Why Your Website is Your Most Important Employee

Wondering what the big deal is about website importance or what having a website means for your company? Consider this visual: close your eyes for a minute and imagine you had the perfect employee working for your company.

This individual could effectively engage your target customer audience, creatively communicate your company’s mission and story, and quickly adapt to any changes your industry experiences. Oh, and this employee would also be on the clock 24/7, 365 days a year. Sound too good to be true?

Well, guess what? You likely have this employee in your company already: it’s your website.

That’s right! With a well-designed and properly utilized website, your company can go from good to great in a fairly short amount of time. Here are four big ways your website may just be your number one employee:

You don’t have to be in business very long before you realize that first impressions are everything. A positive interaction can turn a potential client into a regular customer. But it’s 2022 and most first impressions no longer happen face-to-face. Instead, when someone wants to learn about your business, they hop online, click, and scroll.

That means future clientele’s initial opinions about your company will likely be determined by your website, and those opinions will be formed in milliseconds, 50 to be exact. You read that right. Once a page loads, just .05 seconds will pass before users decide if your website meets their standards, and if those users don’t find what they’re looking for within 10 seconds, they’ll leave.

With those stats in mind, you might feel like you’ve been given an impossible task in making your website appealing, but there’s good news. One of the many strengths of digital content is its adaptability, and your website is no different. Every image, word, and design choice on your website can be adjusted in order to guarantee a positive first impression for users. Yes, online impressions are formed quickly, but your website is up to the task if you’re willing to invest the appropriate amount of time and resources.

As you’ve already seen, online consumers are plagued with short attention spans, but nothing grabs a person’s attention like a good story.

Don’t misunderstand. You need to include important facts and figures on your website, including what products and services you offer, but users also want to experience a personal connection when navigating your site. In fact, once on a company’s homepage, 52 percent of visitors will look for an “About Us” section. When considering website importance, remember that your site can and should be the best storyteller in your company.

Personal content like blogs, customer testimonials, and employee bios can draw users in and give them confidence in your company when it comes time to open their wallets. Plus, when people feel connected to your company or its content, they’ll be more likely to share your website and increase traffic.

In today’s world of digital information, it can be easy to assume consumers aren’t looking for personal contact with your company. Don’t buy this lie, because it couldn’t be further from the truth!

Quite the opposite, consumers still crave personal interaction and will often use your website as a launchpad for connecting with you. One recent survey surrounding website importance found that 64 percent of users look for a business’s contact information once they’ve reached a website’s homepage, which means most people visiting your website are wanting interaction — not just information. Fortunately, websites are great at both. Not only can a well-designed website tell your story, it can also connect consumers to you and your staff.

Helpful information like phone numbers, email addresses, or mailing address can up your website importance and make it a helpful resource to those trying to contact you. Other helpful tools, such as embedded contact forms, will also turn your website into a powerful and efficient connection hub for you and your customers.

Sure, you need a decent amount of grit to make your business survive, but if you want it to thrive, you’re going to need data and lots of it. Of course, you can spend thousands of dollars hiring consultants to study your consumer base and give you key insights, but did you know your website is a treasure trove of invaluable data?

With web analytics, you can see basic demographics of users, what content people view, how many clicks links get, what products are selling, and how people are accessing your website. Think about how useful this information is to the success of your business. The data produced by your website alone can inform how you spend your money on marketing, what niche your company is filling, and what potential weaknesses you might need to address, and all of this information can increase your earnings over time.

Website importance isn’t just for your customers. It has something to offer you too!

Has your website earned “Employee of the Year” status? If not, we’d love to connect with you to discuss how you can make your website the most powerful weapon in your business’s arsenal. Contact us today!