Most of you have asked this question to yourself, why do you need a professional web design to promote your business when you can simply use social media? It is the most debatable topic in today’s world for small businesses from the standpoint of technology. “Social media versus a website” Which is more effective?
The main problem that everyone has and thinks about is why would you built a website which will cost money and time. Not to mention the hosting, domains, SEO, design tools, updates, maintenance and more.
Instead of all this hassle and work, one can easily set up social media pages like FB, Twitter, Instagram etc. for their business promotion. Sure it will still take up some time but without any additional costs.
Social Media Vs Website: Social Media Benefit For Small Business
When you are talking about social media, along with being free to set up a business page, you will also get a number of people on the social media platform that are looking to make an interaction with you. Of course, the number of people searching to discover on Facebook is lower than Google, for example, but you cannot ignore this. When you use your influence and social media page correctly, you will grow a number of followers faster than anywhere.
Below we’ll go a little further in depth on a few benefits that small businesses get from using the social media platform to promote their business.
Does Not Require Any Technical Expertise
Most of the social media and other platforms are very simple and can be used very easily. You don’t require any technical expertise to run or open the page. In fact the vast majority of people use at least one form of social media platform in their personal life, meaning it has familiarity.
When you try to create a business page, you will get a simple and straightforward form that has to be filled. It will generally ask about all the vital information of your business in a very organized and easy manner that can be followed by anyone.
It’s easy, if you lack confidence and ‘computer skills’ to code then all you have to do is type the information they ask in the boxes and upload few images and you are ready to go.
Enhanced For Search Engines
You will find a very high number of pages in any social media platform. The sites will have a high amount of shared contents and might be very popular on social media.
Especially for local businesses, the popular social media platforms basically have an optimized search engine. Your business can be displayed alongside the top pages, should anyone search for your business expertise.
You have to be very specific about what kind of business are you promoting and give as much detail as you can when creating your page. This eventually helps you increase your rank and come to the top search option when your page is searched.
Tools Of Marketing And Its Integration
There are many social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest which have the added capability of target marketing. Combine that with integration tools which can help you track performance, it’s a very easy way to promote your business. With the help of these platforms, you can raise money, build your email list as well as sell products from the tab of your social media page.
Most of the social media platforms have the same type of benefits and the analysis of each platform keeps on improving and updating day by day.
You can also get to know about what your visitors have been doing in your page, what content they have liked and to how many people have content reached. This is important and helpful because it will let you know that what type of posts works and what doesn’t.
Things To Know Before Building Any Website For Your Business
One thing that you should fix in your mind that, it is very different to build a website for your business than building a social media page. The effects will also be different especially when you are thinking about the cost to build a website.
It will cost you a lot more if building your website versus a free social media page if you are thinking of doing it professionally. However, the cost is not the only difference at all. Again, we’ll look at some points that will help you realise what you have to do while building a website for your business.
Website Hosting And Domain Setup
First and foremost thing which you have to do to get started is to pay for your website hosting and buy the domain.
The domain is basically the “address” where you are going to build your website. (e.g “the nameofyourbusiness.com”). The website hosting will be the space of the server i.e. the land where your website will reside.
Technical Expertise in Web Design And Development
If you are a business owner then it doesn’t mean that you will double as a website designer.
You will probably have to hire a good web designer who can design and develop the website for your business. You should also arrange to update the website occasionally for you.
Even the “drag and drop” and other “free” web design platforms need the help of some design and technical expert to build a site which makes the owner happy and satisfied and feels proud to represent it.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Every business owner wants to rank on the top page of the search engines for certain keywords like the name of their business. Even this can prove to be difficult if your business name contains a common or competitive word.
You should know a few basics of on-page SEO. However, if you don’t have any idea about what an SEO is then you might want to take the help of an expert by paying them.
This is just the start of the expenditure that is needed to build a website. The expenditure is the only reason that so many people choose to go to social media.
So, the question that arises is; Why should you even build a website? Especially when it costs you so much. You can promote your business freely on the social media platform. The answer is, unlike a social media page, with the website you are in full control of your business.
Professional Web Design: Why Does Your Business Need A Website?
It is obvious that as a website owner, everyone wants to be in full control of their online presence. This will help you a lot in the growth of your business as well. Here are few things that everyone should do who run a business.
- Open up a shop in someone else’s store without any occupancy OR
- Buy a or occupy a good space for your business
With the first point, it will feel like you are at the mercy of the owner of the store. So, by any means, if they don’t want your business in their store then they will kick you out.
Now, you have to find a new location in order to establish your business once again. If they decide not to open up their shop for a day then your business won’t be able to reach the customers for a day and your revenue gets affected.
However, if you lease or own an ideal place then you will have total control over your business and revenue. You can probably see where this is going… Yes, the same example can be taken in social media versus a professional web design. If you have a website then you have full access to your business and can control everything you want but with the social media, it is not that easy to do so.
Set Your Own Trends with Professional Web Design
If you have set up your business solely on one or more social media platforms then it is no doubt that your business is under the mercy of the platforms.
These platforms can make changes in your page and do whatever they want to and you don’t even any say in this. This might have a huge impact on your business.
If the particular platform in which you have opened your business gets acquired or shut down then you might not be able to reach your customers anymore. This will cause your business a huge loss.
Recently many of the business pages were hurt when Facebook changed its algorithm which decreased the reach of the business pages. All the business owners could do nothing except complaining. All they could do is accept the new rules and keep moving on.
The same thing might happen to you on YouTube, what if it starts charging you to store videos on their servers? Twitter can become a premium platform for the business owners where they have to pay. In all these substances you are bound to pay or else you won’t reach your customers.
There’s a more alarming thing that could happen if you’re reliant upon one or more social media accounts to reach your customers; Think MySpace, particularly the death of myspace. What if Facebook or Twitter is next? would your business survive?
Conclusion: A Professional Website Is Your Hub and Tool For Marketing
As mentioned earlier, if you own a website then it will be the hub of your business which will give you total control over your business.
Like the store analogy mentioned earlier you can run your business in your store and in addition to that you can keep some items in other’s store too. This isn’t a bad idea if you get a free space for business then why wouldn’t you do it?
You can use the social media platform as one of many tools for marketing and drive all the customers to your website. You can also use the traffic to increase your email and list of customers to communicate with them whenever you want to. This is how you should be using social media!
So, what do you think about building a website now? Yes, it might be an additional cost but the ROI for professional web design is evident. You never know what the new terms and conditions or scandal a particular social media platform may bring on which might affect your business.
