Questions of the Month

Monthly Question

Why should my business have a website when we don’t even have a computer?

This is an interesting question. I’m sure that most of you would have the same response that I did when I heard this question. “Don’t most businesses have computers today, and isn’t Internet access mandatory to even have a business at all.” Of course I didn’t say this out loud to the woman that posed the concern, but the thought did occur when I pondered the question after the meeting.

Well it’s not mandatory, but most businesses do actually have access to computers. Can you imagine completing the most basic business tasks like writing a letter or balancing the books without a computer?

Furthermore, 4 of 5 people in the United States use the Internet on a regular basis. They spend an average of 11 hours per week accessing the Internet (see reuters.com).

A business website is not necessarily for YOU (the business owner) specifically. It’s for the 80% of your customers who ARE using the Internet. They want to confirm your office hours, check on your products and services, find out the best way to get to your office, find out why you are better than the competition, get their questions answered and much, much more. They want to do this at THEIR convenience by accessing this information via their personal computer at home or at work.

For most people, using the Internet before making purchases is just an integral part of life. I remember the last time I bought a car. I did all of my research on the Internet. The most amusing thing to me was when I visited the first of the three car dealers that I’d selected for in-person visits. My sales person could not find the car that I was interested in. I helped him find the car by providing him with the stock number that I had retrieved from the dealer’s website. Sure enough they had the car in stock. Like the rest of the 80% of people using the Internet before making purchases, I had quickly and easily obtained the knowledge that I needed because the car dealer had a quality business website.

Today 82% of people use search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN to search for local business information compared to only 57% using Yellow Pages directories (see marketingcharts.com).

Businesses need a business website because of that simple fact: 82% of the people out there will be looking for you on the Web using a search engine. My question to you is: “Will they find you on the Web?”

Granville Porter
Star Web Pros

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