Now more than ever, having a web presence is important. As more and more people rely on google searching to alert them to new businesses and services in your local area.
As the economy improves in Ireland, more families are again moving to commuter towns. These families are new to the area and will use google to find what they are looking for. If you are not on the Internet then you are not in the search results.
As a returned emigrant to Ireland, new to a rural area I use the internet to find companies and services. So many local businesses have no web presence, so they are not even on my radar. Most local businesses rely on word of mouth for new custom, however in our web enabled age this is an out of date strategy.
Another expanding customer base is passing through trade. Imagine a family driving from Cork to Dublin, they want to find somewhere to stop en route for lunch. They pull up google on a smartphone and run a search. If your business has no web presence it will not appear, and so go overlooked by this family.
A simple website doesn’t cost a lot in terms of time or money, but can bring great gains in terms of a new customer base.
