Did you know that as of 2020, the US e-commerce sector was valued at $431.6 billion and this amount is set to increase to approximately $563 billion by 2025? If you’re still hesitating about jumping onto the online train then you need to change your mind quickly because the digital sphere is only heading one way and that’s up!
While social media platforms can be used to gain traction and build audience engagement there really is nothing like a good old-fashioned website that belongs solely to you. It’s true that social media platforms are extremely user-friendly and require almost no technical knowledge. But you’ll soon realize it is a more effective tool for online marketing rather than for creating an online presence.
When you create your own website you can customize it far more than when you use social media. After all, if you want to pass the “vibe check” you’ve got to create the right vibe for your business site. But before we talk about making websites and running an online business you need to make sure you’ve got a solid internet connection backing you up which is why you might want to look up the Grande Communications phone number. Some of you may still be adamant about the fact that social media is good enough to run a business. But we’re going to tell you why it’s worth investing in creating a website:
Permanence
A website has a permanence that social media platforms just don’t. While Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram might all seem like they’re going to be around forever, social media sites can gain and lose popularity over time. This could affect the visitors to your social media-based business pages as well as mean that you may find yourself needing to switch and re-build your business page from scratch- a rather arduous task. However, a website offers a sense of permanence as you’ll always have a solid online presence while you’ll only need to switch the tools used to market your business online.
You may also like Top Social Media Applications To Get Leads For Your Business
Absolute Control
When you use social media sites you need to operate with pre-made formats and templates. However, if you create your own website you can create an “aesthetic” e.g. if you’re selling plants you can make sure to use a lot of green tints and hues or basically more earthy shades on your website; you could even customize the entire format to include plants.
The same strategy can be implemented for any other product/service. In fact, sometimes an attractive design and website layout can be the difference between you doing well and your competitor not-so-well.
Improved Credibility
Since social media pages are free and so easy to create there can often be a fair few fake or unverified sellers out there. Unlike a website, social media pages require no financial investment to be set up.
Perhaps you once bought an item online only to never have the item delivered to you or perhaps the item was delivered to you. But it’s of much poorer quality than what the online page’s image depicted. Either way, it’s a pretty disheartening experience since you lose out on your hard-earned money. So whether it’s happened to you or to someone else you know you may not trust social media pages that aren’t affiliated with a parent website that you can check out.
The better designed your website the more authentic it will look; a tacky or unfashionably old-looking website might raise some red flags for customers since they appear to look like sham websites that have been set up to steal money rather than carrying out business.
You may also like Social Media Marketing Tips: How to Develop Brand
Use of Analytics Tools
Perhaps one of the most significant advantages of having a website is the ability to use analytics tools like Google Analytics as this allows you to gather a rich amount of data for your website:
- The number of people who visit your site
- How visitors are directed to your site e.g. are they visiting your site through a paid Facebook ad, a search using Google’s search engine, or through a link from a blog post.
- Which pages people are landing on e.g. a home page, contact us page, our vision or mission page, etc.
- While many try to cheat the system by making their websites rank highly by figuring out how to manipulate the Google algorithm. Google tries to prioritize its users by continuously updating its algorithm. By using Google Analytics you can then find out if any changes to the algorithm have affected your website’s ranking.
- The number of visitors who are mobile users. With the convenience of smartphones and increasingly busy lives, many customers shop online. If this is the case for your business then you can optimize your website’s display version for mobile phones so it’s easier for users to navigate.
In Essence
If you want to ensure long-term and robust growth for your online business you need to make long-term investments. If you can try and get a professional to design your website. But if that option is too pricey then you can try free website builders such as Wix and use more services for minimal fees ranging from $25-$10 a month.
Building a website has never been easier plus with the dominance of online shopping/services a website is more a necessity than a luxury if you want to maintain your competitive edge. However, it might be all well and good for you to have a website, but if your internet connection fails you then you’re going to suffer irrespectively so take a look at Grande Communications internet plans to find a package that best suits you.
Would you like to read more about social media platforms-related articles? If so, we invite you to take a look at our other tech topics before you leave!
