As more and more people spend their time online to buy products and avail of services that cater to their needs, businesses of any size must go online too, having a website that promotes their products and is accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime to grow their operations.
GoDaddy, the brand that empowers entrepreneurs, relayed in the ‘Make a Different Future Webinar’ how having a website and online store can help businesses grow. Being aware of the importance of a website is a key to grow the business. It is not enough to only capture the attention of consumers, they also need to connect them easily to a direct point of sale opportunity on their website.
According to the GoDaddy 2020 Global Entrepreneurship Survey, Filipino entrepreneurs are looking to learn more about digital technologies that can help drive sales for their businesses. Forty three percent (43%) of survey respondents say they are interested in having a website, while 38% said they are interested in e-commerce portals.
Small business owners who have taken the leap to create their own website, acknowledge capturing the attention of customers and more easily driving them to a point of sale.
“Having a website is like having your own pond. It’s easier to fish for customers captivated by your site,” said Pearl de Guzman, founder of Staffz, an online outsourcing company specializing in content and winner of last year’s AXN and GoDaddy’s reality show Project GO.
De Guzman also said that investing in a business website not only serves as a virtual storefront, it also makes it easier for customers to find you amid the Internet noise.
“When people search for you online, it’s our website that they’re going to see first, so it’s crucial that you invest in things like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to help make your website come up on top of online search results. GoDaddy easily integrates this with their tools, I was amazed at how convenient that is to have SEO built right in,” De Guzman added.
Tina Lagdameo, co-owner of My Honest Junk, an online healthy snack food shop, relayed that while she integrates her business website with the use of other channels, including social media to promote her products, her business website remains the main platform where customers are directed towards.
“The website is our hero platform, where we have control over the design and experience, and the ability to manage inventory and share information about current promotions to help customers make purchases and keep them coming back,” said Lagdameo.
She adds that the online store on her website “has been a key driver to our overall sales. Unlike other platforms, there are less limitations on how much we can put in our inventory and customers also get to understand our brand story since their focus is solely on our website.”
Lagdameo also said she relied on GoDaddy’s tech support, GoDaddy Guides, to help her navigate updates she was making on her business website.
Maintaining a secure website was also tackled in the event where Ben Martin, a senior security analyst at GoDaddy, advised website owners to be aware of online security threats such as malware which can use the website to infect visitors’ computers; spam which can misuse website’s resources; phishing that can steal credentials; and credit card theft that can compromise credit card details.
Martin said the effects of these threats on the website can be very damaging. A website can be blocklisted by Google and antivirus companies, and in the case of spam, engine optimization can be damaged. In maintaining websites, he noted that websites must be regularly updated, passwords used must be strong, and must be proactive with site maintenance. Apart from these, website owners must use a secure hosting environment, firewall and backup services.
