There are plenty of ways that small businesses can thrive and even outdo their larger competitors if they harness digital technology correctly. All too often, however, SME owners choose to make substantial investments in their IT infrastructure that end up resulting in them being left behind. Once you’ve committed to a certain path in IT, it is hard to shift course and adopt a more scalable or flexible approach. This is why outsourced web services are such a good idea, offering a low-cost, high-reward framework. Read on to find out more about third-party web services all small businesses can benefit from.
High-Quality Web Hosting
How your website is hosted will make a huge difference to your digital strategy. Not all web hosting services are the same. Some suffer from unwanted downtimes while others may produce slow loading speeds due to latency in the system. Either way, this isn’t just a turn-off from a user experience point of view but will also impact negatively on your digital presence. Why? Because the likes of Google don’t just rank websites for their content and usefulness but according to how well they are managed and run. With a professional web hosting service taking care of page loads and peak usage moments, you can rest assured that your business won’t suffer from unduly low rankings when people search for the sort of products and services you sell.
Social Media Advertising
Although search engine optimisation is a great way to get your business noticed in the digital age, many people don’t search for things online. Instead, they come across them almost by accident. Typically, this is the case for consumer-facing businesses, especially those with a younger demographic among their target audience. Therefore, one of the best business hacks for getting your brand known among such internet users is to use direct advertising on social media. Advertising platforms will allow you to focus your spend on the most likely users to be interested in your products and services. Many also limit spending per month or quarter so you can regulate your advertising expenditure without going over your budget.
On-Demand Booking Services
A virtual assistant that can help customers make enquiries or bookings online is a great web service that many SME owners fail to take sufficient notice of. Understandably, some people are wary of using artificial intelligence algorithms to interface with their precious customers directly. However, if your business relies on appointments and run-of-the-mill interactions that take time to sort out, then using an on-demand web-based booking service is likely to be a clever thing to do. Not only will it free up time but it will also allow customers to choose appointments according to their priorities, thereby improving the service you offer them.
Summing Up
With scalable solutions designed to suit every kind of business from one-man startups to large corporations, modern web services offer a myriad of benefits. Given so much more commerce is carried out online than ever before, investing in reliable web services has never been more important.
