Many startup companies, local businesses, and groups ask the same question: Why do I need a website? When it comes to creating a website, one of the major problems people have is the lack of knowledge about what a website is and how it can help them. In this post, let’s go through the things that you should know: what are websites, what you should know about websites and how you can evolve your business around it.
What Are Websites?
The most basic way to explain what are websites is this: they are simply pages. Similar to pages of a magazine. Magazines contain a cover page with information and snippets of what’s included in the magazine. A magazine cover page is the same as a website’s home page: both showcase images and snippets of what the company/magazine is about and what they are going to offer. A website is like the magazine of your company: you showcase who you are with your brand identity and what you offer for the client!
Websites nowadays have systems that manage the pages and content on them. These systems – which are designed to manage your content – are called content management systems.
The popularity of content management systems (CMS) has taken over the world since 2001. The most popular content management systems are Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress, which lay the foundation for future websites and content systems.
Popular CMS’
Everything is CMS nowadays. Yes, even Weebly, Wix, and Shopify. The difference is that unlike other CMS, which are more focused on blogging and page creation, specific CMS (like Shopify) focus on specific user needs and requirements. For example, Shopify and Magento are CMS which provide Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for store owners.
Here is a list of popular CMS organized into two categories:
Pure CMS
- WordPress
- Drupal
- Joomla
- Magento
- Typo3
For CRM and Shopping
- Shopify
- Square Space
- WooCommerce
- BigCommerce
- SquareUp
What You Should Know About Websites
Here is the thing:
Websites are not simple to manage.
What do we mean by this? Well, it all stems back to people who you want your website to interact with: your clients! Have you seen Facebook? Why is it so different from Pinterest? It is because the focus of the customer is different. A business website is much different from a creative website, as it has different elements, looks, and behaviours. The most important thing about any type of website, however, is consistency.
A website’s appearance and layout should be globally unique to users so that returning users are guided by the same user interfaces and are not lost while browsing your website. This requires major knowledge on 4 ideas:
- User interaction
- Element designing
- User-behaviour
- Goals
These things take time and a lot of hard work. However, once finished, you will have a unique portfolio for your customers or followers to visit and notice!
Your website is a representation of yourself: as your business or personal goals change, your website’s brand changes accordingly.
These changes should not be major though because returning customers should have similar experiences when coming back to your website.
How Can People Veiw Websites
Many people do not understand how you are able to visit a website over and over again. How is a website available for people to view? Where is the content stored? How does a URL work in order to reach a specific website?
Long story short: websites are hosted on servers, where special programs will return a page or content upon a request.
A website can be static pages or a CMS system that generates pages. For example, if you visit www.zdesignz.ca/zteam, it would be a different page than www.zdesignz.ca/servicez. These requests are handled by the server.
On the other hand, the server requires you to have a domain name: company.ca, company.com, etc. These domains are first registered and then point to specific servers in order to request these pages.
It is important to know that these services do cost money. Not a lot of money, however, they are required if you want to have an online presence.
Why Do You Need A Website?
1. Expands your Online Presence
Creating a website for your business is another marketing tool to showcase your brand and services. It helps let clients know your brand, who you are and what you are offering.
Learn how to expand your online presence HERE!
2. Greater Customer Reach
Having a website allows you to reach more clientele. Yes, word of mouth is a good and efficient way to build clientele. But, add some S.E.O to that and it becomes even greater!
What is S.E.O?
S.E.O is Search Engine Optimization. This is how well you rank on a search engine, like Google. For example, when you search ‘design companies’, how far up on the list of companies is your S.E.O. You want to be on the top, right?! This means you want good S.E.O.
Implementing S.E.O on your website allows you to appear higher on google results, which in turn will bring more potential clients to your website.
3. Understand Your Audience Better
You can understand your audience better through the traffic you get to your website. To understand which audience you are appealing to, you can use services such as Google Analytics to track your visitors.
4. Builds Brand Trust
Let’s face it. Having a website makes you automatically appear more trustworthy to your audience.
HOWEVER, it is not just about having a website. You need it to look professional and coherent. Showcasing a consistent brand throughout your website helps built trust with your clients: they will begin to trust your brand!
5. Shows Customers you are Tech Savy and are Keeping up with Technology
Show clients how you are keeping up with the technological advancements! Stay up to date with new technologies and trends by implementing them on your website and updating it over time!
Having a website that is also Mobile-Ready caters to even more clientele! In today’s day and age, people don’t want to call to find out services. A lot of people just check their phones to find out basic information. Mobile-Ready websites make it easy for people to quickly check and see if you are the right fit for them and offer the services they want.
6. Portfolio Piece
Finally, having a website for your business works as a great online portfolio, available to showcase in seconds! By showing your past works, people can get an insight into how you work. It also shows your reputation in the industry!
That’s It!
This is all that there is to it!
If you need help creating a website, our zteam is more than happy to do that for you! To get more insight and information on how we can help, contact us!
We are happy to help! 🙂