Running a small business is in no way simple. Starting from an idea, creating a plan, and executing that plan is no small feat. Continually building your business is essential to success. With so many options available today at the touch of a button, consumers desire to be well-informed before making purchase decisions.

Over 80 percent of consumers in the U.S research online before making a purchase.

A website is more than just the way it looks. It allows you to harness the power of instilling trust, increasing sales, and helping shoppers with the questions they are looking for. A website for a small business should be designed in a way that creates real-world results.

4 reasons why you need an optimized website that is designed to create real-world results.

First Impressions are Important

Above I referred to the fact that consumers do their research online before they make a purchase. More times than not, the first impression a potential customer is going to have of your business will be your website.

If you were to open a storefront, you would set it up in a way that when customers walked through the doors, they had a great experience. The store would be organized, have friendly employees, and be a place where questions are answered, and sales are made.

If your website is hard to navigate, does not answer potential questions, or fails to instill trust, then people may be quick to leave your website and continue their search with competitors who do have an optimized website.

The design of a website impacts how your brand is viewed and could be the difference between customers doing business with you or continuing their search.

Get More Customers

A website is the easiest way to market your business. Reaching thousands of people using traditional methods, like direct mail or print advertising, can be very expensive and unreliable. A website for a small business allows you to reach a greater number of potential customers, for less money.

People have access to the web at any time they need. With over 60% of web searches coming from mobile phones, they can now research a business morning, day, or night. A website is an "always open" workplace for your business. Whether it is morning, day, or night, a website for a small business is a 24/7 extension of your marketing.

In addition to being "always open", a single domain for your website holds a lot of power. It makes it super easy to "pass your card out" to thousands of people online. Think of how easy it is to share a link on social media, on a flyer, on the back of a vehicle, or simply by word of mouth.

Tell Your Story

Your website gives you the ability to tell your story and provide detailed and accurate information about what you do, and why they should choose to do business with you.

When I say tell your story I do not just mean to tell the history of your business. The story also includes providing detailed and accurate information about what you do, and why they should trust doing business with you. It also increases the legitimacy and integrity of your business. The goal is to create trust with the customers doing their research.

Find More Customers

A well-designed website for a small business increases your rankings on search engines, like Google, for on-site SEO. This is one thing you should not ignore, otherwise, it is an uphill battle from the start to get customers to your website.

Creating a website without optimizing it for search engines is like opening a business in a remote area and not telling anyone you are open. You fail to get people through the doors.

Web Crawlers ,which look over all the content of every single webpage on the internet, rely on the user experience of a website to rank that website. The ranking is then used by search engines, like Google, to decide what order a website will be displayed when people search online.

Your website needs to load fast, on any device with responsive design , and have relevant information to answer questions users may have. The web crawlers determine if users of your website will have a good experience while getting the answers they are searching for.

Final Thoughts

An optimized small business website is critical in continuing to build upon the hard work it has already taken to build and run a business. With the continual increase of research consumers conduct with web searches, your small business deserves a website which creates real-world results.