In a survey performed in 2014 by Google, 55 percent of small businesses didn’t have a website of their own. In a more recent survey it appears to have improved with only 26 percent of small businesses indicating that they do not have a website. This shows substantial growth and for good reason.

A website is crucial for any digital marketing strategy to be successful.

A website introduces a business to Internet users, providing an in-depth description of what a company is about, its services and products. It offers useful content that is searchable online and is ideally available on any device with an Internet connection, e.g. desktop computers, notebook computers, notepads and smartphones.

Particularly the availability of the Internet on mobile computing devices increases the need for websites to be available and well displayed on these devices. Thus, mobile responsive websites and sometimes mobile apps are important for a business’s online presence and it is also vital in achieving a top Google search ranking.

Business today is very competitive and with rising input costs in general, a well-designed, effective website can help increase lead generation significantly and, in turn sales and at a considerably lower cost than most traditional marketing methods.

Some additional advantages include:

• Around the clock sales, as a website is always available, making it much more convenient
  
• Improved credibility as a going concern, as a website builds trust with a client due to useful content, testimonials and a portfolio of evidence
  
• Improved brand awareness
  
• Reduced cost per acquisition (CPA) of new clients

The cost of advertising a website presence online is much lower compared to historically grown, traditional methods like advertising in print media. At the same time, the reach of advertising through a website online is much wider than other promotional methods.

Customer profiling is a method of being able to target specific groups of potential clients that you would like to attract to your business, meaning the return on investment of your advertising will prove to be greater than reaching out to a wide, generic audience the majority of which may not necessarily be interested in your company’s particular services or products.

More and more of the time spent by users and potential clients on the internet identifying suitable service providers is done while utilising modern, handheld computing devices like notepad computers and smartphones rather than conventional desktop or notebook computers. With over 3.17 billion mobile users in 2015, Google has taken it upon themselves to strongly propagate the design of so called mobile friendly websites. Mobile friendly websites automatically achieve higher search engine rankings than traditional or outdated web pages, thus increasing a company’s visibility on the Internet.

Research shows that 93% of all business purchase decisions start with a search engine search. Constantly updated, useful content will prove to be a great asset to a business’s website and in conjunction with search engine optimisation (SEO) is very beneficial in achieving consistently better Google search engine rankings.

The internet has leveled the playing field among larger and smaller competitors operating within the same market space to a very large degree. A well designed, up-to-date website with great content projects an image of a professional, trustworthy company. However badly designed, outdated websites do have a negative effect on a company’s image in the eyes of potential clients.
Many smaller companies still remain reluctant to invest in the design of a suitable website due to a perceived lack of return on investment as well as to a lack of understanding of the relevance of a website for the future development and growth of the business.

Particularly for these smaller businesses it is important to get the ball rolling by identifying a suitable service provider who can offer the development of a well-designed, mobile friendly and up-to-date website embedded in a sustained digital marketing strategy in order to achieve enhanced credibility in the market place and improved sales at a reasonable and affordable cost to benefit ratio.

In future articles in this blog we will discuss the various aspects of a comprehensive, sustained digital marketing strategy. We are looking forward to questions and suggestions in this regard.