It’s 2014 and you don’t have a website (gasp! let me catch my breath). Maybe you don’t see the full value of owning a website or the need, but I’m here to tell you why you need a website from a professional standpoint. If you’re a student, business owner, or a working professional, then you make up a majority of the adult population and you need a website. I can’t stress it enough… which I think you can tell. There is no excuse as to why you shouldn’t have a website in 2014 and I will lay them out for you. The first thing that comes to mind, is that it’s an opportunity to make money and a lot of people are making money online.

If you want to make money and you’re a business owner, it would behoove me as to why you would not invest a little bit of money and sometime into a website that has little overhead cost, but that will expose you to potential new customers. Imagine if you will, that you are an interior designer and I was looking for your services, how would I find you? By word of mouth? Sure I trust my friends and family, but I (and I’m sure you would too) would jump online and do a little research. Imagine if you were not online, then how would I ever find what my friends and family told me about you as an interior designer? If I can find something, what is it going to be..? And this brings me to the next point as to why you need a website and that is that your name is a keyword.

Whether you like it or not, your name is a keyword and what shows up from an internet search can either have a positive or a negative results for you. We all know that you need to take everything you read online with a grain of salt, but why sit by and allow other to define your story; to define your brand? Instead of allowing others to define your story or brand through review sites and social media, why not change the conversation to focus on what you want the world to be talking about? If you had a website that you optimized to show up in the search results, then I would have seen your side of the story and not just what someone said on a third party website like Yelp. We all “Google” people for whatever reasons and one reason might be that you are an employer, which brings me to the next point as to why you need a website and that is to control your story.

Perhaps you are in your final year of university or maybe it’s time to take that next step in your career and you start applying to graduate schools or to potential new employers. How do you plan to get there and wouldn’t you want to influence your chances of landing that dream job or graduate program at the top school of your choice? You have probably figured out where I am going with this by now and that is that people/customers/employers will research you online and what they find will either have positive or negative consequences for you. Let’s say none of your competitors or anyone has posted anything negative about you and that you have no online foot print… what then is that saying? Having a background in research, it would say one of three things to me; (i.) either you don’t exist, (ii.) you don’t know how to use the internet or you really hate the internet and (iii.) you have cleaned house and are hiding something. Either way, these conclusions are not in your favor and more the reason as to why you need a website from a professional standpoint.

With a website you can tell the world who you are and what you are all about. You are able to help shape the story people find when they research you and that alone is enough reason as to why you need a website. Besides being able to shape, manage and/or control your public image online to potential new customers or employers, you also have the ability to monetize your website’s content. Whether you do it with: Google AdSense, various affiliate programs (we have a great one that you should check out), sponsored post or you simply wanted to learn how to start a blog, your website has the potential to make you money. So, why let other people tell your story and third party sites like Yelp or Facebook make money off it, when you can? In my professional opinion, this reason enough as to why you need a website.