Google has changed the purpose of a website, especially since the start of the pandemic. Now, a potential client can select a business by simply “Googling” how to resolve the issue they’re facing. How does this change the purpose of your website? It needs to align with what clients are searching for, where they are searching, and abide by Google’s rules for websites in search.
Do I need a Website?
Legally speaking, you don’t need to have a website to start a business. However, according to this article by Forbes, “If you plan on leveraging digital marketing to increase your leads and grow your business, you’ll likely want to drive traffic to a website or landing page.”
What type of website do I need?
One that looks great and is functional on mobile devices is a must, but beyond that I have two answers. The right answer for your business is going to depend on a number of factors. What it comes down to is what message you want to get across to your customers and how can you do that successfully.
Your website is your digital storefront. Clients or patients finding you online will see your website or Google listing before they ever interact with one of your employees. Your website and Google listing become a reflection of your business digitally and they need to be able to stand alone to represent your business.
What is your website saying to potential patients? Where does the patient fit into the story you are telling on your website? Are your providers the focus of the photos on your website, or are the clients the focal point?
Let’s look at an Example:
A patient wants to know where they can find a physical therapist for back pain, so they go to Google and type in “Physical therapy for back pain near me.” They skip over the paid advertisements, because they want an honest experience from the beginning. Below are the top two organic results for physical therapy for back pain.
Business #1:
- Has a few positive Google reviews
- Their website loads slow
- There’s a lot of medical terms and complex language, and no clear message of what they do
- Their blogs are written like a medical journal article
- They don’t have any website pages on back pain
Business #2:
- Has hundreds of positive Google reviews
- Their website loads fast
- Right at the top is what the business does
- The website lists the exact problem with a related patient story on their blog
- Website is simple to decipher
- It’s easy to contact them
Which business would you select? The reality is, if you don’t invest time into making your digital storefront a positive experience, it doesn’t matter if you are the top result in search. A person will select the best option from the first few organic options available to them.
What is your website saying about your business?
Potential clients believe the experience on your website is a reflection of the treatment they will receive in your office. Spoiler alert, if customers feel talked down to or less important than the people who are treating them, they will not be returning to your website to give it a second look. Those clients won’t give you a second chance to clarify.
Should I Build my own Website with WordPress, Godaddy, or another builder site?
What I find with sites you build yourself is that they serve a purpose. If you have a lot of word-of-mouth referrals to go on, it may work for you for to just to have something to put on your business cards temporarily. However, you will eventually realize that you aren’t getting enough of the right clients.
While initially a WordPress site you build yourself is saving you money, there’s a good chance it’s also costing you more by preventing you from reaching your full potential.
Will I save money with a website created by a Someone Else?
Not always. You want to find someone with search engine optimization at the forefront of their design. I build websites in accordance with Google’s requirements for success online. Trying to build a model with this capability in WordPress is not an easy feat, because you’re building with pieces coded by hundreds of thousands of other people. It’s like trying to solve a puzzle of a blue sky with 100,000 pieces. However, I am building the puzzle knowing where all the pieces are, and that they fit, because I built them.
Not only that, but a website built and managed by a web developer and SEO is more secure, predictable, and isn’t prone to crashes during updates like a self-managed WordPress website is. Why? Because if you don’t take your site structure into consideration when adding a new plugin, your website could crash as a result.
That said, I am willing to work with WordPress and other builder websites that I haven’t built. I think they serve a purpose, but they’re prone to costly issues, and prevent you from climbing as fast in search results. I can’t guarantee they will climb predictably in search results if they veer from this ideal format I created. I like to be upfront about why I don’t prefer them for the businesses I work with, it’s not just because the designs I create are meant for search engine optimization.
Conclusion
So do you need a website? The short answer is yes. Google has changed the purpose of a website; it now serves as your digital “storefront.” It needs to align with what clients are searching for and Google’s rules for websites in search. Making sure your website fulfills its purpose and is a reflection of your business is the first step towards bringing more clients in the door.
Critical Thinking and Next Steps
What does your website say about your business? How does your potential client fit into the story that your website paints? If your website is more about your business than it is about making their lives better, you could be wasting your breath and losing more than a few clients over it.
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