Why every small business needs an online presence
I came across this posting today on Dave Fleet’s blog, Why Your Small Business Needs To Get Online. I couldn’t agree more with what Dave says in the post.
Dave was trying to rent a tent in a small SW Ontario town, he tried in vain to find a store online using what he thought would be correct search terms. He eventually found one, but not before he realized that all of those other small stores in the area were losing out.
As Dave puts it:
“One simple website, optimized for appropriate search terms (like “tent rental” and the town name), would have owned those search results and won the business for its owner (or, at least, won the chance to pitch us their services to me). Instead, all of these companies missed their chance.”
Dave is so right on this, and I would like to add that you don’t need a fancy Flash site with killer graphics, just a simple website, optimized for terms that pertain to your business along with your town or city name and you will have an online presence. My basement VHS to DVD transfer business is a good example of this. I keep my site up and in the Top 20 on Google and I still average 3 – 5 calls a week. It’s not much, but the VHS to DVD transfer business is drying up. Although this Christmas will be the barometer of how far down the business has gone, but I digress.
The cost to create a simple site like this is very reasonable too. Look on Craigslist and you will find dozens of web designers just starting out who will do it really inexpensively.
With the cost of buying a domain name under $10 for a year this is an investment every small business owner should be making.
Dave’s last line sums it all up so neatly:
“Nowadays, if you don’t exist online you might as well not exist.”
Amen to that brother, amen.
