The Importance of Having an Amazing Business Website
An excerpt from our book, The Website Handbook.
We truly believe that every business who deals directly with their consumer should value their online presence. There are so many ways that people refer to business websites – your online salesperson, your virtual shopfront, your virtual office, or the hub of your business.
However you think of it, if you had physical versions of all the things listed above you would value them and ensure they reflected well on your business.
Your salespeople would be kept up to date with changes in the business. They would have all the latest information about your products, services, and prices, and they would use language that’s current and up to date when discussing these. You would also ensure they are well presented. Gone are the days of expecting everyone to wear a suit, but if they are meeting people face to face to discuss a potential sale, there would be certain standards you would expect them to meet. Why then do so many websites have incorrect details and prices and generally look a bit dated, tired, and scruffy?
If you had a shop window, you would refresh it every so often with a new display so that it catches a regular passer-by’s eye. You would put signs about current deals they can get in the window to entice them inside and move new or popular products to the front of the window to attract people’s attention and draw them in to see more. So why then do people not update their offers on their website, why do they not refresh the order of products regularly to reflect recent trends?
If you invited someone in for a meeting in your office, we hope you’d make a little bit of effort to make them welcome. You would ensure chairs are ready for them to sit down on, drinks are on offer and the workspace is uncluttered so you can concentrate on your meeting and the work you are going to be discussing.
Perhaps you’d go one step further and have a dedicated meeting area away from the paperwork and hustle and bustle so that the meeting has a nice calm feel, making it easier to navigate. So why then are so many websites really cluttered, making it hard for the website visitor to find what they need and difficult for them to decide whether you provide what they want or not?
Fewer people now are shopping on the high street or visiting businesses in person, and if they are, they tend to do an online search first to see if it’s worth making the trip. So, whether you have a fully online business or you have a physical premises with an online presence, it is really important that you place a lot of value on that online presence.
This is why we also recommend you have your own website and not just a social media presence. We chat to people who won’t even consider buying from a business that doesn’t have a website. They want to fully check out a business first before they explore working with them. They want to see that they value themselves by properly investing in their business, and they also want to see terms of service on the website and experiences of others so they know they are going down the right path.
These points are all worth considering if you are still at the stage where you are deciding whether a website is for you or you aren’t sure whether updating your website is worth the time and effort. We can assure you it is. That time and effort will pay off when you see an increase in enquiries and sales coming through your website.
Examples of Website Success
We are business owners ourselves. We started our business in 2010 and know how hard it can be to invest money in your business. We were lucky that between the two of us we had a lot of skills already covered and so didn’t need to invest much money in other people’s services in the early days. A couple of decent laptops and monitors and some computer software were our main expenses when we started. We didn’t think twice about buying those. Without those we couldn’t run a business, so there was no discussion about buying them.
But as time goes on, you realise there are a lot of things you could spend money on that would probably help your business, but because you probably could try to do them yourself it’s hard to see the benefit of getting a professional involved. It’s especially hard when you feel there’s no guarantee to the investment.
We know a lot of small business owners feel this way about their websites. They know they can create one by themselves for free on a number of website builders, and they think that will be absolutely fine. But we can tell you right now that spending time doing that is a complete waste of time when you could be spending that time doing what you do best in your business. You may feel like you’ve ticked the “have a business website box”, but the website you’ve created will do nothing for your business and worse than that, may even put customers off.
Here’s an example of how doing a website right can make a huge difference and increase your business leads pretty much instantly.
The Construction Company Who Had a Dated Website Made by a Friend
A local construction company got in touch with us because they needed a new website. Someone had recommended us to them, and we had a chat with them on the phone, got a simple brief, and gave them an estimate on price. They thanked us and we didn’t hear from them again for about two years.
This isn’t uncommon. We know we aren’t the cheapest web design company in our area and assumed they’d gone elsewhere, but then they phoned again. They hadn’t gone elsewhere, they had just put it off, like so many business owners do. We’d felt their website looked dated and was letting them down when we first looked at it. It hadn’t really changed over those two years, so it looked even worse. Web design and business websites had come on a long way in those two years, so in caparison with what else was on the web, the website really wasn’t doing their business any favours.
Their website had been created by a friend and we hear this story a lot … the friend has some time on their hands and so they take on the web project. Then they get busy or change career or you lose touch with them, and then you’re left with a website that isn’t being updated or maintained – also, you don’t have full control over it and the friend can’t help anymore. Then because you got the website for free the first time round you feel resentful for having to pay next time, which puts you in a bad mindset when it comes to investing in a website even though it’s incredibly important for your business.
The second time they contacted us, they were prepared to put the time and money into getting their website properly sorted out. So much so that from their team of four, three came along to the meeting to scope the website out properly and kick off the project. In that meeting, we decided that they really needed to get their current website offline, so we created a quick holding page to go up in its place with their logo, business name, a brief statement about what they do, the locations they cover and a way to get in contact with them.
This holding page looked lovely, it was clean and simple and had an easy call to action for people to take. From that holding page they got more enquiries than they’d had from their terribly cluttered out of date website over the last few years. Yes, years!! More enquiries in a couple of months than they had in years.
This is a real life example of how bad a poor website can be for your business. If you know you are in that position and you’re putting off getting a new website for fear of investing time and money, this shows that it will be worth it!
To keep reading for more examples of website success and to get advice, guidance and practical tools to plan and create a website that attracts leads and makes sales, go and get a copy of our book today either through one of the well known bookshops or directly from us for less which is usually only on offer to those who have one of our freebies but we’re feeling generous!
And don’t just trust us that the book is worth reading…
The Website Handbook Reviews
“The best book I have found for planning and creating a website.
Finally, an easy-to-read and understand handbook for anyone who is in the process of planning and creating a new website. This book is written in a straightforward, jargon-free way and walks you through the entire process of planning and creating your website, from start to finish. It also highlights important considerations to ensure your site is created in a way that will engage your ideal customer, increase leads and generate sales. Highly recommended.”
Amanda W. from Amazon reviews.
“This is a book I wish I’d had a copy of 20 years ago, when I was starting out in freelancing: much of the advice, insight, and prompts shares are what I recognise from having worked through/out all of these things myself without the benefit of an expert guide.
But it’s also been a valuable refresher and challenge in prompting me to revisit some of my thinking about my site.”
Adrian Ashton from Amazon reviews.
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