I speak with lots of small businesses whose main reason for getting a website is because their competitors have one.

While their is some validity to that, the actual main reason to have a website is because they generate money for you, FACT!

Let’s just clarify something quickly though:

• Not having a website means you are missing out on potential work.
• However, you’ll also be missing out on potential work if you have a poor quality website.

You need to have a website that looks great, is easy for you and your audience to use and allows you to manage your SEO strategy with ease.

Lots of small businesses operate via loyal customers and this is great.

Let’s take a landscaping company for instance who have repeat business.

Doing a good job should generate more repeat work and also recommendations via word of mouth or social media.

In some instances, that may be enough.

However most small businesses go through peaks and troughs in terms of workload.

A website will help you to generate a continuous flow of work.

When a potential customer is after a new product of service, they will do one of two things:

• They will search for businesses online, e.g. Google, directory listings.
• They will receive a number of business recommendations from friends, family, colleagues etc

Online Search

If your business doesn’t have a website then obviously you won’t be found on Google.

You may be found in an online directory listing, but that potential customer will most likely expect you to have a website which they can visit from that listing.

Therefore it’s easy to see why having a website will be beneificial in this instance.

Recommendations

If your potential client gets a number of recommendations, then it’s natural that they will go online to find your website to ensure you do what they think you do and that you do it well.

It’s also natural for people to quickly compare all of their recommendations online.

Ways you can now miss out on potential work to another business are:

• You don’t have a website and they do.
• Your website looks amateur / dated which reflects badly on your business.
• Your website is substandard when compared to your competitors.

So what is it that your business needs?

What your business need therefore is a professional looking website with recent examples of your work, some testimonials and contact details.

This builds trust with your potential client and should guarantee you get an enquiry.

From there it’s down to you to seal the deal.

Remember at this stage of the purchasing cycle, your potential customer is ready to commit, they are a very hot lead and want to buy / use your products / services.

If your website costs X and a job is worth Y to you, then you can see how a website quickly pays for itself.

Whenever you get a new client, simply ask them how they heard of you and whether or not they looked at your website.

It really is as simple as that.

I also install Google analytics on all my client’s sites to measure traffic and track your page ranking in Google.

There is a value that can be assigned to everything to do with your website.

For instance, your ranking increasing has an associated value.

The amount of traffic your website generates has an associated value.

And of course someone filling out an enquiry form on your website has an associated value.

All of these things allow you to not only justify your initial website spend, but also calculate the profit that your website is generating for your business.

I believe there’s a bit of a misconception about the time your audience spends on your website and how that relates to generating money for your business.

Long website visits do not have a direct correlation with the amount of work that you receive.

Remember when someone lands on your site, it’s rarely by chance.

They will have come from a word of mouth recommendation, social media, an ad, a directory listing or a Google search.

In other words they are a hot lead.

Hot leads are easy to convert into customers

Hot leads need to see a professional looking site and confirmation that you do what they think you do.

Rest assured that I take care of all of that for you.

Believe it or not, within less than a second, your hot lead will form an opinion on your business based on the quality of your website.

It could be therefore, that they land on your home page. immediately like what they see / read and give you a call.

They’re not going to necessarily spend a long time on your website before committing to using your services or products.

Always ask if someone has visited your website

As previously mentioned, always ask a new customer who contacts you, how they heard of you and whether they looked at your website.

This information is essential for calculating your ROI on your website.