Why is it so important to have a good website?

As a small business owner, I wear all the hats in my company, owner, employee, sales manager, social media manager, customer services, tea lady, cleaner, you name it. From this, I have come to realise why it is so important to have a website and a good website at that.

In this digital age where paper business cards have now become a thing of the past and where QR codes, web addresses and an array of links are common place, taking interested parties to a particular page on our website, it’s so important to have a good, if not great website! I see my website as the window into my business soul. This is because fully displayed on our websites, for all the world to see, we have our personality, who we are exactly, our experiences and skills, our services, our mission, our core values, our legal standing with all our policies and T&Cs, what it would be like to work with us, what others say about our business and much more. A good website even highlights our ability to communicate which is clearly on show within our hugely informative, inspiring and sometimes entertaining blogs. All of this gives us legitimacy and credibility, it builds trust with our target audience.

Having a strong online presence such as a great website can have a huge impact on how well our business performs and its future successes. Kasey Kaplan wrote a succinct article for Forbes highlighting some of the top reasons why it is important for our businesses to have a website. All very valid reasons, with my favourite being ‘showcasing my brand’. Allow me to explain why this resonates with me.

Back in July/August 2020, the first summer of lockdown, I spent many hours, day and night, working on creating content for my website as well as working on my brand colours, imagery, logos and so on. Now for anyone who is familiar with me, they know that I love the colour red! Since I was a child, red has been my colour. I had a red tricycle, red shoes, red dresses, a red view-master - if the colour red was going, I would have it! This continued through to my adult life where I wear red whenever I can, I have a red car, a red bicycle, a red mobile phone, red headphones, a red armchair, a red fridge freezer, a red toaster, a red kettle… I think you get the point. So, it came as no surprise that the colour red simply had to feature on my website, highlighting my identity and my passion. I want anyone landing on my site to have a flavour of my vibrancy, my love for what I do, my passion for travel, people and other cultures and my quirkiness – who on earth would have a red website! Pinterest, Coca-Cola, Virgin, Norwegian airline, Avis, Netflix, CNN, BBC News, the list goes on (quite successful companies too). I know that red signifies different things for different people and cultures. In many Asian cultures red symbolises very happy emotions as well as luck, wealth and a long life, while in parts of Africa red is for mourning. For me personally, red is a happy colour, a colour of passion and love, a colour of survival. The colour red takes me back to my carefree fun childhood and inspires me to be just who I am.

Back to the reason for this blog…

Following on from my previous blog about life’s unexpected challenges and my return to DAP VA Limited after 8 months battling and conquering cancer, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight the importance of a good website and to reintroduce you to my refreshed and refurbished website, with a little tweak here and there, taking into account everything I had learnt after starting my business and its evolution after just one year. This was a really fun exercise and at the same time made me realise just how important a good website is, allowing people to have a little peep into my business soul.

I would love it if you would take a look around now that you’re already here.