Some small businesses may be extremely special and may be able to get by without any web presence whatsoever. If your business is one of these, you can stop reading this article now (right after you leave a comment explaining how you can operate without one … seriously, we’d love to know)!

For the other 99.9999% of small businesses, you absolutely have to have a website nowadays. The advantages are too sweet, and the problems that come with not having one have become far too damaging.

Here are the biggest reasons why we say that:

1. Credibility

We’ll be honest. If we go looking for a business online and can’t find their website, our first thought is, “How legit can this business be? They don’t even care enough to have a single-page website so we can see who they are and how to reach them?” It doesn’t inspire confidence, and makes a bad first impression.

Your website doesn’t have to be complex, it just needs to exist to show that your business isn’t a fly-by-night operation. The existence of a website boosts credibility and reassures prospects that you are up-front and reachable. The most critical components are the address of your location, your phone number, and your email address. That way, prospects from the web can find your business and get in touch with you.

2. Reference

People are far more comfortable learning about your business from browsing online than from calling you, or visiting your location blindly. Thus, a website is hugely important for getting people the basic info about your business that they need. If you can deliver quick explanations of your offerings, along with testimonials and other information to round out your website, it can become a very robust reference point and an effective way to pre-sell customers.

3. It facilitates SEO (search engine optimization)

Without a website, you can’t take advantage of the thousands of searches that take place on Google for businesses like yours. Each search is a potential lead and a potential sale, and capturing 0% of that traffic is a massive missed opportunity.

With a simple website (and beyond that, an active blog), you can enjoy your share of the prospects searching in your industry, and get a big sales bump if you focus your efforts in a dedicated and intelligent manner. The science of increasing your visibility and rank in search results is known as “search engine optimization.” Done right, it’s as good as money in the bank.

4. In enables online sales and marketing

Email marketing is a tremendously cost effective way to increase your sales, but without a website to support your program, it can be quite difficult (if not impossible) to make use of this marketing channel. In addition to providing a base for email marketing, your website also allows you to participate in online pay-per-click advertising. This opens up another stream of leads to help your business keep sales and revenue strong.

5. Your competitors have one

This is the clincher. If people go looking for a business in your industry, or for your business specifically, and they can’t find you online, guess what happens? They immediately browse to a competitor. This strengthens your competition, sends your leads into their arms, and puts them at a huge advantage.

Don’t rely on old methods to keep your business afloat forever. Things change, and the Internet becomes more critical to small businesses each day. Stay up-to-date with an easy, low cost website, and make sure that tomorrow’s sales are strong as today’s.

Convinced? Click here for an unbelievably simple and cost-effective way to build your business’s website quickly with Bizness Web!