Do You Need a Website For Your Business?
In short, YES! Every business in today’s world should have a website. It is the central hub to all of your online efforts. This is the place you drive traffic to, in addition to your actual storefront if you have one. A website can provide your potential or existing customers all that important information about your business, 24/7/365. It is a great way to centralize the sharing of your business services, products, or information.
Need a Website; Free Web Sites?
There is no such thing as a free website. There is always a cost and with these so called “FREE” websites, you are jeopardizing your marketing opportunities. Your website should be independent and not attached to any 3rd party service that offers a free website. We know that the temptation is easy to jump on as they are inexpensive and sometimes free, but there are reasons why.
One aspect is that when you use these “FREE” websites, you are essentially marketing their company, not yours. Yes, perhaps you put your name at the top of the page, but the search engines are reading their website first, and your sub domain second. We won’t go into too much depth, but let’s just say you spend countless hours working on your website so they can benefit from the SEO more than you.
The other thing to consider is that it is quite possible these “FREE” website companies can go under or simply stop offering that service. Guess what happens if this occurs? You have to start all over. You can’t take what you built there and place it somewhere else. Most times, you can’t save anything to your computer and even if you could, the technology is theirs so it would not be interchangeable. Starting over is never good.
We know that so many people use Shopify as their online store provider, but even it has its limitations. You don’t have the freedom to do whatever you want when you want. If you decide to do marketing with your Shopify website for example, your marketing company is limited as to what they can do regarding adding tags and other code valuable to SEO. You are using their platform and must work within its limits. However, on independent platforms, you can have created whatever you want for the most part without those limitations found elsewhere. Be sure to ask your digital marketing specialist or web developer more about this.
The Professional Image – Need a Website
Setting aside the marketing aspect, having a professional space that represents your business is not only necessary, but it establishes you as a legitimate business. Perhaps you sell products on social media, but, with a website, you would probably sell a lot more. The reason is that many folks still feel uneasy about someone selling product from a so called “business” on social media. It is an unfortunate reality, but there are so many scams happening all the time throughout free social platforms. From products to services, there seems to be a scam for every occasion.
This is not to say that just because someone has a website makes them legitimate, however, many scammers don’t really invest the time and money into having a website professionally developed. This is where legitimacy comes into place.
Another aspect to consider when looking at an independent website vs social media is that with each passing day, social media creates more restrictions related to privacy. In our opinion, it is just a matter of time that no sales will be able to occur freely on social media without a complete business registration. With that said, an independent website would have already eliminated this as a potential issue.
You Must Be The Ultimate Power! (very important)
One side of web sites that we know will agitate other web developers and rightfully so, is that nobody should have complete control over your web hosting, website, or email except you. If someone builds you a website, we always advise that your hosting not be provided by them as well as your email.
We have always recommended 3rd party hosting companies to our clients. More times than we can count, clients have come to us asking what to do because their web guy has complete control of their site and won’t give them access. Don’t allow this to happen to you.
Several times in the past year, especially with Covid, their previous web guy had complete control and they can’t reach them. They basically have had to reinvent the wheel to get back up and running including picking a new domain which leads to complete rebranding sometimes.
No matter what, you should always have complete control over your business assets. Providing access to a web developer is different than them having your business under their thumb. Ask us about quality 3rd party hosting recommendations that can house your website and your business email.
Business Email vs Free Email
Business Email. One of the biggest reasons we recommend that every business has its own website. Sorry folks, but our professional opinion seems to be that of many business owners. Free email such as hotmail and gmail are simply not professional and most times, are not taken seriously.
What looks better; getstarted@hotmail.com or getstarted@websiteseocanada.ca ? If you are reaching out to potential customers, you want them to see you are a professional, and are dedicated to your business.
Did you think about the branding part of your business? With a professional email, every time you send out an email, your business is being branded. Every time! With a free email, we are sure gmail or hotmail are sending you massive thank you’s after each email for branding them endlessly.
In Closing……
EVERY business must need a website, no matter how simple or how extensive. Whether you are selling a product or providing a service, you need to have your business working for you 24/7/365 when you are spending quality time away from it. Having an independent website is the best way to get that done.
Have questions? Please feel free to contact us through our website with any questions you might have.
Article Provided by: FVWD Enterprises
Website: https://websiteseocanada.ca
