Given today’s digital world, it’s no wonder that a lot of businesses have turned online and saved themselves the hassle of having physical stores. The simple act of posting something online has the power to reach people half a world away. If this isn’t a sign that you should set up a website for your business, consider some of the advantages of having one, listed below.
The Pros Of Having A Website
One, it saves you money. Setting up a website may cost you some bucks, but compare that to paying for newspaper ads people pick up their gadgets more often than they pick up newspapers. Two, it will give you credibility and improve your customer service. Simply putting a comment section on your website and replying to comments in a respectful manner, will give first-time buyers references, and third-party opinions. And lastly, because it’s always accessible, it will keep your customers informed regarding any sales, price-drops, upcoming events, and any current, relevant news.
Homemade Or Professional?
To establish a website for your business, you have to go about these processes: determining the site’s primary purpose, deciding on your domain name, choosing a web host, building your pages, marketing your website on social media sites, etc. It seems like a lot of work, which is why some big-name businesses choose to hire professionals. Small businesses, however, sometimes make their own homemade websites.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of both?
If you don’t have basic HTML skills or the time to understand all the aesthetics of web design and information architecture, it’s probably best to hire a website designer to do it for you. Building your own website might be cheaper, but unless you know quite a lot about the field, it may end up looking and being disastrous.
There are, however, sites (e.g. blog sites) that can come up with simpler options that a first-timer can use. Hiring a professional can improve the quality of your website and speed up the process, but they don’t come cheap. So, make sure to have a lot of choices so you can compare prices.
Why You Should Maintain Your Website
Setting up a website, however, is not the end of the process. You’ll need to have a maintenance plan, which means protecting your website from any hacking attempts (believe it or not, smaller sites are targeted more because they are less secure). Maintenance also means having to update the website according to browser updates and such, because some features can be affected. Regular website maintenance is another way to provide good service, because you can lose sales with malfunctioning or flawed online shopping baskets.
The bottom line: Periodic web maintenance costs you less in the long run, because there are fewer chances of something major going wrong.
