Have you ever asked, “Why do I need to spend on a website if I can just use social media to promote my business for FREE?”. Besides, more than half of the world’s population now uses social media.

Today, social media is the main platform for easy communication between brands and its audience, so, why are websites still relevant? 

1. Websites Build Trust And Credibility

Have you ever Googled a business and the only thing represents them is a Facebook page with 100 likes? What were your first thoughts? It’s skeptical, right?

A website adds credibility to a business as it shows seriousness of what they have to offer. In fact, customers today expect business owners to have an online presence. 

To add, a well designed, informative, and updated website gives a positive impression that the company is bigger and more successful, thus, it is more important for small businesses to have one.

2. Websites Own Its Audience Attention

On Instagram, you could have the best profile in the world but it’s rare that someone spends ten minutes on a single profile. Visitors might look at your first few photos, clicks ‘follow’, then interact when the algorithm places it in their feed. 

That’s not going to be a problem with a website.

If a good strategy is incorporated on the website, visitors will hang around for more than thirty seconds to half an hour. Long enough to read a few blog posts, and eventually, be convinced to sign up. 

Remember, no matter where visitors are on the site, they’re only consuming content related to the business.

3. Websites Are Better For SEO

Did you know that no matter how relevant your caption is on Instagram, it doesn’t show up in Google search results.

It’s non-existent in Google’s eyes. Which means businesses miss the opportunity to connect with potential customers who search for solutions through Google, where websites are recommended. 

Website contents such as blogs are the primary way to jot down relevant search terms for Google to crawl on. Therefore, social media can be a tool to point people to the full content on the website, but certainly, is not a place for long contents.

4. Website Data Are Trackable

Want to know how long did your visitors stay on the website? Pages they clicked? Keywords they used? All of these are visible with a website.

Website creators such as WordPress and Wix can track all activity that happens on the website.  It gives real-time insights which are perfect for in-depth analysis and reporting to improve website performance and marketing.

5. Websites Are Available 24/7

With social media, you have to be present for it to work – post consistently, share valuable contents for you to appear on your followers’ feed.

Websites are the opposite. It doesn’t need to be updated every other day (besides new blog posts) to be relevant. It is live all the time, anyone, anywhere in the world can access it. As a result, current and potential customers can visit the site to learn information about the business (new and upcoming products and services) whenever convenient to them.

Even with brick-and-mortar companies, customers still expect them to  have a website to check on to get more information. 

6. Websites Are Controlled

Do you remember when business pages on Facebook were affected when it decided to update its algorithm. Owners had nothing to do but to accept the new rules and  move on. The same thing could happen on other social platforms at any time. YouTube could charge you on every upload on their servers.

Businesses have NO control over social media platforms unlike a website.

Owning a website allows businesses to have full control over the brand. It guarantees security and certainty, as long as they pay for the domain, it will always be there. There are no terms and conditions that need to be complied on. 

Also, it allows businesses to create exclusive contents – blogs, to give the opportunity to rank in search engines with specific keywords that relate to your services or product. 

Lastly, there are much more options with the regards to the look, feel and features. Most domain extensions even come with various templates that are customizable.

Get the best of both worlds.

Why choose once if you can have both?

The website should be the heart of businesses’ online presence and social media should be the marketing tool of driving traffic back to the website. The two go hand in hand, and both are crucial to online success in the modern era.

References:

https://nic.icu/marketing/website-vs.-social-media-why-entrepreneurs-still-need-a-domain/
https://www.wellnesssiteshop.com/blog/need-website-instagram
https://kijo.co.uk/blog/why-have-a-website-and-not-just-rely-on-social-media/
https://conversionstrategies.com/website-vs-social-media-small-business/
https://socialmediaexplorer.com/content-sections/movers-and-makers/website-vs-social-media-whats-better-for-your-business/