Yes, I’m afraid you do still need a website. There is no getting around it. You may think that in the age of social media, the humble company website has gone the way of the dodo, but you would be very wrong indeed, and for multiple reasons.
Yes, social media is indeed a hugely beneficial bonus to go along a company website, but it most certainly is no replacement. If this news fills your heart with dread as you think of how much precious time the creation of a website may take, it is worth noting that building and hosting a website is not the headache that it once was.
With a little effort, you can find yourself a suitable website host that will suit your needs, and hopefully add a tremendous amount of value to your business. Here is why you still need a website in 2020.
IMAGE: PEXELS
Climb Those Search Rankings
Firstly, having a website gives you a huge boost when it comes to discoverability. The first thing that most people do when looking for a product or service is open their web browser, click in the search bar, and ‘google’ their query. Without a website, your web presence is limited to your social media posts.
This may not be a hugely detrimental thing if you are as well-known as Taylor Swift, but for most of us, our social media posts are not going to be large enough to make us discoverable on the most significant search engines. Having an active website is the most sure-fire way of boosting yourself up the Google rankings, and makes like as easy as possible for your potential customers to find you.
Some hosts, such as Verpex™ web hosting, provide a free domain name with each of their hosting plans, meaning you can pick the perfect (and most relevant) domain for your company at the same point that you pick the perfect hosting package.
You Should Hold The Key To Your Own Digital Footprint
Secondly, your social media presence may not be around forever. Your platform of choice (the place in which you interact with your clients) may seem like a sure bet right now, but there is no guarantee that platform will always exist. If it happens to disappear, so does your main avenue to your customer base.
Even if you use the social media behemoths of the world, their popularity may not be the same next year as it is this year. For evidence of this, speak to anyone who enjoyed the likes of Myspace and Google+. By all means, use these platforms, but they shouldn’t be your main hub. Think of them as the tentacles that splay out from the main body of your online presence (i.e. your website).
The social media platform may not be there in years to come, and your account itself may not be there if you happen to stray a little too far from the platform’s own terms of service. One mistake, and you can find yourself with serious issues connecting with your main source of income.
Authenticity Breeds Trust
Lastly, having a website makes you look far more authentic than companies that don’t have one. It pays to put yourself in your customer’s shoes from time to time and be honest with yourself about how your company looks from the outside. Would you trust a company that has no website, and only a Facebook page as a method of contact? The answer to that question should be a resounding ‘no’.
Couple this with the fact many social media users are beginning to worry about just how these tech giants are using their data, and you have a very good reason to give them another avenue in which to approach your business. A good-looking, responsive, and easy to navigate website instils a level of trust in a company, and as such you should look at it very much like a digital version of a storefront.
We tend to trust smart-looking brick and mortar stores far more than market stalls, and there is good reason for that. Trust is a valuable commodity when it comes to a customer base, make sure your clientele feel that you are trustworthy from the moment they discover your digital footprint. The great thing about building and hosting a website in 2020 is that it is far easier now that it was a decade ago.
Website builders have changed from being coding-heavy, technically difficult programs to master, into ‘drag and drop’ applications that a novice can easily get to grips with. Hosting companies themselves offer every package imaginable, from cheap, blog-friendly deals, to huge, server-customizable corporate operations, with easy switching between the packages should your needs change. As such, you should look at the need to build a website as an exciting opportunity, rather than the chore it has been in the past.
If you are interested in even more technology-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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