"I Don’t Need a Website" - Why Small Businesses are Being Left Behind

Millions of people are turning to the internet to find local business and use local services.

Is your business one of them?

Or have your competitors gotten the jump on you and are slowly taking your business away from you?

It is estimated that 25% of all searches, that is over one billion a month, are now local searches. In the next couple of years many of your customers will be going online to locate and find information on local businesses. They will type in "mechanics in Richmond, Melbourne" and expect to get a list of reputable mechanics in their area.

The irony is that more than 50% of local businesses still do NOT even have a website. The reasons may be that many businesses may not have regarded having a website as being a critical part of their business or perhaps their customers did not even expect them to have a website. Or worse still, they may have been sucked in by a web design company and splashed out $10,000 or more on a flashy website that brought zero results.

How much would you be willing to pay to stop the 'bleeding' - $1,000, perhaps even $2,000? While this is a lot better than splashing out $10,000 for a 'bells and whistles' site it is not what I am talking about. As a local business, there is an incredible window of opportunity available for you to dominate your market with very little effort and with little or no marketing budget. How would you like targeted advertising for free, get your site listed in local search engines and take advantage of those local customers looking for your business right now?

Old school hosting just does not cut it anymore. Likewise buying a domain name for $3 and hosting for $5 per month will do your business more harm than good in the long run not to mention the limitations of these services and the hassle of changing hosting providers when (predictably!) you discover it doesn't meet your business needs.

Having a website does not have to mean hiring an expensive webmaster to design a flashy site. Nor does it mean much time being spent with the technical aspect of updating a website. You don't have to be on the bleeding edge to have a professional web presence at the same time you don't want to be left behind.

Copyright 2006 - Declan O'Reilly

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If you run a small business you MUST read this!

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