Absolutely!  Your website provides the first impression many of your customers have! Having your own business website is as essential today as having a telephone or a business card. And recent research shows that between 20 and 35% of search engine queries are now local business searches.

Having a professionally-designed website can make your small business look like a big one.  Quality is essential when it comes to website design – it enhances your professional credibility.  And obtaining a well-designed site need not be overly expensive or intimidating.

What can a website help you do?

  • Establish a business presence on the Internet
  • Sell products or services online
  • Help your customers find your physical store
  • Save you time by answering your customers’ frequent questions
  • Provide inexpensive customer service 24/7/365
  • Expand to new markets
  • Keep up with (or surpass!) your local competitors
  • Keep your customers informed on the happenings of your organization
  • Provide extra value to your customers by offering online-only specials
  • Build a community around your products or services
  • Help your business stand out from the crowd

Having a well-crafted web site can help your business grow.

Consider this: how much does it cost you to not have a website?  Or to have a badly-designed one?  Both can hurt the credibility and image of your business.

Recently, I mentioned that I needed a custom picture frame for a nice piece of artwork to a associate of mine who I was helping out during a relocation.  He told me all about a local company where he purchased his – raved about their great service and sensible prices, and their quick turnaround time.

This sounded like the place I was looking for and they were close by.  I asked him if they had a website and they did, so while I was online that night I went to check it out.  Ouch.  Their site was full of spelling errors, inconsistencies in the navigation on many pages, and it was hard to tell where you were in the site because the menu wasn’t visible on each page.  The shopping cart function was reporting ambiguous errors, and the entire website had sections of text that were right up against other elements because they hadn’t been formatted with correctly.

Your website can make or break your business

If I didn’t know that this was a great company (per my colleague), and I saw this website first, I would never contact them.  This makes a bad first impression and I don’t think too many users, not knowing anything about this establishment, would go further than a couple of pages on this site.  If your website has many errors and an unprofessional appearance, then chances are that’s what the product they offer will entail as well.

And this can hurt you even more than not having a website at all.  Ask your business associates, close friends and family for referrals to a web designer that they know personally – this is one of the best ways to find a trustworthy and reliable business partner to help you build your web presence and your business.

Conclusion

I’ve been designing websites for 20+ years and I’m passionate about technology and helping people. I create new websites and redesign outdated websites for small businesses and offers web marketing advice to get my clients involved with their customers via their website – your website launch should be the beginning of your business relationship, not the end!

You may reach out to me directly if you would like to get started on your business’s website!