A significant number of people active in the business world today can remember a time when the word “website” hadn’t even been coined. In the course of a generation, we have gone from a time when businesses relied on word of mouth until such time as they had grown large enough to have a media advertising budget, to a time when an artisan working in a Manchester workshop can sell to a customer in the Maldives. That’s the pace of change in the world today – and that’s what you have to be conscious of when considering web development for your business.
A business today needs to be on top of its web development options, knowing when to outsource to experts, in order to benefit from the following aspects:
Communicating with customers wherever they are
There has never been more choice available to consumers than there is right now, and that means that you need to be bold in interacting with them. A well-developed website will make that so much easier. Using the right tools, you can respond to customer queries and take requests for callbacks, share worthwhile content with a global audience, and build a reputation for reliability. Now we’re in the social media age, and there is no replacement for a website that you can point customers to, sharing the exact article that answers their questions in full.
Working across a range of devices
It’s one thing to build a website, and if you were ahead of the curve many years ago you might already have had a site for well over a decade. However, trends change, and if your website was built for a 2010 market, there is a decent chance it’s fallen well behind the times. Your website in 2021 needs to be viable across phones, tablets and any other web-enabled device. It needs to be searchable by voice, so Alexa and Siri know where to send people. Smart web developers will know what you need and be able to deliver it.
Marking you out as a trusted player
It’s something of a cliche, but it’s true – your business website is a shopfront for a global marketplace. As such, it needs to look the part. Potential customers will spot a website that’s been hastily created for convenience, and they will give it a wide berth. You wouldn’t shop in a store that looked like it had been built carelessly, which was poorly signposted and lacked organisation. Your customers will likewise browse away from a site that doesn’t have the necessary information where they expect to find it. If, on the other hand, they can see what they need to see at a glance, and you make it easy for them to ask questions, you’ll have plenty of leads in no time.
The internet has turned business on its head, and it’s possible today to have a global reach from the moment you open locally. With the correct assistance on your website development, there’s nothing you can’t do if you really want to.