about you from your company website. If you don’t have a website (or it fails to load properly), it sends a negative message to clients your business has failed to keep up with the times.
It may also signal to customers that you’re not ready to accept their business – and those are certainly not signals you want to send.
You Can Manipulate the Information
A website allows you to control the narrative about you and your business. It creates an official presence online so that you don’t have to depend on others to do the talking for you. Moreover, if someone starts an online campaign against you, you can refute their allegations by writing suitable blogs on your website.
And you can also present your content exactly the way you want, with your own colors, branding, and logos.
Pro tip: Write and upload at least one blog every week to keep your audience appraised about the latest happenings in relation to your business. For more on blog frequency, check out this article by Neil Patel.
It’s Like a Virtual Welcoming Mat
The website helps you create a great touchpoint experience and serves as a welcome mat for clients. For obvious reasons, the website should evoke the right emotions when users visit. When it comes to websites, the first impression is usually the last, so try to create the best possible landing page for your potential users.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when designing your website:
- Use a consistent branding strategy.
- Make sure the website loads across all devices (including mobiles and desktops).
- The website should not take longer than three seconds to load.
Clients Can Quickly Decide If You’re the Right Fit
When potential clients are searching for services or products, they want to see a clean and functional website that inspires them to choose you for business. Think of your website as the modern-day equivalent of a digital ‘spokesperson’ for your brand. If the website does not inspire clicks, it will probably not inspire conversions either.
Another advantage is that you’ll never know if someone is in need of your services, and without a website, you’re losing potential business from people who already know about your services.
People Can Find You On Search Engines
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a new frontier in advertisement technology. It allows clients who are actively in pursuit of services to find businesses willing to provide a service, instead of the other way round. The free organic traffic you effortlessly generate with good SEO can beat PPC ads any time of the day (this isn’t to say that paid advertisement is bad).
Think of it this way: when prospective clients search for a business, they consult with search engines first. If they can’t find your website in the top ten results, they will go elsewhere.
Pro tip: Put all your essential business information in one place that is easy to access. This includes information such as:
- Your phone number
- Contact form
- Menu
- Prices
- Special promotions
- Address
Compete with the Big Brands
SEO effectively levels the playing field when it comes to budget. According to the folks at White Peak Digital, you don’t need multi-million dollar budgets to set up a website – but you do need the right plan.
You can find many website developers who will work with your budget to set up beautiful and optimised landing pages for different locations around the world. The best part is that you can leverage SEO and PPC to generate leads that would have otherwise gone to bigger, more established businesses.
You can also use local SEO to drive clients to your business. Google uses its algorithm to show nearby results to users. It considers various factors such as distance, relevance, and prominence when generating results.
They don’t always go for the most influential brands, but show a local, more relevant business related to the search term.