Website

DIY Don't: 7 Reasons You Shouldn't Design Your Own Website

By Ashutosh Jha → Friday, August 14, 2020

There are over 1.7 billion websites in the world today and new ones are launching every second. With so many people competing for attention, how will you make your business website stand out from the crowd?

If you're just starting out, it's easy to think a free website will save you money, but in fact, the opposite is true. A professional website is an investment in your business and will help you attract high-paying clients and customers.

Why You Should Not Design Your Own Website

Here are 6 reasons why you shouldn't design your own website and hire professional web designers to do it for you.

It's well said that Developing a website is not just a technical skill, it's much more than that!

1. Professionalism

If you're a serious business owner or a brand, your website is your business card. It's the first thing people will look at online and judge your brand accordingly. If you use a free web design platform or don't personalize your domain name, you won't attract any clients or turn a profit.

Consider hiring web development agency services to make sure you have a professional website made to attract and convert clients.

2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for ranking high on search engine pages. For example, in order for Google to find your website and decide how to rank it, the website needs to be properly optimized.

This includes using special plugins and tools that not all free web design platforms offer.

Not only these, if you're going to design your own website, but you also need to understand many common website errors and attributes as well. Some of those are like-

• 301 redirects
• Backlinks
• 404 error pages
• Schema markup
• Domain authority, Page authority, MOZ score, Domain Rating, and more such parameters
• Anchor Text and more

All these come under on-page SEO techniques that need to be done in order to rank a website.

3. Website Management

Having a website means you'll need to manage and update it constantly. Whether you want to add new images, blog posts, or pages, or want to view your analytics, most free platforms offer only the basic tools.

For example, if you want to design your own ecommerce website, you'd need to constantly update the products you offer. You'll need to migrate your website to a more powerful platform. This can end up costing you more money than professional web design.

4. Ownership

Before you create your own website design free of charge, think about the ownership. Web design platforms like Squarespace and Wix own your website because they own the software you used to create it.

If something happens to these platforms and they stop working, your website stops working with them. There are many other aspects as well like you're not the client of yourself. That means, even if you won't like many things, you will go with it as you have developed yourself. And usually, developers fall in love with what they do.

Further making changes on it will be difficult for you. But at the same time, if you are getting it developed from some professional agencies, you can be strict with the requirements. And even if your developers are not making as expected, you can always get it changed. With a professionally designed website, you can be sure it's always safe and secure.

5. Customization

Most free web design platforms offer a certain level of customization, but to truly personalize your website, you'd probably need to pay huge monthly fees.

For a good website, along with the programming skills, you need various tools for the different works. These may include image design, graphics, SEO analysis tools, Email marketing, and more. And getting all these one by one can be a tedious job and expensive as well.

A web designer can create the website of your dreams, exactly like how you imagined it. This way, you don't have to compromise between functionality and design - you can have both.

6. Timing

Let's say you have decided to launch a website in the next 6 months and instead of going with professional developers, you're creating yourself. Most of the time you will see the project is not on time. Although there are many free and paid project management software are available to manage the time but still it is very difficult. 

 

This might be due to various reasons and some of those are-

• You're stuck somewhere in technical errors
• You're not good in graphics designing
• Website load time is more
• You are not getting enough time to work on it
• Logic is not as expected and many such errors

Any of these issues can simply increase your project timeline and you will end up creating a huge mess. At the same time, if you are getting it developed by some agencies, it's their full-time work and they will follow your timeline.

7. Ads and Banners

If you're creating a website you must be either creating it for some services or some information. If you're creating for sharing some information then you may want to monetize website using some kind of ads.

Here also, if you are not much work in the area, then you will end up increasing the website loading time. This will again impact the website SEO and also the user experience will be impacted a lot.

At the same time, if you're getting it developed from professional developers, they know how to generate the revenue from the website without impacting the user experience.

Conclusion

Now You Know Why You Shouldn't Design Your Own Website and Leave It to the Pros.

Before you attempt to design your own website, think about the time and energy you'd be wasting. If you're serious about your business, it's best to leave web design to the pros so you can focus on more important things.

Want more business and entrepreneurship tips? Check out the other articles we've written on these topics and stay tuned for the newest industry trends and updates.

Website

Designing a Website Blog From Scratch- A Complete Guide

By Ashutosh Jha → Sunday, December 1, 2019

Did you know websites with a blog receive 434 percent more indexed web pages compared with websites without a blog?

If you want your website to rank high on search engines, creating a blog is a great place to start. However, starting a blog can also feel like you're designing a website from scratch.

Guide While Designing Website From Scratch- 10 Steps

Not to worry. In this article, we'll reveal how to get your blog up and running quickly with these simple tips going forward. Let's go!

1. How to Pick Your Blog Name

You might be panicking already cause you can't come up with an interesting, catchy and awesome blog name on the spot.

Remember, this is your brand name which needs to be relevant to the topics you're expecting to cover in your posts.

But also, you can always change your blog name later if you change your mind. If you're really struggling, then choose your name or nickname. For example, sillyharry.com.

You need your blog name to stay simple and to the point. You want to appeal to your audience, while also considering how the name appears to search engines. So always include SEO keywords.

2. Register with a Hosting Provider

Once you're ready with your blog name and domain name, it's time to register with a hosting provider.

This ensures your data files are accessible and secure. You can take advantage of free hosting providers. However, they always come with risks and low-quality services.

Alternatively, you can go with one of the many hosting providers which charge a subscription fee. These can usually save you money along the way by providing you with better website design, too.

You can discover more and compare the different hosting provider options available for your blog.

3. Picking a Blog Platform

You need to select a blog platform to write your articles and design a website from scratch. This is called a CMS (Content Management System).

A Content Management System (or CMS) is where you'll be writing, designing, and publishing your blog posts. You should be able to upload content here and select themes for your blog.

There are tons of blog platforms from Wordpress to Squarespace. You need to choose which is right for you.

4. Decide on a Blogging Niche 

Your best chance of becoming a successful blogger is to establish yourself as an influencer in your niche.

How can you do this?

You need to write about something you're already passionate about. But that's not enough either. You also need to know your stuff!

Research what your audience would actually be interesting in reading about. The more interesting your blog to your readers, the more effective you'll be at driving web traffic to your website. You can check most profitable blog niches to get some ideas.

5. Design a Blog Website

It doesn't matter what your content is about if you can't get your audience to stick around long enough to read anything.

Attention web designers - you've got 50 milliseconds to make a good impression with your website.

You need to instantly connect your audience on an emotional level. This requires an awesome blog design which draws you into reading the content.

That's not just about the aesthetics of the blog web pages either. While this is important, it's not everything.

It's also got to be easy to navigate around the web pages. Over 94 percent of users say that an easy to navigate website is a deal-breaker.

Users want your website to be intuitive to browse. They shouldn't have to second-guess each click. It needs to be obvious how it works.

6. Include Essential Web Pages

You've got to remember the boring bits of your blog website, too.

It's not only about fascinating blog posts and intriguing design. You also need to include the essential web pages, such as "About Us/Me," "Contact Page" and also, "Store/Shop".

Your "About Me" page should focus on who you are and why you're writing this blog. Talk about your background (why your opinion matters?) and what's your motivation (why you want to help?) to build authority.

Your "Contact Page" should simply include a basic email address and social media accounts. You can also include an option to call via telephone. You could also include a message box to encourage interaction.

7. Establish a Strategy

It's important to establish a strategy to connect with your audience.

First, consider what you want to achieve with your blog. Do you want to drive web traffic to your online store? Or, do you want to build your authority?

Make sure you learn who your audience actually is. You can discover information via Google Analytics and other tools. Knowing the location and demographics of your audience is important for engaging with them more effectively.

8. Make a Blogging Commitment

Your audience doesn't want to read a one-off blog post without ever hearing from you again. You need to show that you're reliable with a regular blog post.

Tell your readers that you're going to post every week or bi-weekly to maintain enthusiasm for your blog activity. Keep yourself organized to make sure you meet this commitment to maintain trust.

9. Include Images and Videos

Your audience doesn't just check into your blog for the words. You could also add videos to your blog to spice things up.

Your audience also wants images! In fact, blogs with images receive 94 percent more views than those without images.

10. Promote Your Blog

It's not as simple as "write the blog and they will come". You need to go out there and promote your blog yourself.

The best tools at your disposal are definitely social media networks. Whenever you publish a blog post, post it on Facebook and tweet about it Twitter. This is a sure-fire way to build your audience for your blog articles.

Designing a Website From Scratch

Now you know the tricks of designing a website from scratch to make a blogging success. Starting a blog can appear a lot of work at first. However, breaking it down to 10 steps makes it much easier to get going.

If you want to learn more about how you can make your blogging website successful, check out our consulting services here.

How To

How to Add Star Rating in Blogger Post

By Ashutosh Jha → Saturday, May 18, 2019

A couple of days ago I was having communication with one of the clients for the review post and after finalizing everything he asked whether I will rate their product or not. As TricksRoad is on Blogger platform so I have many limitations. But I started searching for it and finally, I am able to implement it. That review post will be live in a few days where the first time I’ll add star rating in blogger post.

After adding a star rating in blogger post, it looks quite nice and so I am sharing the details as to how to add star rating in blogger post so that you can also do the same. Till now I have published many review posts but no one demanded the rating so never worked on it but it’s well said-

Necessity Is the Mother of Invention

But before going through the simple method to add star rating in blogger post, let me tell you few benefits about adding star rating in blog posts.

Benefits of adding Star Rating in Blog Post

There are many benefits of adding a star rating in blog posts. Below I am listing few of those.

• It increases the faith of your visitors on the product

• While reviewing you provide a rating (Usually 1-5) so the users simply can estimate how much that product worth of without reading the whole review.

• Increases traffic to the site

• Provides value to your clients

Now as you know the benefits of adding a rating system in blog posts, let me tell you how to add star rating in blogger post.

How to Add Star Rating in Blogger Post?

As we know adding star rating in WordPress is damn easy due to its rich plugins but in blogger, it is a bit difficult. Here difficult mean just it is not possible directly but with just a couple of minutes of work, you would be able to add star rating in blogger post as well.

Also Read: 5 Best Techniques to Increase DA of a Website

Once you’ll add a star rating, it will look like the below in search engine.

To add the star rating in blogger post, just follow the below steps and within a minute you’re done.

Step1: Go to the blogger post in which you would like to add star rating and click on HTML view.

Step2: Now at the end of the post, add the below code.

<div>  <span> <span>Post-Name</span><br/> </span> Reviewed by <span>Reviewer-Name</span>on <span>August 25 2015 <span title=”YYYY-MM-DD”></span><br/>  </span> Rating: <span>Your-Rating</span></div>

Step3: Just change the items listed in bold in above code write post name (you may write product name if you are reviewing a product), Reviewed by, date and rating. Enter these values as per your convenience and hit the publish/update button of a blog post.

Also Read: How to Index New Blog Post Quickly

That’s all. Once your article is crawled, you can check the star rating in Google search engine.

Hope you liked this article, how to add star rating in blogger post. Do implement and let me know how it works. Also, please share this with your friends.

Software

Top 6 Stages of Mobile App Development

By Ashutosh Jha → Monday, March 18, 2019

People spend more time and money on apps than ever before. The average person uses nine apps per day according to TechCrunch. Meanwhile, Apple and Google rake in billions of dollars each year in app market sales.

If you're considering entering the app market with your business, now is a great time to learn the app development process.

6 Important Stages of Mobile App Development

Here's a rundown on each step of the app development process and with what you can expect along the way.

#1 Concept And Research

Before you can create a world-changing app, you'll need a great idea along with some data to back it up. Start brainstorming fun app ideas.

Once you have a concept you like, conduct a bit of research.

Take the temperature of the current app market. Are there other apps like yours already published? If so, how can you improve on the concept and do something new?

As you conduct market research, create a business document. Outline your core concept, the app's purpose, your target audience, programs and languages you'll use to code your app, and a development timeline.

#2 Wireframe Creation

It's time to put your ideas into action. The first step in the design process is known as wireframing. During this step, you'll create a skeletal version of your app.

Create a wireframe for each screen. Include any text, boxes, or interactive buttons for a given screen.

If you're not a great artist, don't worry, you can still create an effective wireframe. Google posted a fantastic example of how to wireframe an Android app, so use that as your basis.

#3 Design

Using your wireframe as a basis, it's time to get creative and flesh out your app.

The design process is the meat of the app development process, so don't feel bad if it takes longer than any other step.

Take your time and put yourself in the shoes of your users. Design your UX around what's easiest and most enjoyable for them.

#4 Prototype

By now you should have a working prototype of your app. It doesn't need to be finished. This is just the first draft, so you can change design elements or add or remove elements later on.

Still, your prototype needs to serve as a representation of your final product. Do your best to deliver a polished prototype.

#5 Testing

Spend a few days testing every aspect of your app. Give it to your family and friends and let them play around with it, too. Ask for their feedback and refine your prototype until it's perfect.

You'll want as much feedback as possible, so you may want to use Mobile App Testing software like pCloudy, which offer a detailed report of any bugs.

#6 Release And Post-Release

Once you're finished testing your app, you're ready to submit it to Apple and Google. After getting the all-clear, take a deep breath. You're officially an app developer!

But this isn't the end of your journey. Now you'll need to outline the life cycle of your app. Add new features and experiences to keep users coming back for months. Decide how long you'll support your app and continue updating it accordingly.

Your Guide to The App Development Process

If you've never developed an app, the app development process can seem rather intimidating. Don't worry, you've got this.

Remember what you've learned today and stick to your outline. You'll have a five-star app in no time!

If you have any questions or want a professional consultation, reach out today.

Website

5 Web Designer Skills Every Blogger Must Have

By Ashutosh Jha → Friday, March 8, 2019

With the average small business now spending around $75,000 a year on digital marketing, even small blogs have to struggle to compete. If you want to have a standout blog, you need to have a few web designer skills to stay ahead of the competition. Even if you're not using it as a marketing tool, to get the readers you're looking for, you need a solid design.

5 Web designers Skills Bloggers should have

Here are five skills that every blogger should have.

1. Mobile Optimization

Given that mobile browsing has far surpassed desktop usage for several years in a row, you need to make sure your blog looks good on mobile devices. It's vital to have a design that's optimized for mobile devices given that's where a growing population of your audience is going to be.

Reading on a mobile device introduces more challenges that are found on a laptop or a desktop. However, there are some great design solutions that have allowed more bloggers to stretch and scale their pages to optimize reading. If you're using a CMS like WordPress, there are a lot of plug-ins to help make things easier.

Make sure you're not causing your readers to squint or to have to stretch or scale your text. The text shouldn't be cluttered and should be in a standard and easy to read font. Avoid using white text on a black background or any majorly contrasting colors.

Don't crowd the space with ads, videos, and images. They can be used to break up text blocks but placing them side by side makes it harder to read. Make sure things are scaled to fit on any kind of mobile device without any awkward margins.

Mobile traffic is increasing day by day and being a website owner or business owner, you can't ignore this at any cost.

2. SEO

Search engine optimization is more than just adding the right keywords. Search engine algorithms now know how to tell if your site is well organized and designed properly. They can tell if you're adding images that are too big or too small for devices you're displaying your information on.

There are also a lot of opportunities to connect your site to search results. You can add undisplayed text to the "alt" tags behind each imaged. You can also add keywords at the header of every page to help direct searches to you.

When people are using a search engine, they're either looking for specific service or the answer to a specific question. Your blog can answer those questions while offering your talents or specialty as the solution at the end of each post. If you don't offer services, you can use links to other posts to keep them engaged.

The longer that you keep people on your URL, the higher you'll rank on search engines. With lots of quality content that's all linked together, you'll get a high ranking on your favorite search engine. Combine all of these elements and you'll get lots of valuable traffic.

3. Integrating Media

Given that video is slated to account for more than 80% of internet traffic in the coming years, you need to give the people what they want. Even if you're a much better writer than a videographer, you need to add some media to your blog. People want to see video explainers, how-to videos, or get an introduction to who you are and what you're about.

If you can't get it together to make a video, you can accent your posts with videos or gifs. They bring content alive and allow readers to see another perspective on what you're writing about. When you're looking to engage with your audience, you need to offer the kind of content that they're looking for.

Images and videos are good for engaging with your readers in a memorable way. While some people can remember and recall text exactly as they read it, pairing ideas with an image helps to solidify the idea in their minds. When you're able to integrate your text with images, you'll build a dedicated audience who understands your style.

You can build a unique style through all the elements of design and some well-placed pieces of visual media.

4. Designing Logos

Your logo is going to be what becomes your brand. People will look at your logo as a way to get an idea of what you're about. The way you design your logo is going to influence how people treat you and the content that you post.

If you're designing a fun and friendly website for kids and families, you want to have a colorful logo with lots of images. You can turn your letters into fun shapes and use a more playful font.

If you're creating a site for professionals to get advice about succeeding in their industry, you're going to want to play it cooler. Add a minimalist logo with a simple color scheme to ensure that people take you seriously. You can check- how to create free business logo online.

5. Adding Links

Links are part of the way that you design your website and attract an audience. Part of the way that you design your website needs to include links that are cleverly and carefully integrated. Your links should be clear, but not too distracting and not overly promotional.

If you're going to promote other products, other writers, or your own writing, you need to do so in a way that isn't distracting. There are other link styles that aren't as ugly and garish and still let people know they can find more information.

Check out this site for a how to on creating a custom WordPress.

Web Designer Skills Take Practice

When you're trying to hone your web designer skills, it'll take some trial and error to get it right. Just make sure that if you get better at what you do, that you revisit some earlier posts to get everything up to the standard you're trying to meet. You never know when an old post might suddenly take off.

If you're looking to generate some leads that turn to sales, check out our latest guide to make a little bit of money from your blog.

Design

How to Find (or Make) the Best Blog Photos

By Ashutosh Jha → Thursday, January 31, 2019

Whether you're a fashion blogger, a content manager, or a blogger that writes about your rare comic book collection, you need compelling photos for every blog post you create. Why are photos so important when blogging is mostly about writing?

Well, a blog post looks naked without imagery and it may be less appealing to readers. Blog photos help break up text and can be used in a humorous or another compelling way to connect with your audience. A Socialbakers study also found that Facebook posts that contain photos are more likely to get noticed and shared.

Good blog photos are just as important as writing a SEO friendly blog.

If you have no idea what kind of images work best, here are some pointers and best practices that will help your posts appeal more to your readers.

Choose Good Resolution Images

Whatever images you include when writing a blog post, you want to make sure they're large enough with decent resolution for a computer screen. Chances are your blogger platform will automatically resize the image to fit the post width or give you the option to resize it yourself. If you want the image to fit the width of your post, make sure it looks good at that size.

Images with a minimum resolution of 72 PPI (pixels per inch) will display properly on computer and mobile device screens as long as their size is large enough for the post. If the image is tiny to begin with and you want to increase it, choose a larger image or one with a much bigger resolution that you can enlarge.

Put the Post's Title in the Lead Image

Putting the blog post's title directly into the featured image serves two purposes.

It reminds readers what the post is about (and is more likely to get shared.) It will also help drive traffic if the image is pinned to Pinterest.

You don't need Photoshop or another purchased photo editing software to accomplish this. You can create a compelling featured image with your post's title in minutes using Canva or another free photo editing app.

Have Fun with Memes and Gifs

If appropriate for the subject matter, you can break up the seriousness of a post with a humorous image such as an animated gif or a meme. GIPHY is a good source for animated gifs, while memes can be created with sites such as Imgur or Livememe.

Try a Collage

You can also have some fun with creating a collage of similar images for your blog post. This collage maker is just one type of software you can try.

Avoid Copyright Infringement

Perhaps the most important tip to remember when including photos in your blog posts is to make sure you have permission to use them. Search for reusable images on Google by clicking on "tools" and then "usage rights."

A drop-down menu will appear; you should select "labeled for reuse" and "labeled for reuse with modification" to search for license-free photos.

The Best Blog Photos Draw Readers In

Taking the extra bit of time to find or create interesting blog photos can make a huge difference in how your posts get noticed and shared. Don't be afraid to use multiple images to make it easier for people to read your post.

Here at TricksRoad we have everything you need to know to make your business successful. Read our content posts to learn more about optimizing your blog's performance.

Website

Live in the Now: Tips to Get Your Website Updated for 2019

By Ashutosh Jha → Sunday, January 27, 2019

With the average small business set to spend around $75,000 a year on digital marketing, it's important that those dollars go to the right place. One of the places they have to go is to get your website updated on a regular basis. An outdated website makes it look like you don't care about your audience or your overall web presence.

Here are four tips to ensure it's clear you know how to communicate online.

1. Focus on SEO

If you want more traffic on your site, you need to ensure that you've got your search engine optimization plan in place. Search engines rank sites based on how relevant their keywords are, how much new content they're regularly creating, and whether they have a far reach. If people are not only visiting your site but hanging out for a while, you're going to have a strong SEO ranking.

If you want to get a good SEO ranking, you need to find ways to have your site constantly updated. The best way to do this is by starting a blog.

When people jump on a search engine, they're either looking for a specific product or the answer to a question. By writing a blog, you get the opportunity to capture both audiences by answering questions where your products and services are the solutions. A regularly updated blog with lots of great content is going to be shared multiple times and ensure that your reach expands.

SEO also comes into play across your site in a variety of ways, through metadata and undisplayed text. When you have images or videos on your site, there are elements of code to help describe what the videos and images are on your site. This descriptive text goes undisplayed and often gets tracked by search engines, helping to add to your ranking online.

SEO changes constantly so you need to update it to ensure that you're on top of the latest changes.

2. Have a Call To Action on Every Page

If you have call to action buttons already, you're on the right track. You may have them and not even realize. However, many web designers skip them altogether because they don't see the value.

A call to action button entices visitors to explore your site more by directing them to another article or to leave a comment.

Once you have your call to action buttons in place, you might think that you can set them and forget them. The thing is, as you seek repeat visitors and an ever-changing clientele, it's vital for you to change your calls to action from time to time. You need to keep your first-time visitors as interested as your repeat visitors.

If you want to keep your website updated, your calls to action need to have updated language from time to time. If you have the perfect language, you can change the SEO around your call to action or update your landing page. The more time you devote to improving, increasing, and updating your calls to action, the more of a response you're going to get.

You also need to avoid the same call to action on every page. Unless all of your pages have the same goal—in which case, why do you have repeat pages?—you should have different calls to action on each page. Vary them based on what each user is doing on each page, even if they end up in the same place.

3. Try a New Template

If you're using a tool to help you build and maintain your website, there are probably a wide variety of templates available. Each one has their own merits, but it's vital that you try out as many of them as possible. Don't deploy each one, but try them out so that you can see what else your site could look like.

If you have to pay for a new template, it's probably not that much and the rebranding could be well worth it. After a while, it's hard to ensure that your old site, with all of its foibles, is still as easy on the eyes as it once was.

Another issue is whether or not your current template is the best one for mobile devices. It's vital to think about how mobile devices display and load your website as your company grows and we get ever deeper into the mobile era. With mobile taking so much more traffic away from desktops, this is an absolute necessity.

Templates are offered with the need to do too much tweaking. Usually, you can just plug in your data and it'll populate like you'd built the site with that template initially in mind.

It so much more affordable to try out a new template than to redesign your site from scratch. If this is an option for you, it's the best one that money can buy, hands down. When adding things to your website update, consult this checklist to make sure you've got everything you need.

4. Use More Visual Media

If you look at where the internet is headed, it's soon to be a video-dominated medium with a few images and a little bit of text. In the future, the content you'll be looking at, much like this article, will be a video, even if it's just voice synthesized over generalized infographics.

For now, you need to make lots of useful content and media for your visitors. With video set to become more than 80% of all of the traffic online in the next few years, it's important to consider what this medium means.

On top of videos and photos, create lots of infographics to try and grab your audience on another level.

Keep Your Website Updated All Year Round

When you're worried about keeping your website updated, you need to follow the latest trends and styles. If you're feeling like you're behind what's hot right now, hire a consulting agency to help you.

Check out our guide before you hire anyone to help you.

Internet Marketing

10 Reasons Why You Need a Website

By Ashutosh Jha → Thursday, January 24, 2019

71% of small businesses have a website.

This may sound like a high percentage. But this statistic means that 29% of small businesses don't have a website.

Given the fact that there are 30.2 million small businesses in the U.S., that's quite a percentage!

Websites are valuable components of every company's marketing scheme. In this digital age, they should be a staple for every business.

There are many more reasons why you need a website. Keep reading to find out more!

1. Stay Available to Customers

The majority of customers won't even look at a business that doesn't have a website.

Why is this the case?

Websites tell the world what your business is all about. They are the equivalent of digital business cards, in a way.

Without a website, a business may not even make it onto a customer's radar. This is equivalent to attending a huge networking event without bringing a stack of business cards!

By creating a website, businesses make themselves fully available to all potential customers. They indicate their willingness to provide a product or a service to all interested individuals.

Make yourself 100% available to your customers by creating a website to showcase your business.

2. Showcase Your Work

Websites are incredibly versatile. They are ultimate marketing tools, giving business owners a chance to virtually display their wares.

What's more, websites enable you to showcase your work to an incredibly large audience. Anyone can navigate to your site, provided they know how to get there.

If you run an e-commerce company, a website is paramount to displaying what you have to offer. But the same goes for any other business that has something to offer customers.

Showcase your work easily to every visitor with a website without them having to set foot in your brick-and-mortar building!

You can even use a site as a means of showcasing a portfolio, particularly if you operate in arts or architecture industries.

3. Most People Find Businesses Online

There's no doubt about it--in this digital time, most consumers find businesses online.

Gone are the days of flyers and signs (although these still have their place). The internet is a vast platform designed to connect individuals with the information they crave.

By creating a website, you are directly targeting the biggest market with the biggest potential. Failing to meet this standard may simply mean sacrificing crucial brand visibility.

4. Outpace Competitors

Are you looking for a way to stay ahead of the goliaths in your field? Look no further than a website.

A professional website, if designed correctly, can catch the eyes of potential customers and lure them away from your competitors.

You also don't need to invest in expensive web design services in order to do this. Business owners can hire freelance developers or even implement DIY design to have the same result.

Your competitors likely have websites, too. Check out their sites to see what you could do better. Even a simple glance can be helpful in this regard.

5. Attract Local Audiences

Most small businesses are locally based, meaning that they cater to very specific communities. As such, it can be tough to build a customer base.

This is particularly the case for businesses that are new to the corporate scene.

There's no better way to attract a steady stream of local customers than to have a website.

For one thing, local customers are likely browsing online to find businesses in real time. They also likely use their phones to search for products and services nearby.

With a mobile-friendly website, you can be at the ready to meet the demands of local audiences. You can also implement digital marketing schemes like local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to ensure your content is reaching the right people.

Pairing your website with Google My Business will also ensure that your online content appears for specific local searches.

6. Educate Your Clients

Websites aren't just for showcasing and marketing purposes. You can use a website to give people what they often crave most: education.

No matter what industry you are a part of, chances are someone has questions about how to do something. You can use a website to prove your authority in this respect and give customers the answers they seek.

You can do this by keeping a blog on your websites. Blog posts are short articles designed to inform readers about very specific subjects.

Websites themselves can be informative, what with Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages and educational content.

You can even embed educational video content into your site, helping visitors acquire the knowledge they desire easily.

7. Web Design Influences Purchase Decisions

Yes, web design can play a huge role in how your customers are making their purchase decisions!

Much as we judge books by their covers, visitors may "judge" your web design and accordingly decide whether or not they want to stick around.

Without a website, you miss out on the power of web design when it comes to marketing funnels.

Learn more about that here.

8. Get Visible on Google

Google processes about 40,000 searches every single second. Given the astounding size of search engine traffic, a website is paramount to getting brand visibility.

Business owners can optimize their sites for search terms their customers are likely to type into Google.

Optimized, mobile-friendly sites can rank highly on Google, earning sites valuable clicks that could turn into conversions.

9. Social Media Isn't Everything

If you've forgone creating a website because you're on Instagram, think again! Social media is a powerful tool, but it is best paired with a website.

In fact, you should think about your website as your prime marketing tool. Use social media as a secondary campaign designed to send leads back to your site, where the real magic happens.

10. Meet Mobile Users' Needs

Most people have access to a smart device of some kind. Mobile users make up a huge percentage of internet traffic, and by having a website, you can take advantage of this.

In fact, a lot of business-specific searches happen on mobile devices. If you don't have a website, you miss out on the opportunity a single local search can have.

Cater to a mobile audience by creating a mobile-friendly, informative site.

Why You Need a Website

Websites are the foundation of every savvy business owners digital marketing scheme.

Now you know why you need a website. But how about using that website to bring you cash?

Check out this post on improving website conversions to learn more!