Nearly half of small businesses DON’T have a domain. Does yours?

Would you hire someone without a business card and who’s office you can’t find? Conducting business without an online presence is essentially the same thing.

A recent study conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of .CO Registry revealed that a whopping 45% of small business owners do not have a website or blog.

To put it simply, you need a web presence to run a successful business in the 21st century! Few successful companies come to mind when considering those that don’t have an online identity. Still, almost half of small business are operating out there without a web presence.

Here are a few reasons why you need a domain for your business:

Your customers are looking for you

Today’s consumer is accustomed to finding information with just one click. New customers are looking for you and existing ones want to stay in touch! If your business does not exist where they are looking, only a customer with perseverance will succeed in finding it.

If you’re not going to provide customers with information about your business, then who will? Plenty of popular websites allow user feedback about businesses, such as Yelp, Google, Facebook and even blogs. That means people may already talking about your business online without you telling the story for yourself. Of course, there is also a strong likelihood that they will find your competitors first instead.

It’s professional

Beyond its physical location, your business needs a domain to call home. Without a domain, your operation can come across as unprofessional and unreliable. Your web presence establishes your business with a reputable and credible name in the industry.

Websites aren’t just for businesses that sell online

Your domain is a place where customers can find everything they need to know about you, your products and services, where you are and how to reach you. You can even use it to show off to your customers by adding other content, like credentials and testimonials. The sky is the limit!

It’s easy

You don’t need to have super techy web design skills to establish an online presence for your business. While you won’t find any website building tools at Hover, we can give you some of our favourite suggestions for web hosting companies.

It’s affordable

Registering a .COM domain for your business costs just $15/year. That’s money well-spent, considering your website is working to drive customers 24 hours/day, seven days/week! A website is especially affordable in comparison to traditional advertising channels, such as newspaper, TV or display ads in the Yellow Pages.

Creating a website doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg either. You don’t necessarily need to hire a designer to achieve a professional web presence. There are some great free web hosts out there that will even help design your website, like Blogger or WordPress.

You can start now

You can start building your web presence today! You don’t need to already have rich content or a beautiful storefront. Until you’re ready to start developing your website, you can get started with a simple landing page and contact information. Remember, if you don’t secure the domain name for your business, it’s entirely possible that someone else may get it first.

You can get a great domain name

You may be wondering if all the good domain names have already been spoken for. Don’t worry! There are plenty of unique and memorable domains available, especially when you look beyond .COM to other domain extensions.

We’re happy to help you find the right domain name! All you have to do is search for the keywords that are relevant to your business. We’ll show you what domain names and extensions are available and even provide our own suggestions based on your search.

What are you waiting for? Try it for yourself and see what domains are available for you!