While the statistics vary, most indicate that better than fifty percent of all small businesses in the United States don’t have their own website. This means a website with its own domain name and web hosting. This excludes Facebook pages, business directories, or any other presence on a site they don’t own. In this day and age where billions of people use the Internet worldwide, this is a very startling statistic.
What are the reasons for not having a website? Many small business owners work very long hours keeping their business up and running. Whether it is a restaurant, store or shop, the daily activities of managing employees, dealing with customers, ordering stock from vendors and so forth, leave them with little time and energy for things such as marketing or use of the Internet. Many small businesses work with small budgets which is yet another impediment.
Sometimes, small business owners make one-off submissions to online business directories and leave it at that. They might even conclude that since the directory submissions brought them little business, that the Internet is over hyped and doesn’t work. Without fully researching the issue, their decisions are based on perceptions that the technology and technical know how is beyond them and that making and maintaining a website is cost prohibitive.
This is unfortunate, because the Internet is a very powerful medium for marketing one’s business. If small businesses think that only big companies with deep pockets have an Internet presence, they need only search for their type of business in their locality with a search engine. A search such as “pizzeria MyTown MyState USA”, will bring up multiple local businesses, some of which may even be down the street from them.
These days, most people use the Internet as their “yellow pages.” The reason is that phone book yellow page listings are small ads with little information about the business. A website however, typically has several pages of information with photos. This gives people a better sense of the business. People have become accustomed to this online research process before committing themselves to driving out to a business.
A lot can be done with a website to motivate people to visit your business. Sometimes even the most simple of things such as hiring a professional to take flattering, high quality photos of your business and posting these on your website can sway many people to become your customers. You have complete control over your website and can project any image that you wish.
A good website can be created with very little money. In fact, if you or someone you know is willing to do the research on Google or Youtube, it can be done for free. The same is true for web hosting. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to host your first website. In fact, we at Applied Innovations offer a hosting plan for only $8.33 per month. If this interests you, please contact us.