Do I still need a website in 2018?

There are a lot of people online who already have a huge following on most of the social media platforms and might ask why do I still need a website? Social media is amazing but the reality is that you don’t own and control the platform. You don’t fully control how it looks, how people interact with it and there are a ton of rules that you need to succumb to.

We’ve seen social media companies come and disappear and also some habitually change the rules on engagement so you might consider getting your own platform to be able to do that on your own terms. A website allows you to have all these personalized features alongside the sole authority to control how your story is being told, your content guidelines and your rules of engagement but, an extra advantage is the ability to have a direct relationship with your audience by getting them onto your email list or newsletter.

What if your favorite or most popular social media platform went away like Vine did? What would you do to be able to reach people and to connect with them directly? How do you have ownership of the relationship? That’s why having your own website matters. Living in China makes one always anticipate the use of the internet. A country where we depend solely on the internet or basically our smartphones yet have no control over it.

Imagine a foreigner running a business solely on WeChat and wakes up one day to realize his or her WeChat has been deactivated for violating some online rules or simply due to a new online law which would not be out of the ordinary here. What would be the fallback option? Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, or the other social media giants out there? Well in case you have been living in a cave for the past few years, all the social media giants you can think of are blocked in China.

It’s not just having a .com or a .org. It’s about being able to have a sense of security and brand certainty for short and also knowing how people will find you. Owning a website and having the ability to put out content in the form of a blog or articles also means that you have the opportunity to be found in search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo etc) on your own terms and also having a more effective tool for marketing your brand.

A website can also help consolidate your brand which means that if you happen to have a podcast, portfolios and downloadable files for people to have access to, that can serve as a validation for your brand to potential clients. There are multiple things you can do with your website that would be inaccessible with your social media platforms. All social media pro platforms are still very important for your brand and you can go directly to where the audience is participating, to where all conversations are being had and direct your clients to your website.

Now after one has decided to get a website, there is a follow-up question that pops up. How do I create my website? Once again its 2018 so having a website doesn’t have to cost the world or doesn’t require you to be a Tech geek. It all comes to your budget and how much you are willing to invest in it. To me building a website has two routes; the first route being paying someone to do it and the other route is doing it yourself (DIY). The latter isn’t that difficult to accomplish since with the help of Drag & Drop website builder services like Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress.com etc has made website building cheap, easy and quick.

Moreover, if you are ready for a learning curve, you can also try Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress.org, Joomla, Drupal etc. with the DIY route. This option comes with unlimited control over your website since you can virtually create anything depending on what you are willing to learn to add to your website creation skill.

Ultimately I think what you need to is to accept the fact that at some point, when you want to take your brand  seriously, then you must have a website that people can  find the information you want to put in front of them in one place. Which will also make you look more prestigious and also have a professional email address (email@yourwebsite.com).

Kindly let us know if you are still on the fence about starting your website. If you find social media easier to use or you think you still don’t need a website or you feel it might be too expensive to own a website. Dephlex Creatives can provide awesome and affordable web solutions through a unique customer experience.