Well... is it or not? I'm going to let you in on a little secret. It 100% is! Whether you are a new business or you have been around for a long time, your website IS the center of your business. In this day and time there are a few things that you can count on. First... anyone under the age of 50 is going to look you up online and second, if you don't have a website, you will be handicapped versus other companies in your market that do.
For all of those people who sleep through the night you need a website for them to look out at lunch, on a coffee break or the like. For all of those people who don't sleep through the night, you need a website that they can look you up on at 3am. So what is the moral of this story you ask? You need a website. It is your one true 24 hours a day, 7 days a week advocate, employee and historian. No matter the type of client you have your website can sell products, services, paid plans for repeat work or just inform them how long you have been in business.
Ok, so we get that website is important, but is that the end of your digital life? Nope! There is a greater concept here called your "Web Presence". You may or may not be familiar with this term, so what does it mean? It's the name for EVERYTHING that goes into making up your digital existence. The website is definitely the center of this universe. It's digital Rome. As in all digital roads lead there and hopefully, they lead to new opportunities. Opportunities here can be a form filled out, data captured, a chat online, or maybe, they now have your address so that they can come visit you.
So digital roads you say? What are these digital roads? They are your social channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram amongst others, they are email campaigns, digital promotions or ads and they are digital directories that you can sign up for like local directories or larger ones like Angie's List. All of these things can and should point back to your website. You can even make special pages for them to point to within your site so we can more easily track which roads are working for you and which ones need help.
This message is short and simple... if you have a website, good for you. Is it the website that you want? Does the website do its job for you or is it the tree that fell in the woods that nobody heard? Does your website inspire any feelings in your clients and guests or does it represent the things that you would to a client face to face?
It should... it could.
-RLM
