The Importance of a Website for a Business

In a digital and interconnected world like today, the Internet has become the medium through which we establish relationships and communicate. Both among people and with organizations and businesses. In the latter case, a company can manage different communication channels, such as social media, email, or messaging apps. But there is always a fundamental piece for a business in the realm of the Internet: the website.

The website of a company has different functions, which vary according to the business model: from being a simple showcase of who we are and what we do, to being the engine of our organization providing sales or new contacts. Thus, nowadays it seems unthinkable for a company not to have its own website.

In this sense, in this article, we will try to convey the importance of a company’s website and the value it can bring to a business, both for those considering creating a new website and for those who have a website and do not dedicate the necessary efforts to it. Let’s get started.

Why is it important to have a website for a business?

The website of a company will be a reflection of it. All the material and content we present will help users who visit us to get an idea of who we are and what we do, placing us in one place or another in their mental framework.

Think, for example, when you visit a physical store in the city. Just by looking at the window, you can already intuit what you will find inside. And once you visit it, you will form an opinion about it and decide whether to buy or not. Aspects such as product presentation, order, cleanliness, aisle distribution, etc., will influence.

Surely, if the products are poorly organized and you can’t find anything, if the aisles are dirty, and if you struggle to find the checkout area, you will decide not to buy and will rate your experience with that brand negatively. The same goes for websites: a poor user experience on your website means you have lost a potential customer.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance for a company to take care of its website. Knowing this, we can argue the following reasons to value a business’s website:

• Building Trust. Something crucial when trying to attract new customers with our website is to convey trust to the user. Since we are asking them to send us a form or make a purchase, we must provide guarantees that we are a serious company and will fulfill our part.
• Defining Our Brand Image. The design of the website should align with our company’s identity, and at the same time, help us define its visual aspect. Taking care of the design is not just about having a beautiful website: the visual aspect will help the user identify us throughout the relationship we maintain with them.

• Relationship Between Brand and Customers. The website will serve as a communication element with our customers at different stages of their life cycle: when they find us for the first time, when they decide to hire our services and products, and when they need post-sale service or decide to recommend us to other users. Therefore, the website should facilitate this interaction by providing contact methods at each of these stages.
• Analysis Tool. With the consolidation of web analytics platforms like Google Analytics or the records from our own website, every visit we receive will be logged for later consultation. This turns our website into a valuable source of information, providing us with data such as who our users are, where they come from, what actions they take on the website, what products they buy, etc.
• Attracting New Customers. Our website can become a source of new customers, either as a complement to other means we already have or as the main axis if our business is 100% online.
• International Expansion. One of the inherent aspects of Internet communications is the ability to establish contact over great distances instantly. Our website is no exception, and with the right strategy, it can allow us to attract customers from all over the globe.

Later, we will see what aspects of our website we should consider to fulfill these claims.

Are All Websites Equally Important?

While we have advocated throughout the article for the importance of a company’s website, there will be cases where it will carry more weight than others. This does not mean that, for some companies, the website can be neglected because it is not a direct source of income.

The business model we adopt will greatly influence the value and efforts we dedicate to our website. Some of the most common examples are:

• Online Stores. In many cases, an e-commerce site can be the main axis of our business. Especially if the project started directly in the digital world. In other cases, the online store will complement our activity with physical stores. Whatever the case, if we have an online store, we must generate sales, so it will be necessary to allocate resources to it.
• Lead Generation. If we offer services as our business activity, the website will be the starting point of the relationship with our customers. Therefore, if we want to maintain a steady flow of new customers, we must take care of our website.
• Media and Blogs. If our activity focuses on content generation and its monetization through ads or affiliate links, it is obvious that our website is important.

What Aspects to Care for on Your Company’s Website?

If you have made it this far, you should be quite convinced of the importance of a website for any business. The next step: dedicate the efforts your website deserves. But… where to start?

The optimization of a website is a process that never ends. You could dedicate countless hours to it and still find aspects to review. This is compounded by the fact that the web world changes every day.

Since we do not have infinite resources, let’s guide you through the main points you should analyze and on which you should act to improve your company’s website:

• Design. A company’s website should align with its visual identity. Taking care of the website design will allow us to convey our values. The best way to achieve this is to have a custom web design. If we use templates to create our website, they may not fit our visual aspect and other companies may use the same design.
• Usability and Information Architecture. When a user enters the website, what do we want them to do? Where do we want them to navigate? When you answer these questions, investigate whether it is easy to perform those actions on your website. You have quantitative and qualitative web analytics tools at your disposal to detect if users are encountering difficulties. And with this information, act accordingly.
• SEO and Other Traffic Sources. It won’t help us much to have an optimized website if no one visits it. To attract traffic to our website, we must study which channels we can use to reach our target audience. SEO is often a good starting point, as it can guarantee a flow of visits in the medium and long term.
• Security. Websites often receive attacks with different objectives, with preventing their proper functioning and stealing information being the most common. Investing in your website’s security will save you a lot of headaches in the future.
• Reviews and Recognition. As in any other corporate communication, we can insist on how well we do and how good we are, but the user will always perceive the message as biased. After all, we are self-praising. To overcome this barrier, we can include resources on our website such as reviews from other customers or information about awards and recognitions we have received.
• Updated Information. One of the things that leaves a bad impression when entering a website is finding content dated several years back. The user may perceive that the company is no longer active. Therefore, it is essential to keep all the information on our website updated, whether it is our main services or the posts we make on the blog.
• Mobile-Friendly. This point is closely related to the Usability mentioned above, but it is significant enough to consider it separately. When the first websites emerged, we only had the option to visit them via a computer. Nowadays, most internet browsing occurs through mobile devices. Therefore, there are still websites that do not display correctly on smartphones. If our user is going to visit our website on their mobile, they should be able to view and navigate it without problems.

Having seen the importance of a website for a business and what elements we should take care of, the only thing left is to take the first step to optimize your website. In some cases, you may be able to apply the different improvements you detect on your own. In others, you may need to hire a professional, such as a web design agency or the services of an SEO consultant.