Almost every business card, service vehicle, radio commercial and printed flyer has the website of a company written on it. Why you need a website is more important today than ever before. It’s about creating a brand for your company and gaining more exposure. If you don’t have a website, people aren’t going to be able to find you and that means you’re not attracting as much business as you could be.

A website is going to provide a few different benefits for you. First of all, it’s going to make it easier for people to find you in the search engines. People don’t use the Yellow Pages anymore. When they want to find a product or service, they type a few keywords into Google, Yahoo or BING (yes, we know there other search engines but these three have over 90 percent of the web traffic.  If your business isn’t showing up on the first couple of search result pages, you don’t exist to a lot of potential customers.

Instead, they are going to visit your competition for the product or service they need – the product or service that you could have provided.

Another reason why you need a website is to tell people about your business. A lot of people turn to the internet to get details about a business before buying a product or service. Most people aren’t going to pick up the phone to ask about what you do and what your business is all about.  American’s have a call reluctance issue.  They don’t want to be taken advantage of so they will do their research before picking up the phone.  Just ask any car dealers how educated buyers are today.  Most know as much about the car they are interested in as the sales person at the dealership.

If they can’t find out about you on your website, they are going to move onto another business provides them with the information.

You need to be available to your customer at their convienence, and that means 24/7. People go on websites at 2 in the afternoon and 2 in the morning. By building a website about your business, it’s a portal that can be accessed at any time.  It’s one of the best marketing tools your business can have.

Ultimately, you need to make sure that you are out there. If people can’t find you, they can’t do business with you. The only way to increase your business is through increasing exposure. More people use the internet to find companies to do business with than any other method.

Why you need a website is to stay competitive.  If someone gets your business card or hears about your business through a referral and cannot find a website, they may ultimately give up.  Most will think you are behind the times and decide you’re not the company for them and go someplace else.

The reason I wrote this blog is that I met with a company last week that has been in business for over 10 years and does not have a website.  It was the company’s sales team that called the meeting.  They knew the importance of having a website and needed to convince management it was 2012 and time they got a website.