Why create a website ? In the age of social networks and absolutely free, creating a website is essential to maintain your freedom to act on the internet, as well as control of your information and your data.
A website for your business
Internet users rely more and more on search engines (such as Google, Bing, Qwant or Ecosia) to find a business on the Internet. Today, not being present on the web cuts you off from a large part of your potential targets. In France, more than 9 out of 10 people surf the internet and more than three quarters have done an online search for a product or service (source: HotSuite and We Are Social, 2020).
Control your image on the internet
A website allows you to control your communication but also to be present on other keywords than just the name of your company. By optimizing your content, you can indeed gain visibility on the internet in your area of expertise: home help, caterer, plumber… which are most likely the terms searched by Internet users in the engines.
From around twenty euros per month, you have an owner space accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, where you can, among other things:
- Control all the content displayed
- Develop the notoriety of your company (creation of an e-reputation) and gain visibility with your targets
- Present the full range of your products, without physical space constraints
- Customize the features and services offered: contact form, online booking, newsletter, etc.
- Accumulate information about your audience to better understand it and, thus, better adapt your commercial proposals and communication actions
- Manage customer relations and your customer database
- Apply your own terms of use and sale
- Increase your sales and turnover by generating traffic to your brand as well as useful contacts
Act for the sole benefit of your business
Another received idea is that a presence on social networks would be sufficient. It is on the one hand to confuse the support of your online presence and the means of communication and on the other hand, to misunderstand the destination of these tools.
At first glance free, social platforms have an economic model based on advertising. To be heard there, an advertising investment is essential. Without a website, the fruit of this investment would remain on the network, with a fairly brief overview of your business for the Internet user, and no recovery of contacts or customer data for you.
Whatever the status of a company, a clear and well-informed website also increases customer confidence, even customer relations thanks to a direct digital link. Note for regulated professions: the website is a visibility tool and not an advertising tool… as long as you do not advertise on it of course, this does not prevent you, as a medical or legal company, from presenting your activity, your expertise, your methods… and to integrate an online appointment scheduling module.
Focus on “web to store” and play on the complementarity of sales channels
For all professions welcoming the public, an online presence has become essential. It allows you to check – even more securely if it is the professional’s official website – essential information such as:
- The address
- Opening hours
- The means of contact, for a reservation for example
- And of course the presentation of the professional’s activity as well as its catalog of products and services
Decisive elements for the 91% of consumers who do research online before buying, according to a 2019 E-Commerce Nation study. Moreover, companies with a turnover of more than one million euros are more than 75% have a site, while those with a turnover of less than 100,000 euros are only 45% to have one according to another study (Sortlist, 2020).
This same study also indicates that 41% of online merchants (VSEs/SMEs) who have implemented a strategy playing on the complementarity between the Internet and the store have noticed an enlargement of their catchment area, and for 40% of the merchants questioned an increase in the turnover. business done in store.
Personal uses
A website is a space for expression and freedom. It is a digital space that you control 100% to share your choice of your passion, your experience, your activities, your creations, your travels, your tips, your CV… Everything is possible.
With a personal site, you build your own e-reputation over time, without being dependent on social networks that decide the rules for you (the famous algorithms). No one will be able to delete your account or decide what is displayed.
Indeed, on social networks you are not at home. You are a simple tenant. It is therefore better to take a few precautions before transforming the apartment you are renting into a 5-star hotel. At the risk that it will be taken back from you overnight without explanation.