In today's digital age, establishing an online presence with a professionally designed website is necessary for businesses of all sizes, though small businesses should absolutely have one. Your website offers numerous advantages in terms of marketing, customer reach, visibility, credibility, e-commerce, and growth potential. Below are 9 reasons your business needs a website, and what Vagaro’s newly released MySite can do for your business.
Vagaro MySite puts a highly professional, responsive business website at your fingertips. Perhaps best of all, it doesn’t cost a hefty chunk of your budget, nor does it require much technical skill to use.
1. A Professional Web Presence
Your website says a lot about your business. In fact, an overwhelming number of customers search for businesses online and wouldn’t consider one that didn’t have a professional website. First impressions matter, and your website adds a significant layer of credibility to your business that your social media profiles alone do not match.
It’s important to remember that simply having a “flashy” website isn’t enough. Nothing drives users away faster than a poorly designed, clunky and slow website1. Think of it this way: You keep your physical business clean, uncluttered and well-furnished, with tasteful décor and top-notch equipment. Visitors can move around easily, and find what, or whom, they are looking for.
Your website should function the same way, and its design should put user experience (UX) at the forefront. Vagaro’s MySite gives you your choice of several streamlined templates and layouts for a smooth, sleek browsing experience. You also have the option to flex your design muscles and tackle design on your own from scratch.
2. Brand Visibility & Recognition
Your website is much more than a collection of schedules, directions and booking links. Outside of your actual business, your website is where your brand should shine. It should be designed with your business name, logo and brand colors front & center. Include bios for you and your employees, and find space for your mission statement, accomplishments and photos of your business.
A visually polished website is paramount. For one, it creates a permanent, positive impression in people’s minds. When prospective customers search for a service you offer in the future, they’ll naturally connect that service with your business and its brand signifiers. That’s why Vagaro MySite lets you customize your colors, fonts, button styles and more.
Bear in mind that your website’s color scheme2 and design—and how they are deployed—matter to prospective customers. So does brand consistency, meaning your business’s colors, logo and any other design elements must be the same across multiple touchpoints. If the logo or colors on your social media accounts were somehow different than the ones at your physical business, it can come across as unprofessional and even confusing to people.
No one understands your vision for your business quite like you do. Still, there’s no shame in asking for a little help from the professionals in gracefully bringing it to life. Vagaro’s Design Services Team will not only create your business’s logo and brand materials but also design your website with all these elements neatly incorporated. The cost to have a website professionally built and designed can be quite high—several thousand dollars, in fact, according to a recent article by Forbes3. Comparatively, the cost of having Vagaro’s design team handle the job is much, much less.
3. Wider Reach & 24/7 Accessibility
According to data compiled by Fit Small Business, approximately 71% of small businesses have a website4. While that number is up from just a few years ago, it’s still surprisingly low considering one fact: The internet never sleeps. Your website enables you to reach customers after your business is closed and beyond your normal geographical target—hypothetically anywhere in the world.
Clients can search your business, book or rebook services, or make purchases (more on that benefit later) any time and anywhere. It's easy to post updates, announcements and anything relevant to your client base on your website, increasing customer interaction and loyalty.
It should also be easy to update your business’s information when it changes, though not every website platform makes it so. Vagaro users have an edge here in that MySite syncs with their Vagaro account. If they decide to offer new services, classes, memberships or packages, the change is reflected on their site, automatically. The same is true for things like pricing and employee information. You read that right—whatever changes you make to your Vagaro account as a customer are automatically updated on your business’s website. That means there’s no more going back and updating your website manually each time you add a new offering or have to close for a holiday. MySite does it for you because it’s the website that updates itself!
4. Marketing & Lead Generation
Compared to traditional advertising methods, a website is a cost-effective marketing tool for small businesses. Creating and maintaining a website is more affordable, especially when compared to the expenses associated with print advertising, radio ads or television commercials5. Your website gives you a platform to showcase products, services, reviews, testimonials and business news with customers—at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing channels.
For example, using MySite, Vagaro customers can have their website for just $20 per month. They also enjoy the added convenience of having their Vagaro accounts linked to MySite, so all their business’s services and information are seamlessly migrated onto their new site.
If you use digital marketing tools, like Vagaro’s email and text features, your website also gives you a legitimate landing page for which to send recipients. In fact, your website should be the endpoint for digital ads, social media, and even print media.
5. Improved SEO
Search engine optimization is incredibly important. Put simply, it affects how clients will find you. Once your business is online with an SEO-optimized website, you have a chance of showing up in Google search results when people are searching for a product or service.
Reaching customers online is incredibly important today because, for most people, if something can’t be found online, it doesn’t exist. Showing up in Google search results is particularly important. According to some sources, Google processes over 8.5 billion searches...per day.
But wait, aren’t social media networks indexed on Google? Yes, and social media posts can be found with the search engine results. But they should be used to help your website rank higher, not stand in for it (more on how below). The same is true of your Google Business Profile. In fact, you can, and should embed your Google Business Profile into your website.
A website gives you access to many more SEO tools and strategies than social media alone. For example, with free keyword research tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, you can figure out which words and phrases related to your business are getting the most traffic on Google. You can then build your content around those phrases. Another of Google’s tools, Google Trends, lets you see what topics are trending most in your target regions.
6. Drive Website Traffic with Social Media
Now, we’ve already covered that that your social media profiles should not be stand-ins for a professional website, but they still play an especially vital role. You can utilize social media pages to create in-bound traffic to your website in the following ways:
- Testimonials
- Reviews
- Videos (how-to, interviews, etc..)
- Before and after photos
- Client or employee callouts
- Contests
- Giveaways
- Polls
Essentially, you’ll create any kind of popular social content that can be shared by current clients and interested prospective ones. It should drive people to your website. Increasing traffic obviously increases sales and bookings. But it also helps your website rank higher because search engines consider overall traffic to determine a website’s quality and trustworthiness.
Your website, as the hub that it is, provides current and future customers with outbound links to your social media accounts. This is especially important for salons, tattoo studios or other businesses that rely on visuals.
7. Boost Customer Engagement
Your website can serve as a hub for information in your community or industry niche. You can share content, such as blog posts, tutorials, or product and gift guides. We know what you’re wondering: Does anyone care about my blog? Well, according to a survey done by Hubspot, yes—blogposts influence the decision to make purchases.6
With a robust website builder, like Vagaro’s MySite, you can create a link on your homepage for a blog that you can fill with informative articles.
This kind of content helps establish you as an industry expert and foster trust among your current & prospective clientele. Publishing fresh content will also improve your SEO rankings on major search engines, helping to boost traffic and sales. If you’re at a loss for ideas, be sure to use those tools mentioned in the SEO section above.
8. Tap Into Mobile Sales
One of the marks of a great website is responsiveness or how well it performs on smaller screens, particularly a smartphone.
Businesses using Vagaro’s MySite know that their site delivers a great mobile experience, and that’s an important thing, because:
- A mobile-friendly website contributes greatly to a business’s trustworthiness and professionalism
- Half of website traffic comes from mobile devices7
- Websites with good mobile navigation rank better in Google searches8
If your business currently has a website, when was the last time you checked out its mobile performance? If you can’t remember, stop what you’re doing, pull out your phone and punch in your business’s URL. Like what you see? Could it be better?
9. Increase Revenue with Online Retail
Have you thought of your website as a direct sales tool? A well-designed website enables you to tap into the revenue-bolstering power of e-commerce by selling retail products and services on the web.
Integrating e-commerce functionality into a website enables you to sell your products, services, classes, gift cards, swag, packages and memberships directly to customers. Online sales expand your customer base beyond your physical location and enable you to make sales essentially while you sleep.
With Vagaro’s MySite, you can add a section for an online store with built-in shipping options. This is especially useful for beauty salons and spas because beauty ecommerce purchases—the online sales of cosmetics, skincare and hair care products—is expected to reach over $30 billion and account for nearly a third of beauty retail sales by 20269. Don’t let the ecommerce goliaths get all the glory. Get ahead of the growing ecommerce trend and claim a piece of this for yourself.
Vagaro MySite FAQs
What is MySite?
MySite is our new website builder that allows you to customize every aspect of your booking & business website! It auto-syncs with any changes to your Vagaro account so it’s always up to date.
What's the difference between MySite & my Vagaro listing page?
Your free listing page can be found on the Marketplace, but can't be customized. MySite is your business’s website, you can fully customize it & it automatically updates itself when you make changes in your account.
How do I get started with MySite?
Navigate to the Website Builder tab in your Vagaro account, tap on Try New Website Builder, and start creating!
How much does MySite cost?
For your own custom business website, Vagaro MySite is only an additional $20 (US), £15 (UK), or $30 (CAN/AUS) per month.
Can I customize the link to my website?
Yes! You can either transfer your current domain (website URL) over, or you can purchase a new domain if you don’t want to go with the free one you’re given at signup.
How does the website update itself?
Because Vagaro truly is an all-in-one app, any changes you make to your Vagaro account will automatically be reflected on your MySite website.
Can I hire a designer to create a MySite for me?
The choice is yours—MySite is user-friendly if you want to create your site yourself, but if you’d rather leave it to the pros, we have an in-house Design Services Team that can create it for you!
A strong website should serve as a main hub for your business. It raises your business’s professionalism, trustworthiness, and visibility, while significantly boosting sales revenue. If you are putting off creating, or upgrading to, a professional website for your business, it’s time you made it happen—with the right tools in hand. Vagaro MySite is the tool that enables users to build sleek, navigable and mobile-friendly websites. It’s another way Vagaro empowers growing businesses to stay profitable and competitive. Sign up for your FREE 30-day trial and experience what else the Vagaro platform can do for your business!
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