It’s easy to decide upon having a website for your company/start-up. Especially when you know that it hardly costs around $10 or less to register your name and nominal monthly charges which form less than 1% of your company overheads to get your site up and running on the web. So, why are you setting up your website anyway? What is the purpose? and How does it actually align with your business goals? These are the difficult questions that bog you down and make you think.

Let’s look at the top 5 reasons why you should not have a website. Some key questions will be raised in this process that will make you think and make better decisions for your web implementation and figure out your ROI.

1) To show up in Google search results

It’s important to understand the role of Google in relation to your website and its purpose. You have heard that 9 out of 10 web search queries are made on Google and hence your website should show up there. That logically does make sense. But that really doesn’t mean that you start making sales and fetch thousands of leads. Unless your web design is good enough and you have a method to create a database of those visiting your websites. Moreover, getting traffic to your website from search engines is not the objective - at the end of the day it’s all about sales for your company. So what’s even more significant is to convert that site visitor into a satisfied customer (i.e. a sale for your company). You could do a lot with your website to do this. Have visitors to fill feedback forms/guest-books; allow them to sign up for your newsletter; let them subscribe to your product updates via RSS feeds. At the end of the day, you don’t want your site visitor to forget your company, do you?

Get answers for the following before you make this your reason to have a website:

• How good will be the design of your website (in terms of compatibility with browsers, intuitive layout and information - content) if you are expecting traffic from all across the world?
• Do you have a process by which you will be recording lead data for your website visitors?
• Are you expecting immediate sales or just trade inquiries?
• To put it all in a nutshell, how are you going to convert that search engine traffic into leads and finally sales for your company?

2) To multiply sales by capturing the global audience

If you are starting a website with a shoe string budget, it is kind of too optimistic of you to think that you are creating a global presence. Just because you registered MyCompanyName.com and put up a few colorful pages won’t bring people from around the world to your website. There’s a lot that goes into pulling visitors to your website - it is somewhat similar to setting up a shop in your neighborhood. The difference is that you have unlimited means to promote your website across online avenues unlike distributing flyers of your shop around the neighborhood. The best part about the internet is its reach. You can tap this global audience in thousands of ways, a percentage of which will become your sales. Optimize your website to show up in the search engine results; start a blog relevant to your website; promote your website using offline means of communication; use e-mail marketing through e-zines…the means to marketing your business online is endless.

Get answers for the following before you make this your reason to have a website:

• What is it that you are going to do to market your website (more importantly your business) to pull more visitors?
• To appeal to the global audience, what are the different methods that you will use to attract customers that will ultimately become your sales?
• What is the percentage estimate of your website visitors which can convert to sales for your company? Have you calculated the approximate numbers?

3) Because your competitor also has one

I would like to emphasize on the purpose of your company website again. It is somewhat naive to create an online presence ‘just because’ your competition has one. One of the greatest pitfalls of doing so is that most website owners tend to imitate the web design, look, and layout of the competitor’s website. This often is clubbed with inappropriate content which is irrelevant to the company: often a mission statement or long-term goals of the organization scripted on-the-fly at the time of publishing of the website. Think of it this way - you have a company with its own Unique Selling Proposition; this USP requires to be projected in a unique way on your website. One classic website that illustrates my point is: http://www.apple.com. When you go to their site, it shows that its a website by Apple - the color combination, the content font-type, the tabs, intuitive link structure and the product listing menu. They don’t need fancy mission statements! We know that their mission is clean, awesome design as soon as we see their website.

Get answers for the following before you make this your reason to have a website:

• How are you going to beat your Competitor with your website?
• How will you project your Company USP in terms of content and design?
• and again, what’s the purpose of your website?

4) To let my customers reach me via the internet

Like I mentioned in reason no. 2, there’s a lot that can be done to pull new customers to your website. Don’t just make your website easily search able on the internet, pull in more leads for your business by allowing them to subscribe to your newsletters. Syndicate your content to partner websites. Blog in your industry domain. There’s a lot that you can do.

Don’t just let your customer reach your website. Keep them engaged to your company, your employees and yourself if you are the CEO. Make them feel like they are a part of your community and your business. Use social media to reach out into their personal lives. See what they are doing everyday. Which coffee do they like? Which magazines do they read? Add them on Facebook and befriend them. Let them know what you like and what you do when you are not working!

Tell them your story and reach OUT to your customers via the web.

5) Because it’s a low cost Investment

This is the most bizarre reason to have a website for your company! With almost every company having a website, it’s not a competitive advantage to HAVE one. You get this advantage only when you have a ‘good’ website - a good design, a good marketing strategy, and good content. This isn’t a low cost investment. Most companies set an annual budget separately for these online needs.

• What’s your website budget?
• What percentage of your marketing would be online?
• Calculate your ROI.

What I love about the internet is the amazing ROI. It may not be an economical affair to get a classy, globally appealing website, but the ROI on that investment is so large (if leveraged) that it can beat your competitor’s local marketing road-show!

I would be happy to consult you for an effective web marketing roadmap that works for your business. Feel free to mail me: