Unpopular Opinion: You NEED a Website to have a Successful Online Presence
I don’t know who it is that is preaching to service-based businesses that they don’t need a website but all I know is that I don’t like them all too much haha!
I am just going to be straight up and say that no matter your industry, you NEED a website.
I don’t know how you have been feeling lately but I am sooo over Instagram, can you relate? Everything is just feeling really forced and everywhere I look there are ads for this and ads for that. It is no longer feeling authentic and WHY am I no longer being shown still frames from my friends that I ACTUALLY care about?? Annoying to say the least…
With this recent shift in Instagram's algorithm I have found myself more than ever looking elsewhere for answers… and how many other consumers do you think are doing the same?
Did you know that Google processes 3.5 BILLION searches EVERY SINGLE DAY (1.2 TRILLION searches per year)…
And tell me, again, why you don’t think it is worth having a website (that is organically listed in Google search results)?
Google is one of the first places people go to find answers. Whether that be to find more information or details, to read reviews from customers or to just compare results of local businesses in the area. Google is where it’s at! Sure you can create a Google Business profile and show basic details about your business, but how is that going to compare to a similar business listed alongside yours that has an easy-to-use website with beautiful photography and an in-your-face contact page? I don’t think you have a chance… Sorry! Sure, your Instagram feed may be beautiful and your reel game may be A-1 but do you think that matters when someone is searching on Google? Not when you don’t have a website to show for it!
Have you ever heard of the saying, “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket”?... Well that is EXACTLY what you’re doing by focusing all of your energy into Instagram (and Facebook) and ignoring all other potential opportunities that having a website could bring you. I know it often seems far-fetched and too difficult and probably too expensive (we love making excuses for ourselves when things seem too hard), but a website is seriously one of THE BEST investments you can make in your business! A professional website demonstrates your credibility right off the bat. It tells your audience that you’re serious about your business and (obviously) gives them more information about your brand. Without a well founded website, consumers are highly likely to not even consider your brand to be legitimate.
Ask yourself this question…
If tomorrow you woke up and Instagram and Facebook were gone (I mean.. vanished off the face of the earth), along with your profile and all of your followers. How would your business fare up? Would you be comfortable in knowing that your eggs hadn’t all been in one basket or would it be safe to say that you’d be in full meltdown mode?
Sure, Instagram can be fun and allows you to build fantastic relationships and connections with potential customers, but ultimately you want to have peace of mind that you’re in complete control of your brand and message, i.e. no stupid algorithms getting in the way of your messaging. I’m sorry to say, you can NEVER be sure of that with Insta. You don’t know what new update is coming out tomorrow and you also have no fricken clue who is seeing and engaging with your content. If you’re not posting 12,000 reels per week, what is the point, right? The bonus of investing in your own website is that you have COMPLETE control. Over everything. What sort of content your clients are seeing, what is presented to them first, you can communicate a clear hierarchy of information and tell your brand story.
You don’t “have 5 seconds to build a connection, oh and make sure your automated video captions are on, and make sure you’re using a trending audio but audio that isn’t too old or you won’t get seen, and make sure you’re doing a cringey dance to capture attention”... NO. THANK. YOU.
Don’t fall victim to that… If you don’t want to make cringey reels, then don’t! Invest that time and energy elsewhere, invest it into marketing elsewhere. Invest more time and energy into your website and elements within your business that are going to help GROW your business. Don’t follow along with these trends if they don’t resonate with you and don’t just do it because everyone else on Instagram is doing it…
Create a beautiful website that represents your brand and doesn’t make you cringe, allow customers to know more about you and find you time and time again. If you want to be seen as an expert or authority in your industry then work on building an online presence that is AUTHENTIC TO YOU!
You may be thinking…
“This is sooooo easy for you to say, you’re a website designer”
“I don’t have the money to invest right now”
“I don’t even know where to start!”
Trust me when I say that it is easier than EVER to build a website!
Squarespace has recently introduced their new Fluid Engine Editor which is allowing websites to be built on their platform like never before! Things now operate the EXACT way you expect them to. You can bring blocks to the front or send them to the back, you can align and move elements around using your keyboard, overlap elements and optimise your design to display however you want on mobile (goooodbye spacer blocks and that dreaded Classic Editor) - Am I making sense?
To say I am excited about this new editing platform is an understatement!
The reason I am mentioning this to you is that it is now going to be easier than ever for YOU to design your very own Squarespace website (there are no excuses now!😂). How??
Over the last couple of months I have been hard at work developing Squarespace 7.1 for Beginners, an online, self-paced course for service-based businesses who are wanting to design their very own Squarespace website and start getting noticed online.
I understand not everyone is at a point of investing in a website from a professional designer for so many reasons, so that is why I am bringing this course to you, so you can take control of your online presence!
This course is a complete start-to-finish rundown on the Squarespace platform, how to navigate your dashboard, to setting up your site fundamentals, to designing and publishing your website.
I will teach you everything I know!
Tell me how you’ve been feeling about Insta lately? Are you in the same boat as me, feeling a little over it?
Or what is your stance on investing in a website for your business? Something you’ve been wanting to do or it hasn’t really crossed your mind?
If you have a website already and in the meantime want to evaluate the effectiveness of your homepage design you can
Download my FREE worksheet and checklist
“10 homepage must-haves”, outlining the 10 crucial homepage elements that your website needs to start converting more clients online.
Beautiful website design that evokes feelings and tells your unique story is what sets the foundation for a successful business.
