Many businesses are asking if they really need to maintain a website, since most people are heading toward Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so many other social media sites. Well, while that may be true, a website – or more importantly a web presence - is still an absolute must in today’s online driven world.
Sure, you need a Facebook page. You need to have a Twitter following. You need multiple connections on LinkedIn. You need to have a good working knowledge of social media if you really want to be successful in today’s complex marketing arena. But at the very core of everything you do – is a website. Your website.
There are many reasons why a web presence is still a critical necessity, but it all comes down to this: you must have a place where people can go to find you, learn about you and if it makes sense, purchase your products or services. A website fulfills all of those requirements.
Of course, the old “if you build it will they come” still applies. Just because you put together a multi-page website with beautiful animation and video doesn’t mean that people will visit it, let alone find it. That’s where SEO, SEM and a variety of other ABC’s of Internet jargon will come into play. (That’s search engine optimization and Search Engine Marketing, by the way).
In fact, SEO and SEM are probably equally as important in terms of effort as building that website, because if you can’t give the major search engines a clue about what and where and who you are, nobody will be clicking on your web address any time soon. You’ll need to do keyword searches, learn how to optimize your page, do what’s called “below the line coding” and so much more if you expect to show up in the search engine rankings. And if you’re not familiar with all of this, I urge you to hire someone who is! That’s how important this is for you ultimate success.
The confusion in the business world about whether or not a website is still a viable tool has more to do with how people will access your website than whether or not you actually need one.
If you go online, you’ll find a zillion articles claiming that the laptop is dead, thanks to the iPad. You’ll also find multiple articles claiming that more and more people are accessing websites on smart phones. It’s all true, by the way. And it’s not a bad thing; it’s just a different way that people are going online and checking out web pages. But they’re still going online, and they’re still visiting websites and they’re still using websites to purchase items at a record pace. It shouldn’t matter to you what type of technology they’re using to get to your website – only that they’re still coming, spending time and using your website for whatever it was designed to do.
So, do you really still need a website? You bet you do!
Sure, you need a Facebook page. You need to have a Twitter following. You need multiple connections on LinkedIn. You need to have a good working knowledge of social media if you really want to be successful in today’s complex marketing arena. But at the very core of everything you do – is a website. Your website.
There are many reasons why a web presence is still a critical necessity, but it all comes down to this: you must have a place where people can go to find you, learn about you and if it makes sense, purchase your products or services. A website fulfills all of those requirements.
Of course, the old “if you build it will they come” still applies. Just because you put together a multi-page website with beautiful animation and video doesn’t mean that people will visit it, let alone find it. That’s where SEO, SEM and a variety of other ABC’s of Internet jargon will come into play. (That’s search engine optimization and Search Engine Marketing, by the way).
In fact, SEO and SEM are probably equally as important in terms of effort as building that website, because if you can’t give the major search engines a clue about what and where and who you are, nobody will be clicking on your web address any time soon. You’ll need to do keyword searches, learn how to optimize your page, do what’s called “below the line coding” and so much more if you expect to show up in the search engine rankings. And if you’re not familiar with all of this, I urge you to hire someone who is! That’s how important this is for you ultimate success.
The confusion in the business world about whether or not a website is still a viable tool has more to do with how people will access your website than whether or not you actually need one.
If you go online, you’ll find a zillion articles claiming that the laptop is dead, thanks to the iPad. You’ll also find multiple articles claiming that more and more people are accessing websites on smart phones. It’s all true, by the way. And it’s not a bad thing; it’s just a different way that people are going online and checking out web pages. But they’re still going online, and they’re still visiting websites and they’re still using websites to purchase items at a record pace. It shouldn’t matter to you what type of technology they’re using to get to your website – only that they’re still coming, spending time and using your website for whatever it was designed to do.
So, do you really still need a website? You bet you do!
