The First On Your Block?

There are some industries in which many or even most companies don’t have websites. Antique stores. Nail salons. CPAs. Caterers. Private medical practices. Contractors. Dance studios. Independent mechanics.

If your competitors don’t have websites, it’s easy to assume that it’s because websites aren’t useful in your profession.

After all, how many people who want to buy antiques actually look for an antique store on Google?

In my small town, 165,000 a month.

Local antique stores (according to interviews conducted in the past week by area students) had two things to say about their business: first, they don’t need websites and second, there used to be a lot more antique stores but many of them have gone out of business because of the economic downturn.

Would 165,000 potential shoppers a month make a difference, do you suppose?

673,000 people look for nail salons each month. There are a million searches for CPAs each month, and 1,830,000 for mechanics. These are all local searches, mind you, in a fairly rural area.

So what if you were the first antique store in my region to have a website? What if you were the first CPA to have a current, professionally built website? What if you were the dance studio with the best website?

Do you seriously think that those companies wouldn’t have an advantage?

A 2010 study found that 32% of the small businesses surveyed would get a website if they had “more time and money.” That number includes all kinds of businesses, though — the ones that know for a fact that all their competitors have websites as well as those that are going with the herd. The percentage of business owners in these not-on-the-web industries who have any interest in a web site is probably much smaller.

If you’re still reading this, then you may be one of those business owners. You know that veterinarians (or whatever it might be) in your town mostly don’t bother with websites, but you’re sick of having customers ask for your web address and having to say you don’t have one.

Go to the Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions Tool. Type in the name of your field. You’ll see a chart that looks like this:

In fact, if you only type in your own field, you’ll see this:

A list of other terms people are looking for in your neighborhood. Add up all those searches and you’ll probably see that having a website would make a big difference for you.

Set a budget for a website. There is a web firm or DIY option for absolutely every budget (including free, at least temporarily). Start now, and you could have your website up and running in time to do you some good in the all-important fourth quarter.

If you decide to take action, we can help you. Call 479.966.9761 and talk with Julianne.