8 Reasons to Invest in an Amazing Website

In today’s hyper-saturated media environment, quality marketing matters more than ever — and nowhere is it more important than online. As a business owner, your online presence has become the de facto face of your business, with landing pages replacing storefronts and social media continually disrupting traditional marketing channels.

And this isn’t a bad thing. In fact, the return on investment for a quality website can be significant; several of our clients have seen a return of over 1,000 percent within one year as a direct result of purchasing a new website.

When it comes down to it, your website likely interacts with more customers everyday than your average employee. In fact, it can function like another person on your team: your Digital Employee™. Not only can your website sell your product or services on a 24/7 basis, it also can be a catalyst to recruit new talent to your team, answer frequently asked questions, help answer common objections in a FAQ’s section and can even showcase testimonials, reviews or case studies that will help potential buyers trust your brand. What’s more, a quality website will work more hours for you than any employee you have, you won’t ever have to pay your Digital Employee™ benefits, and it’ll never miss a day of work.

Here are 8 reasons why investing in a website is the best thing you can do for your business:

1) Your website is a customer’s first stop in the buying process. Many business owners rarely look at their own website. However, you can safely assume that every potential customer of yours is checking out your website before purchasing the product or service you’re offering. In fact, it’s the most common thing someone who is curious about your products or services will research. A great website will build trust with your potential clients, and trust creates sales.

2) If your site isn’t responsive to smartphones and tablets, you are losing business.  A recent survey from MarginMedia found that 48 percent of users say that if they arrive on a business site that isn't working well on mobile, they take it as an indication of the business simply not caring. Besides the complete loss of interest in your company, do you really want people to land on your website and have an awful experience with your brand because they can’t easily view your website from their smartphone? If you’re going to succeed in today’s oversaturated media landscape, every interaction with your brand must be optimized for all mediums — because I can guarantee other brands’ are.

3) An incredible website can give you huge advantage over your competition. All businesses have competitors, and most consumers check out a few of your competitors before they decide who to contact. You have the opportunity to wow someone who lands on your site, and guess what happens when someone loves what they see? You got it: more sales.

4) Your website gives you control over your brand. There are a lot of ways people can say negative things about you online: you can impress a hundred customers in a row, and they’ll never give you an online review; do something wrong one time, and you’ll get blasted on a Yelp or Google review. On the other hand, your website is your property. It’s your way to control the conversation. You can showcase your products or work, include testimonials and even share helpful tips if you’d like. No one can take anything from you on your own website. 

5) An investment in a website is 100 percent write-off-able. I’m not sure write-off-able is even a word, but you get my point. Web design and development costs are considered an advertising expense and advertising is tax-deductible. What better way to take advantage of tax benefits than via a gorgeous, highly strategic, fully functional website?

6) If your site isn’t responsive to smartphones and tablets, your online rankings will be lower. If your website is not responsive to mobile devices, then you’ve just put yourself at a disadvantage. Google, Bing and other search engines will rank your site lower because one of the factors going into page rankings is the greater user experience that a site has to offer. If your site isn’t responsive, search engines will display a comparable competitor that has a mobile-responsive website higher than yours. 

7) Your website can strategically target the most valuable keywords to your business. If you choose the right web design firm, they will talk about the products or services you want to showcase and develop your website using proper on-site SEO practices. Why is that important? Because moving from the eighth position to the third position in a Google search, for example, will increase site traffic for that keyword phrase by approximately 350 percent.

Sound too good to be true? Take a look at our Brett and Erdel Law Firm case study. After we launched their new website, online rankings for the firm’s key practice areas improved by an average of 1,342 percent, which resulted in more new calls to the firm than they could have possibly expected.

8) Your website is the center of the marketing universe, and it complements all your other marketing efforts. If you have an average website and are investing in other types of marketing, you might as well be throwing money out the window. You’re simply not getting the best return for your marketing dollars. Think about it. If I see your TV commercial, magazine ad or read something about you online, the first thing I’m going to do is check out your website — and if you have a crappy website, I’m out. If you have an amazing website, I’m calling you. Focus your attention first on your website, then strap on the marketing horsepower. You’ll get a higher return on the rest of your marketing spend.

A website is not just a business expense. It’s an investment that, when done correctly, can make you more money than anything else you’ll ever invest in.

A word to the wise: I wouldn’t advise going cheap. This is the one of the few times a business owner shouldn’t get stingy, because your website is literally the face of your company. Your best friend’s sister’s cousin doesn’t know how to write SEO focused, keyword-targeted content, create lead magnets, use title and meta tags properly, nor has a master plan of how to implement the next steps of lead generation possibilities once the new site is up. Spend a little more and get an amazing product from a professional marketer.

So what are you waiting for? Invest in a stunning website to deliver an exceptional experience to the next person who visits your website and reap the benefits for years.