It is necessary for businesses to own a website and be active online

When talking about setting up a business, many people will mention variables such as office leases, cost of production, profit maximization, etc. However, one important factor that must not be neglected is the ownership of an accessible professional website. With more than 2.4 billion people surfing the Internet daily, having an online presence certainly helps a lot. So what are some of the advantages of having a website?

1. Online presence allows the company to reach out to a wider market as potential clients will be able to read about what goods and services your company is providing. Unlike the customer service department which will only be available during working hours on weekdays, a website will be accessible 24/7 daily and this allows potential clients to be able to find out more about your firm whenever needed;
2. As mentioned, a website makes relaying of information easier. Having a website is equivalent to having an online brochure where information such as mission, vision, contact number, address, etc can be found. It is also a platform for the company to showcase the types of products and services provided;
3. It is more cost-efficient to run a website as compared to other marketing tools such as television advertisement or placing an article in the newspaper. This will help reduce the company’s cost of production, which can in turn allow them to have more competitive prices on their goods and services provided as compared to their competitors;

If you did not have the chance to attend marketing modules in school, the term SEO might sound very foreign to you. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and businesses place a lot of emphasis on it. Basically, it is a methodology of tactics used to increase the number of visitors to a website by achieving top placement in the search results page of a search engine such as Google and Yahoo. Studies have shown that internet users do not usually click through the many pages of search results, hence having a high-ranking placement will consequently lead to higher traffic to the company’s website.

With the advent of technology, the new generation of consumers do not simply only search once when they are looking for results online. They will edit their search terms a few times in order to have the best answer to their pressing questions. Therefore, if a company continually appears in their search results, it will be gaining more mindshare with potential clients and this is advantageous in terms of business visibility, branding and business credibility.

Additionally, companies will be able to make use of data analytics and obtain information about their clients, such as their searching habits, languages used, countries resided, etc. With such information, they will be better placed to create business strategies that will attract more clients since they are able to market their businesses to potential clients who are looking for the goods and services that the company provides.

In turn, this explains why many companies are starting to blog. Blogging helps to increase traffic to the company’s website through SEO. Every time a blogpost is uploaded, it means that the firm has one more chance to appear in search engines such as Google, driving traffic to the company’s website in the process.

For example, my previous blogpost compared the differences in setting up business in Kuwait and UAE. If a reader decides to set up a business in Kuwait after reading the article and googled “How to set up a business in Kuwait”, our website will be at the first page of google search results. Hopefully from this example, you can have a better idea on how SEO works.

Kuwait Google Search Engine Results Page

Other than improving website traffic through SEO, there are other advantages of blogging. In the past, blogging was just an online journal for individuals to pen down their thoughts and daily lifestyles. However, corporate blogging has been on an increasing trend and some of the advantages of blogging include:

1. A blog is an easily-accessible platform that allows companies to be able to connect and share information with their clients. Unlike a website that is packed with information about what the company is about, a blog serves as a two-way communication channel between the business owners and the clients, potential clients and industry peers. This will result in higher levels of interaction and communication between both parties.
2. Blogging on a regular basis can drop a hint to the readers that the company is still alive and kicking. A blog that posts regular quality posts will help to build brand loyalty among its readers and this allows the company to be differentiated from its competitors in the same industry.

Image attribution: Photo by Christophe BENOIT, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license.

Healy Consultants Group provides a wide range of corporate services across the world. Email or WhatsApp us now to find out more about our services.