“Do I Need a Website?”

With Social Media continuing to grow like wildfire for both personal and business use, some small business owners (including home professionals) wonder if they can use their social media profile(s) to completely replace their traditional business website.

In fact, in 2011 a writer for Forbes predicted this.

Now 5 years later, it’s a lot more clear how social media fits into the marketing strategy for small businesses. So we can confidently answer with a resounding “no,” social media cannot replace your website; as well as a resounding “yes” for the question, “Do I need a website?”

Let’s go ahead and explore this further and take a look at the top five reasons why a traditional website is a must for 2016 and beyond.

1. Your Website is the Best Reflection of YOUR Brand

Ever notice that your Houzz profile, Facebook profile, etc., looks pretty much exactly the same as every other profile on the platform?

Besides changing the images and text, you can’t really customize a whole lot. This is of course intentional.

Social Media companies try to create a consistent, fluid, simplistic experience for their users to keep them on the platform as long as possible. This is great for them. But not so great for you.

You lose out on the ability to make a lasting impression. You miss the opportunity to be memorable. You don’t have the opportunity to present YOUR brand YOUR way.

This is fine if you consider the purpose of social media: to share content and foster community. It’s not so fine though when you try to use social media for what it’s not meant for: your website.

Also, have you ever tried to put your social media profile URL on your business card? Yuck! It looks messy and unprofessional. And who wants to try and type that in manually?

2. Your Website Should Be the Central HUB for Your Online Presence & Digital Strategy

For Home Professionals there’s a lot of social media platforms to take advantage of. There’s Houzz, Porch, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, and more.

Does it make sense to use all of them? What information goes on what profile? How do I use them effectively?

These are all valid questions that many home pros ask themselves. Unfortunately there’s no short way of answering those questions. We’ll have a future post on how to use social media effectively for home professionals.

But for now it should be noted that your website should be the central HUB and every other online activity should be a branch that furthers your reach online.

All your social media platforms can be used to reach new people and help bring people into your world that may have never found you. Then, they can visit your website for more detailed information on your business as well as contact you.

Furthermore, a typical online strategy includes creating content on the website (usually in the form of informative blog articles) and then dispersing them out on all the social media channels. Thus, bringing people back into your website if they find the content useful.

As you can see, the website is a pertinent part of this digital strategy and crucial for the long term success of small businesses and home professionals alike.

3. Your Website is How You Will Be Found in Local Search

We’re all familiar with using Google to find things online. Whether you’re looking for a new sweater, or a new tax accountant in your area, Google is the perfect solution.

If you type in “General Contractor” for example into Google. You’ll see a list of General Contractors in your area and a map with where they’re located in accordance to you. This is called local search.

You’ll notice that there’s a link next to every GC on the list that says, “website.” Every link goes to the professionals website; not a social media profile. It’s impossible to be shown in these local results without a traditional website.

So again, a traditional website is crucial if you want to be found in the search engine.

4. Your Website is In YOUR Control

It seems like Facebook makes updates to their platform on a weekly basis. The other social media platforms make updates quite often as well. From updating the look and feel of the profiles, to updating the algorithms in the news feed, updates are frequent no matter what social platform you frequent.

Now, most of these updates aren’t a big deal and won’t affect you too much, but occasionally some of them do. Keep mind that these updates are always made with the platform’s agenda in mind.

Whether it’s Houzz, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. The changes are always in their best interest— which is usually designed to keep people on their platform longer in order to show them more ads and increase revenue.

When it comes to your website though, YOU are fully in control.

You are in control of the design of your site. You are in control of the content that is on it. You are in control of the details.

Of course, with Premium HomePro, that can be a lot to handle. So we actually make things easy on you, and handle it for you. 🙂

5. Your Potential Customers Prefer Your Website Over Your Social Media

According to a recent survey,

“websites draw more consumers than social media when it comes to product information and other brand-related content.”

I love data, because it’s hard to argue with. At the end of the day, the data doesn’t lie. As you can see from the data above, consumers prefer the website of a small business opposed to the social media.

This is because they want to see your branding. Your branding communicates who you are as a small business, and that can only be fully seen on your website.

Wrapping Up — “So, Do I Need a Website?”

YES. Whether you’re a General Contractor, an Interior Designer, an Architect, or any other type of home professional, your website is important. It’s important because it’s important to your potential customers. It’s important because it lets you be in control. And it’s important because it’s the best reflection of your brand as a home professional.

Luckily, we’ve created a brand new way for Home Professionals to obtain a high quality website. Not only is it affordable, but we handle everything for you. From designing and building it, to content updates throughout the year. We make it easy for you to look  good.