Why is it important to have a website in 2023? There are many reasons to have a website for your business or cause. We will list several factors, but the main reason overall is to give you the opportunity to control your own story.
A website provides an online presence to control your narrative and face competitors. It also serves as a foundation for your online marketing efforts. If you have a business or cause you’re trying to support, your customers or supporters will expect a website in 2023.
Websites can give credibility to your work and show proof of your social actions. And there are also many different ways to build a website. Building a website in 2023 is much easier, and you have many options.
In 2022, there were over 1 billion websites, with not even 20% noted as active sites. Depending on your source, about 250,000 websites are created every day. So, it is increasingly important to have a website, especially since search engines have made it simple to find about anything online.
The five main reasons you should build a website in 2023 are:
- Control the Narrative
- Compete in Your Industry with Competitors
- Interact/Engage with Your Viewers or Customers
- Control Your Data
- ROI and Social Proof
You are not limited to building a website on a hosting server. Social media platforms or other solutions can bring your presence online. We recommend using a hosting server, but we will explain the advantages and disadvantages of these options.
1. Control the Narrative
Your website can provide a clear description of your cause or business. When you do this with your brand and domain name, you can control how your story should be presented to the public. Although you can’t control how others may express their opinion, you can provide a clear and concise statement about your cause or business. You can use testimonials or publish reviews to give your visitors more confidence in the authenticity and authority of our website.
“I use Facebook to show my art and express my American Indian culture. It’s how I tell my story.” – Michael Cloud-Butler, Master Carpenter.
Updating your site and posting content that supports your business/cause helps keep your message fresh and consistent. If you’re using social media, include links to your official social media sites.
Your website allows you to present the facts of your story. Keep your story informative, interesting, and engaging, and you will find an audience wanting more.
2. Compete with Your Industry Competitors
If your competition builds a store in a location, you would also build a store to compete. The same applies to websites. Your competition is most likely on the internet. If not, then your website would give you an advantage. Also, in 2023, your customers expect you to have a website.
A website is a perfect medium for the world to learn about your cause. You can craft your message to respond to competing messages. Your website gives you the potential to outshine your competition and represent your cause better than anyone.
“It is important for a company to have a website in 2023 because more people are searching online for immediate assistance or ways to save time and money while meeting goals and objectives.
A company may self-publish through a website, blog, video or social media to attract audience members and clients. Being informative, candid and highlighting own experiences tells potential clients that the company understands their issues and is an expert at addressing and resolving pain points.
For example, as a legal nurse consultant, I help attorneys with medical cases by reviewing endless pages of medical records and turning medical jargon into easy-to-understand reports. “
Jennifer Dizon
Legal Nurse Consultant, Freelance Health Writer and CEO
Sky Nurse Consulting, LLC
This is also the same with businesses where you are selling products or services. Consumers often read reviews and look for the best option that meets their goals and budget. With the proper development, a website can ensure that you can be found through a search engine.
3. Engage/Interact with Your Viewers
Engaging or interacting with your viewers or customers can be done in many forms. Discussions in blogs, support center websites, conferences, or simple online meetings are examples of engagement. Social media can also provide a positive avenue for interaction with video and daily commentary.
While many interactions may start negatively, your goal is to turn the situation into an opportunity to show your capability. This is often most true in technical support cases or when dealing with negotiations on resolving a problem.
Providing a resolution is rewarding and even more so if your interaction is available to the public. Your website can convey these interactions and prove that you are a reliable source of information or answers.
Engaging with your customers or viewers proves to search engines like Google that you care for your customers. It also provides evidence that your content is authentic and informative. It can be the difference that moves you up the search engine rankings in a search engine.
4. Control and Use Your Data
When you build a website in 2023, you can also track your website data and then use it to make decisions about your business. Tools like Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics allow you to track your website traffic so that you can properly manage your efforts to meet business goals.
These applications allow you to transform data into visual representations that provide an easier way to identify areas of concern. They can also clearly point out your successes.
You can decide how to improve your marketing, products, and message by analyzing your data. Your customer data and their feedback are valuable data you can use to gain valuable insight for your business. This information lets you learn more about your customers to better serve them.
5. ROI and Social Proof
A business is not often a singular endeavor. You may have investors who closely watch your progress. This can make ROI – Return on Investment – a key priority to track. Your website can help demonstrate that you are making the right decisions.
You can visibly show your investors that you’re succeeding by using best practices for search engine optimization (SEO) to rank well in search engines. A well-designed website also makes it evident by showing how your website visitors can easily learn about and purchase your products or services.
Your website can also serve as proof of your social actions and behavior. This information can often influence buying decisions and prove your credibility. Creatives, like artists or photographers, often showcase their work with websites to provide examples of their skills.
“As an artist, websites help to showcase my work and prove not only my worth as an artist but also my contributions to my community.” – Sylvia Nery-Strickland, Artist and Former Chair of the Virginia Human Rights Commission.
Different Ways to Build a Website
After all this talk about why you should build a website, you should now be ready to pull up your sleeves and build one. Before you get into the action, let’s give you some food for thought about how you can get your business or cause online.
You can build a website in many ways. The two easiest ways to define them are by determining where your site will live. This is typically done through a hosting service or by using a platform.
A hosting service, like InMotion Hosting, provides a server where your website can be developed. It can also be where your emails are stored. The main advantages of using a hosting service are: 1) You have the freedom to develop it however you want, and 2) You are immediately using the domain name that you have selected.
The control over your domain name will also apply to your email addresses giving it a more professional look. For example, instead of “[email protected],” it would be ”[email protected].”
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Whatsapp limit your development options and do not usually provide unique domain names.
However, these same platforms can provide easy solutions if you don’t mind leaving interface and design decisions to them. You can customize it for your brand, but your functionality will be limited.
If you are a business owner and want to create a website in 2023 that can grow with your needs, we recommend finding a hosting service and deciding on the software or service to build your website. This may often take a little longer and require some learning and planning, but it will be a worthwhile investment when it is finished.
Building a website with a hosting service gives you full control over the process and allows you to expand or shrink based on your business needs.
When you build a website in 2023, you will see that you have taken the initiative to control your story to compete with anyone in your industry. You can also communicate with your customers/users/viewers to provide information, products, or services that may enhance their lives.
Use your website data to make good business decisions and show that you’re worth the investment. Pick a way to build your website presence and prove that your work is authentic and beneficial in the coming years.
