The value of a website for a small and medium sized businesses in a non-digital industry

A large percentage of South African business is conducted by Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). Nearly half of owner managed Small Businesses in the formal sector operate with a limited online presence and no website at all.

These businesses are missing out.

While it is true, that some of the services offered by these “brick and mortar” organisations have never required any level of digitisation and will continue to provide value without any technological enablement, it also true that all the businesses in question require a customer base to provide these services to.

The vast majority of the service consuming population born in the mid 70’s or later, rely on the internet in some form to locate product & services to meet their needs. The pervasiveness of smartphones and ease with which a person can type or ask: “Bakeries near me”, has resulted in a significant disadvantage to business that do not have a website and do not actively manage their online presence.

Gone are the days where it’s sufficient to rely on a local “classifieds” listing or to distribute flyers at nearby traffic lights. Potential customers look towards online search engines to locate the businesses they will soon engage with, they depend on the convenience, immediacy, authority and geographic & contextual relevance that online search results provide. If your business does not have a website that you control, you impede the search providers’ ability to serve the relevant and correct information to potential customers costing you valuable business.

“But I am already on Google, why do I need a website?”

It’s easy for a small business without a website to be lulled into a sense of comfort when they Google themselves and they’re presented with page after page of results, “heck, there’s even a map with my business details on there”. The problem is, this information is not always correct. Most of the content you’ll retrieve in this case is based on the multitude of Directory Listing websites you happen to be on.

Often, you or your friendly neighbor will submit an entry for your business on one of the directories. In time, other online directory companies and search engines will employ automated robots or user communities to find this information and create entries for your business on their websites as well. It looks good up until this point… but then… you move premises, perhaps one of your telephone numbers change or there’s a mistake on a user created entry. Now there is conflicting information for your business out there. This might confuse potential customers, they might disregard your business altogether – Bing/Google/Yahoo know this – and when presented with conflicting information they may drop your business lower down on their list of results, essentially promoting your competitors.

You need an authoritative source of information, a dedicated website, your business website!

A website brings you new customers

You’ve Googled your Business and got some results, but have you Googled your industry and been presented with your details? Attracting customers online is all about your positioning on the search results page. This higher up your information is on the results pages, the more potential customers you are likely to receive. Search engines aim to position the most relevant result at the top of the page. The most relevant contact details are the ones that can be trusted, usually the ones that are retrieved from your website. Imagine a search for “Panel Beaters” where ABC Panel Beaters has a website and DEF Panel Beaters doesn’t. Assuming these two business are on equal footing in terms of user submitted reviews, location etc. It is far more likely ABC Panel Beaters will feature higher up on the Google’s local business Listing than DEF Panel Beaters.

Benefits of having a website for your Business

A Website helps Create trust

• You control the primary source of information about your business on the internet. Having a dedicated website with information about your business elicits the trust of potential clients and the trust of information displayed by search engines bringing you more customers.
• The existence of a website creates the impression of an established, well rounded business

A website helps strengthen your brand

• You control the impression potential customers get about your business when searching online. With a website you can establish, grow and protect your brand. If the first search result for your business is a Directory listing and not your business website, a customers’ impression of your business could be negatively impacted. Many of the local listings have poorly configured websites loaded with adverts, really detracting from a potential customers first experience with your business.

A website saves you time and money.

• A basic website with information about products/services, specialities and pricing – will drastically reduce the time you or your staff spend fielding calls and answering emails to provide this information.

A website helps acquire new customers.

A website improves marketing effectiveness and increased return on investment (ROI).

• Your business website will be passively marketing your business 24×7.
• With an active marketing campaign, you can actually target potential customers grossly improving results. Online marketing is proven to out perform traditional (print, radio, tv) advertising. A website is a vital the first step towards setting up a good online advertising campaign

To sum it up: Get online…Get Found!