Getting Online
Although many businesses start online in the modern day, there are many local businesses that begin offline before moving online to begin expanding. With the presence of social media so prominent in the modern world, it can be tempting to operate a page on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest instead of spending time actually having a standalone website.
Social Media
People and businesses love social media because it is free, and they have an audience of potentially millions of people to whom they can connect on a daily basis. Over 70% of internet users are active on social media, so it certainly seems like a sound strategy.
Having a strong social media presence can open up your business to many potential customers who would ordinarily never find you. We would always recommend a strong social media presence, however this should never be as a direct replacement or used instead of a standalone website.
Why a Standalone Website?
Having a website will enable you to develop and measure the true success of your business and loyalty of your customers. Having 11,928 likes on your Facebook page might look great, but is it really bringing any money in?
If you are on a social media site only, what if they are down or they go out of business one day, and that is your only connection with online customers. There are also considerations to be made with regard to the demographics that use certain social networks. If you have a strong Facebook presence with a product targeting men over the age of 40, you aren’t going to get very far. A website takes all of this out of the equation, and leaves you dealing with “the internet” as a whole.
Making the Decision
If you want to present yourself as a professional company, you should always, always have your own website. Even if it is a very basic set up with only a limited number of pages, if it presents a professional image for your company it will help build revenues and make you more successful in the longer term.
Use a website as the basis for your online presence, then use social media to extend out from here. You can then use the likes of Facebook and Twitter to interact with customers and direct relevant traffic to your site, rather than spend time targeting, and probably annoying, a lot of people who are nonplussed or uninterested in what you are offering.
This article has been written by the Bough SEO content team. Bough SEO are one of the leading seo marketing agencies in the UK.