Unless you’re a small business owner who is not interested in growing your brand, you need to have a website.

These days building a business website or ecommerce store is easier than ever: it doesn’t cost much money, you don’t have to know how to code or design, your online store is not restricted to business hours, and it’s one of the best means of free advertising.

Having a small business website isn’t just about selling your goods and services — it’s also about providing something of value to potential customers.

Still not sure how having a website will help you grow your business?

Here are ten reasons every business needs a website:

1. Your customers expect it.

If this were the only reason on the list, it would be enough. Six out of ten consumers expect brands to provide online content about their business on some form of digital property, and more than half head straight to the brand’s website for product information.

If you don’t have a business website, today’s digital-savvy (and impatient) customers may look elsewhere. Take a look at this list of specifics that customers say they want from a business website.

2. It provides social proof.

Ninety percent of consumers claim that online reviews influence their buying decisions.

You could rely on FourSquare, Yelp, and other review sites to host reviews for your brand, but you can kill two birds with one stone on your own website.

Since potential buyers are already looking for you online, including customer testimonials on your site is a great way to impress potential buyers.

3. You control the narrative.

It’s true that you cannot control what others say about you on social media channels, but you can influence public perception by creating your own story via a business website.

A company blog helps business owners get their message, mission, and personality in front of their target audience faster than print ads or snail mail brochures.

Plus, social icons linking to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other networking platforms make sharing your content easier for your visitors who like what they see.

4. More bang for your buck.

With affordable Web Development services as provided by us, you position your company to reach thousands more potential customers for less than you would spend mailing ten brochures by traditional mail.

5. You don’t need coding or technical skills to maintain your website.

Because all our websites are built using CMS platforms such as WordPress you do not need coding knowledge to maintain your website. We can train you within 2hrs on how to manage your website yourself.

6. Your competitors probably all have company websites.

Consumers typically start their buying journey with research and recommendations from peers and social network connections.

Studies show that once a consumer has an idea of what they need or want, they start researching, and 72 percent of them go online to find educational material, reviews, and testimonials, according to a recent report.

So if you’re not staying competitive with your competition, you’re giving shoppers a reason to buy from another brand.

7. Never put up the ‘closed for business’ sign again.

Nobody wants to work at 3 a.m., but some people like to shop then. Having a business website or ecommerce store means that you can sell products all the time — not simply between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

An online store can mean a dramatic boost in sales, especially when you factor in additional customers who are not restricted by geography. Your online presence also supports marketing campaigns, customer service, client relationship building, brand recognition, and almost every other element of the revenue stream.

Combining your website with marketing tools, like email marketing, helps you reach new customers and generate repeat business.

8. You’ll show up in Google search results.

Consider this: 81 percent of consumers perform online research before making a purchase. That means they go to Google and type in one or more keywords, like “best leather shoes” or, if they know what they want, “handcrafted Italian leather women’s shoes in Cape Town.”

If you don’t have a website for your business, the chances of showing up on the search engine results page (SERP) are zero. But if you have a site, you can optimize it for search engines, thereby increasing your chances of appearing at the top of Google’s results and getting more visibility with potential customers.

Long-tail keywords, meta descriptions, and titles are just some of the things you can customize on your site to improve your search engine optimization (SEO).

9. Create a resource center for your staff.

In addition to helping customers, your business website can also benefit your own employees.

Create an orphan page (one that is not visible anywhere on the site so it can’t be found unless someone is given the direct link) with self-service videos, instructional materials, or even internal forms to help your team learn everything they need to know on their own schedules.

10. Showcase your products and services.

Not only can you display your products or outline your services in detail with beautiful images, but you can provide short video tutorials or downloadable PDF instructions to give hesitant customers no reason to go elsewhere to purchase.

Need help setting up a website for your business?

If you haven’t created a website for your business, we can help you get one up and running. Contact us today to find out how we can help you get online!

With the stratospheric rise in the use of mobile devices. And the rise in the popularity of mobile phones; you’d be doing yourself a huge disservice if your website is not designed to respond and adjust to mobile and other devices.

One quick way of doing this would be to use a responsive website design. It’s quick and easy. But, what’s a responsive website? What does it look and/or feel like?

Note: A responsive website is different from a mobile friendly website.

Basically, a mobile friendly website will look good on mobile devices. But might have glitches and be harder to navigate when viewed on devices with a higher resolution.

While a responsive website is a website design that allows your website to adapt to the size of any screen it is being viewed on.

So it could be viewed on say, a desktop, phone, or a tablet etc and users won’t ‘notice any difference’ in your site’s general appearance on their screen.

In today’s article, we’d be looking at several benefits of using a responsive website.

Increased Traffic From Mobile Users

Once upon a time businesses used to create two versions of one website. One for desktop users, and one strictly for mobile users.

Many still do this today. But with ever increasing viewership from mobile users, having two separate versions of one website is a time consuming and high maintenance practice.

Nowadays, you can have just one responsive website that is ready for all devices.

This ensures that people you retain your mobile viewers. And they might also remember to visit your website some other time whenever they are in search of services you offer.

Lower Cost And Website Maintenance

Another benefit of using a responsive website is: it offers you a lower maintenance cost as compared to running two versions of one website.

However, it is relatively expensive in the beginning. But the reduced cost of maintaining two separate websites does add up.

Besides, it takes less time to setup. And it’s easier to maintain one responsive website than maintaining two versions of the same site.

It frees up more time for you to dedicate to other important areas of your business. And you could also offer tailored location-based offers to drive traffic to your website.

Need a place to start, you can access website design offers that are visually appealing and ready for all devices.

Provides a Seamless User Experience

This is by far one of the greatest benefits of having a responsive website. Unresponsive websites usually distort the way your website appears on devices like mobile, and tablet.

Whereas desktop viewers might have no problem viewing your website, but the same cannot be said for mobile users.

Texts are jumbled, images do not align and users have to scroll through endless pages in search of the information they need. This makes it a pain for users to use your site smoothly and seamlessly.

So after such an experience like this, do you think such a user would come back to your website? I didn’t think so too.

To avoid scenarios like this, it’d be worthwhile to evaluate the quality of your website design. The benefits that will accrue to you at the long run, will outweigh whatever you’re going to spend on it in the beginning.

Adapts Easily To Any Screen Size

Another benefit of having a great responsive website ready for all devices is its adaptability to any screen size.

With a design like this, you’re way ahead of your competition. And it positions your website to seamlessly cater to newer devices with which users use to surf the internet e.g. smartwatches, IoT devices, etc. Your website can automatically adjust itself to suit each screen. And finally …

A Responsive Website Improves Your SEO Efforts

Responsive websites have a greater likelihood of ranking high in SERPs.

The ‘user focused’ experience, and high-quality content could increase your dwell time. Thereby making users stick around for the long run.

Google recommends a responsive website design pattern. Besides, it makes for a good user experience and improves your SEO efforts across all platforms.

In conclusion, having a responsive website can save you lots of money, maintenance time and also help you to convert and retain more clients in the long run.

Credits: Written by Brian Rashid | Published on Forbes.com