6 Benefits of a Business Website vs Social Media

Having a business website is an essential part of running a successful business. With the right website, you can improve brand recognition, reach new customers, and increase sales while avoiding the problems associated with social media. In our previous blog, we discussed some of the negatives of marketing a business on Facebook. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at six of the most important benefits of a business website compared to social media.

1) A Business Website Can Reach Customers Who Don’t Use Social Media

Many social media platforms today are making news for their tanking stock prices and disgruntled users. It’s becoming almost trendy for people to announce they are quitting social media platforms to make a social or political statement. The drama and toxicity of many social media sites have caused many users to swear off social media altogether. Having a business website allows current and potential customers to connect with you, including those who have given up on particular platforms or who have limited their time on social media. Your business website gives them a place to find out about you without the need for downloading phone apps or setting up an account on a platform that may be falling out of favor.

Most users searching for local businesses and services will use a search engine to find them, since the business they’re looking for may not be represented on the social media platforms they use. While they may or may not opt to stay connected with that business on social media, the initial contact, more often than not, is going to be made through a search engine and a website, rather than a social media page.

2) A Business Website Doesn’t Need as Much Maintenance as a Social Media Account

Unlike a social media account, a business website doesn’t require frequent updates to maintain its presence. A social media account without any recent activity gives the impression that it has been abandoned. With a website, you can update content as needed, or when you have new offers or products. This type of upkeep is more economical and time-efficient than maintaining a social media account.

Additionally, you won’t need to hire someone to manage reviews and comments. Angry customers can leave negative comments on your social media pages at any time of the day. It can harm your business’ reputation for users to see those comments or to see that no reply from your business has been posted to address them in a timely manner. While it is possible on many social media platforms to disable comments, that can also cause users to wonder why you’re not allowing engagement on your posts. That can be avoided with a business website.

A business website also gives you more options for notifications of user interaction. With a social media account, you generally only know when you’ve had user interaction through notifications you’ve received on a device where you are logged into a social media page or where an app is running. With a website, you can configure notifications to be sent to multiple email addresses or devices belonging to multiple users, so that you’re less likely to miss important questions, comments, and orders from customers.

3) With a Business Website, You’re in Control of Your Content, Not the Social Media Platform

Unlike most social media platforms, important content on your website remains accessible to customers until you decide to change it or for as long as you maintain your website hosting service. With social media, it’s hard to know who is seeing your content, but with your business website, you can have complete control over what is published and who can see it. Important content doesn’t disappear down a post stream the more you add to it the way it tends to do on most social media platforms.

You’re also not subject to third-party social media artificial intelligence programs shutting down access to your content because they misinterpreted something you posted. Many social media platforms can block posts or ban accounts at will and offer limited or no customer service options to address appeals quickly. With a website, your content is arranged how you want it and stays visible to site visitors until you decide to remove it.

4) A Website Lets You Organize How You Feature Products and Services

Having a website for your business is essential for ensuring customers can find out more about the products and services you provide. With your own business website, you can give visitors all the information they need to contact you and make a decision to do business with you. It can answer questions for potential customers 24 hours a day.

You can use your business website to provide detailed descriptions of each product or service and include positive customer reviews, photos, pricing, and even videos to give potential customers an in-depth look at what you have to offer. You can also use your website to showcase promotions and discounts, as well as to inform customers about any new products and services that you may be offering. A business website allows you to arrange this information in a way that makes sense for you and your customers, rather than forcing them to scroll for it through social media sites.

5) A Business Website Can Start Small and Grow with Your Business

You can create a basic website with just a few pages, like a home page, an ‘About’ page, and a ‘Contact’ page. As your business grows and develops, you can expand your website to include more pages with more information and more offerings. When you’re ready, you can add detailed product descriptions, capture emails for a mailing list, take reservations, post how-to videos, or even consider adding e-commerce features that let customers make purchases right from your website. The endless options can be geared to suit your type of business, rather than forcing you to adapt to the limited available features within a social media account. There are thousands of website plug-ins, many of them free, that can help you build a fun, interesting, feature-rich website that offers functional value to your business

6) A Business Website Gives You More Design Flexibility Than Social Media

When you create a business website, you have more control over how your content is presented, allowing you to capture the character and image of your business. You don’t have to worry about social media platform restrictions or design guidelines, such as the size of photos or the length of videos. With a business website, you can customize every page with colors, fonts, images, videos, and music to create the exact look and feel that you want for your brand. You’re not limited to whatever specific design or information fields are displayed on a social media platform.

You can also optimize your website for search engines like Google, so that customers can find you more easily. Optimizing your website includes everything from making sure that your content is keyword-rich to ensuring that all of your pages are mobile-friendly. These optimizations can help boost your website’s search engine ranking, meaning more potential customers will see your website when they search for related topics.

Getting Started with Your Business Website

The good news is that creating and managing a business website doesn’t have to cost you thousands of dollars. There are many different ways to create and manage a cost-effective and easy-to-use website. With the right tools and resources, you can have a professional-looking business website up and running for a fraction of the cost.

You may even be able to do it yourself, but you’ll want to be sure the results look good, represent your business well, meet your business needs, and work properly. You also need to ensure your website is built with SEO principles in mind and contains content that will provide value to your customers. All of this can be done without breaking the bank.

Having a business website is a great way to present your company online and reach a wider audience. With a website, you’re in control of your content, and you don’t need to rely on third-party platforms like social media to get your message across. Additionally, a website can start small and grow with your business. And best of all, you don’t need to invest thousands of dollars to create a great website.

Not having a website could mean missing out on potential customers and being invisible to Google. If you want to get the most out of your online presence, having a business website is essential. Not only will it boost your brand visibility, but it will also help you communicate with customers without the pitfalls and time demands associated with social media.