There's (Almost) No Point to Your Small Business Website

Your small business website should not be a vanity project. 

If your small business website doesn't attract new customers, then why do you even have a website? Seriously! What is the point of having a website if not to generate new customers?

When you Google, "why a small business needs a website" the top organic result is this post from ConstantContact entitled "10 Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs a Website". Allow me to summarize the first four points:

• Your customers expect it = Meeting customer expectations is critical for attracting new customers.
• It provides social proof = Social proof is a persuasion technique to attract new customers.
• You control the narrative = Why would a small business want to control the narrative regarding their company? To attract new customers.
• More bang for your buck = A website can inexpensively reach a lot of potential new customers so that your business can efficiently attract new customers.

Your small business website has one job: get you leads. 

Do you see where I am going with this? Every different "reason" that a small business should have a website is really, at the core, simply to attract new customers.

So if the point of your company website is to attract new customers, how good is your site? How much new revenue did it generate last year? Last month? Last week? Yesterday?

Do you know these numbers?

Most business owners and managers have no idea.

If you can't measure it, then you can't manage (or improve) it

Pioneering management consultant and author Peter Drucker is famously (and perhaps erroneously) claimed as the author of the business maxim: if you can't measure it, then you can't manage it.

While this maxim is oversimplified - and probably not even a direct quote of Drucker's - it still lives on in the business zeitgeist. That is because there is truth to it: if it weren't true, we wouldn't need accountants and bookkeepers measuring revenue and expenses. Measuring something in our business is critical for improving.

If we accept these two facts:

• The purpose of your business website is to attract new customers.
• In order to manage (i.e. improve) something in our business then we need to measure it.

Then the conclusion is obvious:

Measuring how many new customers (and how much revenue) your business website is attracting is critical.

So if you want insight on how your website can transform your business, request your free, instant website audit. You don't have to talk to a salesperson and it's emailed right to your inbox.