A survey though dated has shown that as many as 52% of businesses don’t own a website. I have always asked myself why someone will have a business without a website? Well, it turns out that most business owners asked themselves why they need a website, that most business actually thinks they don’t need a website. Well excuse me, you need a website, my friend unless of course, you’re selling palm wine in mud store with a thatched, leaky roof, even then you still need a website to showcase your palm wine.

The advantages of having a website are so numerous it can hardly be counted. If you can’t create a website for your business presently, you still need some sort of online presence, you should open a Facebook and Instagram page (You need this even if you own a website, they’re used as amplifiers, not substitute for each other), you need a way to show what you do to the world – well, most of the world.

You see, the thing is, out of the 7Billion people in the world today, about 3.5Billion are internet users, which means that even if your business only involves drawing people’s faces in the sand, you’ll likely find someone in need of having their face drawn on the sand.

Okay, enough of having people’s faces in the sand. The beautiful thing about all these people being online is that they’re constantly looking/ searching for something. Google, a giant search engine that its primary job is showing relevant information to users interested in the information handles about 3.8 million searches every minute, and more than 5 billion searches per day . No, the important information is not the number of searches Google handles in a day, that is hardly useful to us here, the most important information is - where are these searches coming from? Quick question – where are the searches coming from? Quick answer – from all over the world! Yes, that’s right. Look at the point I’m trying to make here, by having a website you’re positioning yourself and opening your hands wide to any potential customer without limiting your business to your local geography. And this, my friend, has the potential to blow your business off the roofs.

One of the most important (if not the most important) goal of every business is to have sales and make a profit; if your business is already profitable without any online presence, you might think that you don’t need the website after all, why should you? You are making the money you need after all, right? Wrong.

You see, people don’t just see something and decide to buy on the spot, it is natural psychology. Even if they’re interested in the product, they weigh it over in their head multiple times, some will even require some kind of validation – their friends telling them about it, hearing people discuss how the product helped them, hearing a promotion on the radio or TV, etc. And for some, they might decide to buy from you without any form of validation after they’ve seen your product on display multiple times (if they live or walk past your business place very often). So what does this have to do with you, I hear you ask. You’ve already gotten the customers you need. Well, you could get some more. Nobody ever gets all the customers they need, we’re always looking for more, looking to expand, and losing potential customers will not help. If your potential customers do not live near or see your business often, then you don’t give them enough options, they either have to make a decision to buy on the spot, travel miles to get to back you and buy, or just simply forget about it. Option one and two is possible but happens very rarely, option three is simply bad! Not good enough. 

Having a website for your business simply eliminates most of these problems. With a website you can show reviews by your previous customers to propel potential customers that need some kind of validation to make a decision; have a newsletter that you can use to send updates, features, and benefits of your product to potential users who need more time to make a decision. Your website will also contain every information that’s needs to be known about your business as well different variations of your product to choose from without having to talk directly to somebody (some people feel awkward talking to strangers), as well as contact information to call you or send an email (others don’t feel comfortable buying without assurances, they’ll most likely call to hear from someone personally). So with a website, you can give your customers a flexible way to understand your product. Also, add this to the fact that your customer can be from anywhere in the world then it becomes a matter of how far you can ship your products.

And just recently, with the recent additions to web standards, your website can even be more powerful – as powerful as the applications you use on your mobile phone, how?

Progressive Web Application (PWA) is a website with superpowers. 

A progressive web application is a website that can progressively grow more powerful as they’re used. It starts as a traditional website, then it becomes faster and start working offline too, after a while it requests the user to install it on their home screen just like a normal app, then it requests permission to send notifications to the user, etc. (P.S – I develop PWAs).

Just think about how much more sales your business will make using a more powerful website like this. Haven’t you thought about anything yet? Let me help you. Studies have shown that 50% of users will leave a website if it takes more than 5 seconds to load, that’s a lot of users, which you won’t lose if your website loaded instantly, which is what progressive web apps are designed to do, even in poor network conditions. And if the person that visited your website get so interested in your website that they installed it on their home screen, now you’ve got your business popping on their face every time they unlock their screen. This, coupled with how easy it’ll be for them to open the website and make a purchase is capable of transforming your business.

Speaking of making purchases, your business website can also contain a kind of checkout page, allowing prospective customers from anywhere in the world to seamlessly pay for your product and get a receipt. They won’t need to travel to your business location to buy from you. This allows for the time they need to make a decision and the flexibility they need to make payment.

Creating a website for your business is one of the best investments you’ll ever make, and yes, you need it.