As the world starts up after the pandemic, more and more businesses are finding the opportunity to reopen and get back to work. Your website is a great tool for building your business and attracting new customers. Here are some ways you can use it.

1. Build your culture

According to Wikipedia, culture is is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups. 

Company culture is the personality and ‘colour’ of your umbrella. It represents the shared values, attributes, and characteristics of your organization and your employees and, one expects, the quality of your work and service. One of the first places customers go to learn about a company’s culture is their website. You can use your website as a way to share your company culture with future clients. 

Your About Us page can have a description of your mission and values. Your reviews and testimonials section can give future clients an idea of what your clients appreciate about your company.  Your blog can share information or tips. And of course your photos, design, and colour palette can also  give an overall  feel. 

Future customers will respond to your company’s culture without even realizing due to human biais. So plan your culture carefully!

2. Get found on Search Engines

You can use your website to advertise your services and the biggest and best way to access free advertising in 2021 is with internet search engines. Today a customer will almost always go to the internet first when looking for a service or product. If your company is there, it will be found.

There are many ways to help your website be listed close to the top of  a search page. This is popularly called SEO or Search Engine Optimization. In the ‘bricks and mortar’ world, the bigger the ad in a newspaper or magazine the more likely it will be seen. But in the digital world, things work differently. You’ll need a website, and you’ll need it to be listed near the top of Google. 

There are many many ways to improve your company’s SEO, and they all start with a website.

3. Resolve your email mashups with intake forms

You can design great forms on your website to make sure you receive all the needed information when someone contacts you. These forms can be a helpful guide for your future customers, and they are also much easier to manage on a smart phone. Busy customers might be looking for you while they are in a lineup or waiting room, and they’re on their phone when they do it.

Businesses can connect forms to 3rd party platforms that will send a happy reply, send brochures, or do any number of other automated tasks. 

You can avoid missing important calls or emails by implementing a website form.

4. And speaking of phones

In an earlier blog post, we noted that  29.8 million Canadians access the internet with their phones. In fact, there are 91.86 mobile users per every 100 Canadians. And almost 36% of all Canadian activities online are done with a mobile phone. This figure has doubled in five years. 

You can optimize your website to show well on a cellphone. This is often referred to as Mobile Optimization.

5. You can take control

We’re often asked why a business can’t just have a Facebook page, a PInterest, or Instagram account and of course, many businesses do use these platforms instead of a website. 

However, all those web pages are owned by large corporations who can make changes to the look of your site, make use of your photos, and even take your site down altogether, without any recourse for you.

With a website, you can take control of what you say, how you look, and you own your images. And perhaps more importantly, no one can take your website down. 

Using Facebook (and other social media) as the only platform for your business web presence is sometimes referred to as ‘squatting’ - in other words, you are using someone else’s website to advertise your business. Instead, you can use your own website to manage your business and be in charge of your business’s culture, SEO, customer contacts, leads, and more.

With your website, you can then take advantage of Social Media linking from all platforms to your website.

Goodwin Creative builds websites using Squarespace. These websites remain viable and secure throughout changes to the internet making them the best option for your business.