Does My Small Business Need a Website?

Well, probably, it depends on your needs.

Don’t just have a website because everyone else does. It needs to be part of your business plan and part of a strategy.

Let’s look at some data first

(How many times consumers used the internet to find a local business in the past 12 months. Photo credit: Search Engine Land)

https://www.yelpblog.com/2012/04/survey-85-of-consumers-use-the-internet-to-find-local-businesses

• Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Only about 22% of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates. (Econsultancy, 2016)
• The first position on Google search results on desktop has a 34.36% clickthrough rate. (Advanced Web Ranking, 2015) The first position on Google search results on mobile has a 31.35% clickthrough rate.
• (Advanced Web Ranking, 2015) For every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting them. (Econsultancy, 2016)
• Ecommerce 81% of shoppers conduct online research before making big purchases. (Retailing Today, 2014) 44% of people go directly to Amazon to start their product searches, compared to 34% who use search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to search for products. (Marketing Land, 2015)
• Mobile commerce makes up 30% of all U.S. ecommerce. (Internet Retailer, 2015)
• Local SEO 72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within five miles. (WordStream, 2016) 30% of mobile searches are related to a location. (Google, 2016) 28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase. (Google, 2016) Local searches lead 50% of mobile visitors to visit stores within one day. (Google, 2014) 78% of local-mobile searches result in offline purchases. (Search Engine Land, 2014)
• Mobile Search More Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the U.S. and Japan. (Google, 2015) 49% of B2B researchers who use their mobile devices for product research do so while at work. (Google, 2015) 65% of smartphone users agree that when conducting a search on their smartphones, they look for the most relevant information regardless of the company providing the information. (Google, 2015) 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on their smartphone. (Google, 2015) 48% of consumers start mobile research with a search engine. (Smart Insights, 2016) 26% of consumers start mobile research with a branded app. (Smart Insights, 2016) Organic Search Google gets over 100 billion searches a month. (Mashable, 2015)
• The average Google first page result contains 1,890 words. (Backlinko, 2016)
  • 50% of search queries are four words or longer. (WordStream, 2016)
  • 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot, 2017)
  • 71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search. (Google, 2015)
  • B2B researchers do 12 searches on average prior to engaging on a specific brand’s site. (Google, 2014)
  • 72% of marketers say relevant content creation was the most effective SEO tactic. (Ascend2, 2015)
  • 40% of marketers say the most challenging obstacle to search engine optimization success is changing search algorithms. (Ascend2, 2015)
  • Voice Search 19% of people use Siri at least daily. (HubSpot, 2015)
    • 37% use Siri,
    • 23% use Microsoft’s Cortana AI,
    • 19% use Amazon’s Alexa AI at least monthly. (HubSpot, 2015)
    • 20% of search queries on Google’s mobile app and on Android devices are voice searches. (Search Engine Land, 2016)
    • 60% of smartphone users who use voice search have begun using it within the past year, with 41% of survey respondents having only begun to use voice search in the past six months. (Search Engine Land, 2015)
    • 43% of mobile voice search users do so because they say it is quicker than going on a website or using an app. (Statista, 2015)
    • 21% of mobile voice search users do so because they say they don’t like typing on their mobile. (Statista, 2015)

(Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statisticsInternet Statistics 2017)

https://hostingfacts.com/internet-facts-stats-2016/

• There are now 3.74 billion Internet users in the world as at March 2017. This is compared to 3.26 billion Internet users in 2016.
• Asia is the continent with the most Internet users. In fact, interestingly, the number and percentage of Internet users in Asia has gone up compared to 2016. Asia now accounts for 50.1 percent, or more than half, of all Internet users in the world. The runner up is Europe, with 17 percent of all Internet users.
• China has the most Internet users of all country. At over 731 million Internet users at the time of writing this, China currently accounts for more than 25 percent of Internet users worldwide — a notable increase compared to 21.97 percent of worldwide Internet users from last year.
• The number of people using the Internet in China is more than double the population of the U.S.
• As at January 2017, the United Arab Emirates is the country with the highest Internet penetration in the world — with an impressive 99 percent of its citizens, or about 9.2 million people, using the Internet.
• The internet influenced sales to the tune of $2.1 trillion in 2016.
• For the very first time in history, with a projected $205 billion Internet ad spend compared to a projected TV ad spend of $192 billion, global internet advertising spend is expected to exceed TV advertising spend in 2017.
• Over 2 million blog posts are published on the Internet every day.
• Over 5.5 billion Google searches are made every day.
• Domain Name Statistics 2017
• There are currently over 330.6 million registered domain names as at the first quarter of 2017. This explains why it can be difficult coming up with a good domain name that is yet to be taken. Thankfully, we have prepared a list of domain name generators for you.
• Domain name registrations have grown by 3.7 percent year over year.
• About 38.8 percent of all domain names use the leading .com domain name extension.
• There are 1,547 domain name extensions (TLDs) as at the 17th of August 2017.
• The most expensive domain name ever sold is LasVegas.com, which was bought in 2005 for a whopping $90 million.
• Web Hosting/Website Statistics and Facts 2017
• As at August 2017, there are 1.24 billion websites in the world.
• The world’s first website was published on August 6, 1991 by British physicist Tim Berners-Lee.
• 51.8 percent of all internet traffic comes from bots, while only 48.2 percent of internet traffic comes from humans.

What does it take to have a Website for your business?

• Hosting: You will need to have a place on a server. That server needs to be maintained and protected from hacking and malware. That server needs to be quickly (site loads in less than 5 seconds) available to consumers in your market area.
• You need a Content management System (CMS): This is software that decides how to format and organize your site content and make it updateable. There are many types but a few of the most popular are Word Press, Joomla, Drupal, etc.

1. A content management system (CMS): manages the creation and modification of digital content. It typically supports multiple users in a collaborative environment.
2. CMS features vary widely. Most CMSs include Web-based publishing, format management, history editing and version control, indexing, search, and retrieval. By their nature, content management systems support the separation of content and presentation.
3. A web content management system (WCM or WCMS) is a CMS designed to support the management of the content of Web pages. Most popular CMSs are also WCMSs. Web content includes text and embedded graphics, photos, video, audio, maps, and program code (e.g., for applications) that displays content or interacts with the user.
4. Such a content management system (CMS) typically has two major components:
5. A content management application (CMA) is the front-end user interface that allows a user, even with limited expertise, to add, modify, and remove content from a website without the intervention of a webmaster.
6. A content delivery application (CDA) compiles that information and updates the website.
7. Digital asset management systems are another type of CMS. They manage content with clearly defined author or ownership, such as documents, movies, pictures, phone numbers, and scientific data. Companies also use CMSs to store, control, revise, and publish documentation.
8. Based on market share statistics, the most popular content management system is WordPress, used by over 28% of all websites on the internet, and by 59% of all websites using a known content management system. Other popular content management systems include Sitecore, Joomla and Drupal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system

• Uniform Resource Locator (URL): This is the thing you type into the search bar in the browser. For example, for my company; https://www.ktowndesign.com. These are managed by a few companies and you purchase a URL on an annual basis. One of the most popular sellers is GoDaddy but there are many others. An URL is just an alias name for your unique IP address with is a unique number that is assigned to your site by an international organization, IANA https://www.iana.org/numbers
• SSL (Secure Socket Layer) This is not absolutely necessary, but highly recommended. If you keep any personal data on your website, then it is necessary, particularly if you take money on your websites. Your SEO ranking is affected by whether your site is secure or not
• PPP (Personal Privacy Policy) Your site needs a Privacy Policy and a way for you to handle any request for removal of personal information. In the EU it is the law. In the US it is good policy and may leave you open to fines or blocking in any EU country that you sell goods and services to.
• Must be Mobile Device Friendly: Over 50% of searches are done on mobile devices such as smart phones and hand-held devices. Your website must display well on them. Google will penalize your ranking if your site is not mobile compatible.
• Maintenance: There are constant updates that come to fix holes and back doors in your site security. You should update your site on a weekly or at the minimum a monthly basis.
• A Good Landing (Home) Page: The Home Page should say immediately, who you are what you offer and where you are located. AVOID wordy commentary, no one is going to read it. Avoid in most cases Carousels on the above the Fold part. Very Few will sit there and wait to read every one of them. Be aware of your Titles, they are prime beachfront real-estate for SEO.
• A Page Action: Every Page on you Website needs to lead the viewer to an action. For example, sign up for a newsletter, lead them to a product or service page, or make an appointment.

How do people find my Small Business Website?

There are getting close to 2 billion websites out there and growing

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the process of designing a website to find key items or words that  match what people are typing in the search bar on their browser. A Search Engine try’s it’s best to match the words and phrases  that you are typing into the  search bar, to results from sites it has “crawled”  over the internet. I t then sends you to the sites that it thinks best matches your search. These are called keywords. The problem with keywords is they are seasonal and ever changing. Let me give you an example. I am interested in purchasing a Tacoma pickup truck. If I type in Toyota, I will get results from all over the world and it could be any year model or price. If I type in 2018 Toyota Tacoma long bed red near Charlotte, I will get something totally different and more meaningful. The second example is called a long tail key word and will get me more exact results. If it is Christmas I am less likely to be looking for a new car but Christmas gifts or decorations. For Example, you would expect to see Christmas Gift ideas searched for more than cars, before Christmas and How to return a gift, may be more common  searches, after Christmas. The last example is a seasonal change in searches..

There are companies out there that specialize in SEO. You can spend hundreds or thousands keeping your SEO current. It is certainly worth it for huge on-line e-commerce companies such as Amazon and QVC for it can bring in millions of dollars. But for a small business it is not practical in most cases.

Local SEO

Let’s face it, you as a small local company, can’t afford or even need expensive PPC (Pay per Click) campaigns or high dollar SEO budgets. That is where local SEO comes in. You want to bring in local customers. Someone in Seattle Washington is probably not going to call you to fix their car anyway. Any good web design company will do some basic SEO and Local SEO research, during your website design. One example what if I searched for Air Conditioner repair companies in Concord, NC. Then if you own an AC Repair Company in Concord and your website is optimized for local SEO, you are likely to pop up on the first page of the search.  Anything listed after the first couple of pages will never likely be looked at. That first page is the golden ticket. That is what local SEO is all about. It is very important to small businesses.

Small Business, thinking of building your own website?

It’s simple, there are many website builders applications out there, where you can build a website yourself and not spend a dime, if you just want a website.

Wix is one that you see advertised. Weebly and Square Space are others. Just type free websites into your browser search bar and you will find many more. How can they do this, you may ask? You can build a nice-looking website, quickly and easily. But is it really free, there are cost to them, after all they must purchase a server to store the files and people to run and maintain it. Well, the answer is they are not actually free. Many of them will run advertisements on your page, that is how they pay the bills. If you just have a personal site for the family and you are going to tell people the URL address, there is nothing wrong with that, go for it! But, what if you run a business? do you want some other business, who may be competitor,  running advertisements, on your site? The host company, usually will give you a way to get rid of that advertisement. They  lead you to their paid plans. Well, there goes the free part. Some of those paid plans can be very expensive. They add things like paid backup, custom URL fees and many more. These options can really add up if you are not careful.

What do you lose by building your own web site?

Well, you can learn how to do all the above, find a fast hosting company, spend a year learning how to do SEO, learn WordPress, Joomla, learn to write PHP, JavaScript, HTML and CSS and go. The other choice is to use WIX or one of the other free drag and drop designers and possibly get lost among the Billions of other websites. I have to admit, it is a lot of fun for us tech geeks, but my guess you neither have the time or the desire. You may want to consider hiring a professional designer and use your time to grow your business

What Does a Good Designer Cost

Well, that depends on your business and your needs. A good design company will spend time with you and get to know you, your business, and your market. They will do a lot of research define what you need and like, and what you can afford. Some designers work by the hour and others have a fixed price based on the project. Hourly Prices for a good designer can go from $100/hour to over $200+ for large agency. Some will contract out any development work to an India based company, and other large agencies will have people in house. Prices per project again depends on your needs and your budget. Typically prices from $1500 for a simple site to over $10,000 for a complex site. The average for a small local business would be in the $2500 to $3500 range. You can get a really nice small business site for that range. You can tailor your site to fit your budget and always grow it later if needed, if you don’t have the budget now.  Another option is to lease a site. With a lease site you pay a smaller development fee and the an annual lease fee. Leased site fees again is based on your needs.  Most agencies can get you started on e-mail and social media marketing, and that is a whole new topic we will discuss later.

Small Business Website Strategy at K-Town Design

Our Strategy here at K Town Design, is not to just throw a website at you. That is a waste of your time and more importantly money. We will first get to know you and your business. I will research your local market and competition and tailor your site to your on-line presence to your business and situation needs. I can help you with email marketing, video promotion and any type of graphics, particularly motion graphics. I work with local artist if you need graphics beyond my skill level. We provide fast hosting and web security, or you can provide your own. All my designs are mobile friendly and include a free SSL certificate to keep your data safe. I offer maintenance plans in case you do not want to worry about keeping your site updated. If you prefer to do your own maintenance, I will include 3 hours of training. I can provide more for a reduced hourly fee.

If you have any question just give me a call at 704-706-5432 or got to https://ktowndesign.com and book a consult time right from the website.

David Christian, K Town Design