Do I Really Need A Website for my Small Business or to Boost career
Hello! Today we have a rather interesting topic. We will discuss whether a small business needs a website and whether a simple employee, not an entrepreneur, needs a website in general to promote a personal brand or their personal services. I am a freelance web developer and I find this topic interesting enough to discuss. I'll give my professional opinion on the matter and convince you why the answer to the question in the title is yes, you really need a website.
My House - My Rules
As I said, I am a web developer. Many projects go through my hands. Since I deal with landing pages, I focus on the number of developed sites, and not on their scale. Large projects are very boring for me, as they require more time and attention. That is why small websites for small businesses and startups start through me, portfolio sites, blogs and other projects advertising a personal brand or personal services start through me.
For example, lately, very often other freelancers order a personal web page from me. The last site I did was a one-page portfolio site for a freelance wedding photographer. I hope now I have convinced you that I am familiar with the websites of small businesses and private entrepreneurs and have been in this niche for about three years, so I know what I am talking about.
So, the first reason that I single out for myself, now for you, is my site - my rules. Here you can do whatever and however you like. You are the master of what is happening on your domain. I once had a client who asked me to make her a portfolio page of her tattoo studio. The girl was an excellent artist with her author's minimalist style, but she made tattoos in very piquant places, she had such a specificity and business niche. Agree that spicy photos, even if they show art or art, will not be very popular with Instagram or Facebook moderators.
Yes, the girl could go to Reddit or OnlyFans, but you must admit that there is a completely different audience there, which will pay attention to art last. The logical decision for her was to create her own web page with a unique domain that she would indicate in her social networks. So she will get exactly the audience that she so strives to win and impress with her skill.
I also had a client who ordered a simple blog for himself. He had a fairly large community on Reddit and a lot of posts on Twitter, but as we know, Twitter has limits on the length of the text in a post, and Reddit walls of texts do not always receive warmth, especially in communities that are unusual for this, where, for example, memes are published. Again, it seemed quite logical for him to create a web page where he could publish whatever he wanted, in any format, with any image in any quantity.
Own Audience
When you have your own website, you have your own audience. Many underestimate this point and think that the audience can be found in social networks in the same way and even easier. This is true, but the fact is that you share your Instagram followers with someone anyway. There cannot be an account that is subscribed exclusively to you and only to you. You share this audience with others, thus the user has a huge variety of alternatives to your services and your content.
Of course, you also have many competitors on the net, but here, if you are a user who has visited your site, then this is only your user, there is only him and your site. There are no competitors on your site for him, he is only interested in you until he clicks the button to close the tab and your task is to take the maximum from this visit (but that's another story). Gathering your audience on the site is more difficult than on the network, but the return here is also greater.
PHPMyAdmin - Interface (How I gain Audience)
Your audience is especially important when you have your own business. By implementing, for example, the registration process, you will automatically get the opportunity for email marketing, promotion of services, and also learn more about your audience (a lot depends on the data you require during registration).
Functionality
A very simple and understandable item. On your personal site, you have much more power, and therefore options for action, in other words, functionality, there are more here. If you create your own online course, then here you can add payment, if you have an offline business, then you have the opportunity to add a map to the site how to find you, if you have an online store, then you can add a shopping cart and register with your personal database.
Often, sites are created just for the sake of functionality. For example, once, I was writing a portfolio for a designer who wanted to add a night reading mode to the site. That is, in fact, invert colors - black screen, white letters. This is the simplest functionality that came to mind, nevertheless, even such a simple functionality is important when it comes to competition. After all, you need to somehow differ from competitors.
Portfolio With Color Mode (Blured)
Another basic and simple functionality that I have ever coded is a text reading progress bar. An absolutely elementary element that can be implemented in four lines of code, but which allows you to differ from all other blogs and sites and which cannot be implemented in a social network.
Own Brand
No matter how popular social networks you have, you will in any case be associated with this particular social network. For example, say that you are a popular Instagram blogger or OnlyFans model. Your website will help you make something from scratch on your own, develop your brand from scratch, without relying on anything else.
This item is closely related to the item my house - my rules. Having your own website, you gain independence. So, for example, I wrote a website for a small computer club (yes, they still exist, I was surprised myself), which used to be content with publications on Instagram, but the fact is that in the country where the guys did business, Instagram was blocked. It could only be used with a VPN, due to which a significant part of the audience was lost and became inactive. The website came to the rescue.
Now the guys are independent of any social network, from anything that could prevent them from developing their personal business and brand. Unless the Internet is turned off all over the world, then problems will reappear, but we will solve problems as they arise.
Status
Imagine that you visited two restaurants in one day. Strange beginning, but just imagine. In the first restaurant, instead of the menu, you were asked to go to the Instagram page and see the menu there, and in the second restaurant, you were asked to scan the QR code on the table, by scanning which you got to the restaurant’s website in the menu section. Which restaurant do you like best? Of course, it's a matter of taste, but 8 out of 10 of those I interviewed would choose the second option.
I think it's about status. When a restaurant has its own website, and especially the web version of the menu (by the way, this is my favorite activity - writing a web menu for restaurants, I love food), it looks status and immediately the eatery in your eyes turns into a restaurant chain, in fact it is not . Having the name of the restaurant in the domain, and then three cherished letters - com - you rise in the eyes of the client or visitor.
Having your portfolio, even on a GitHub page with free hosting, you rise in the eyes of the employer, and you will be looked at in a completely different way than the candidate who attached the link to Instagram. (Someone may get the impression that I hate Instagram, it is true, but no negativity)
Conclusion
I hope I convinced you to make your site right now. Now it’s not so difficult to do it, and you can do it without programming knowledge and skills if you don’t have any functionality on the site. I gave arguments based on my experience of working with clients, on their business model and type of activity. By the way, if you still decide to make your own website, then do not forget that someone else can take your ideal domain at any time. So if you decide, then do not hesitate.