Designed by Krista
Web Design

How do you know when it’s “time” to get a website? Is it really worth it? Your return on investment (ROI) for a website will vary based on how well the site is constructed, how competitive your industry is within the online community, and how much profit you gain from a single customer.

Ultimately, the decision regarding if and when to get a website is a decision that each business has to make individually. There is no hard and fast rule, such as “every business should get a website if they are 10 years old” or “every business should get a website if they are this size.”

Some businesses do not need a website. For example, if you already have as many customers as you can handle and you do not want to grow your business to accommodate more, you would not want to have a website. Alternately, you may be certain that your potential customers won’t use the internet to find you. For example, no one will use the web to find a “7-11” – convenience store traffic is always based on customers driving by the store.

On the other extreme, there are some businesses who require a website, such as when their product or service is only sold online.

Do you want to attract more customers?

On the internet, you can reach a larger pool of potential customers than with almost any other marketing effort. According to Nielsen/Net Ratings, 3 out of 4 people in the US use the internet. If these people do not find you on the internet, they will likely go instead to someone who is on the internet.

In addition, your customers will be somewhat “pre-sold” when they come to you, since they will have already verified (via your website) that you can meet their needs.

Do you want to make it easier for people to find you?

Having a website enhances “word-of-mouth” referrals, because it is easier to remember a name than a phone number. Current customers can say “go to neatstuff.com” and your potential clients can easily remember that and type it into a browser. People may be typing your company name into their browser now and getting frustrated when they don’t find anything.

You can also ‘trade links’ with related websites: you can have them link to your website as a recommended provider of your services and vice versa. Major internet search websites will use these types of ‘cross-links’ to increase your importance and ranking in their directories.

What are your competitors doing?

Getting a website is one of the few places in business (or in life!) that it makes sense to do something “because everybody else is doing it.” If you look at your main competitors, how many of them have websites? If most of them do, that is an indicator that you need to do so. A well-designed site will target key search phrases, and possibly appear on a search engine results page where you competitors do not appear.

Will this enhance your customer service?

Having a website increases your good customer service, because people can find it frustrating to have to wait for business hours to phone you (or even to have to phone you at all) for something simple like directions. In addition, having your own site establishes the official information, and you can keep it up to date.

Do you find yourself answering simple questions often?

You will save time by answering frequent questions on your site. I ask my clients to keep a notepad by the phone for a week or so and jot down all the questions they answered (via phone, email, or in person) that could have been answered via their website. Often, these are questions like “What are your hours? Where are you? Do you carry x, y, or z brand? Do you offer this type of service?”

By posting this common information on the site itself, you save staff time and also provide quicker responses for your customer. This means that by the time the customer does contact you, you can spend your efforts on that customer’s individual needs.

As you can see, you will have to look at your specific business to know if it is time for your company to get a website. I think that at some point soon, not having a website will actually be a mark against any business, but I wouldn’t say it that strongly now. If you would like more information on any of the above areas to help you make your decision, just post a comment here or contact me directly.

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Tags: articles, Web Design, web development

This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.