One of the biggest fears of the owners of small start-ups is not the fear of loss, it’s the fear of not being able to reach the proper audience/customers and prosper in their business. To overcome it, they begin to channelize and advertise through smaller mediums like pamphlets or posters. But in most of the cases, the news is spread via word of mouth. Their customers or potential customers are either their friends, relatives or friends of relatives. After which, their growth and expansion becomes stagnant.

However, if they promote it online through a good web designing portal, they can gain huge profits even when they are sleeping. It’s like somebody working day-in and day-out to promote your products and services and the best part is that you don’t even have to pay for it!

In India, small businesses contribute a huge 95% to the industrial units of the country. If we go by the statistics there are 5.77 crore small-medium enterprises or SMEs here. When we disseminate it, 1.96 crore SMEs are dedicated to the service sector, 1.73 crore are in manufacturing sector while 2.08 crore or 36% of the SMEs are dedicated to the trading sector. These small and medium enterprises take care of about 90% of employment in India and are the second largest employers in the field of Human Resource.

You will be surprised to know that more than 8% of India’s GDP is contributed by these small businesses in the employment sector and if the corporate sector is taken into account, the number is more than a whopping 45%. If small businesses stop contributing someday, then nearly 40% of the exports and 45% of the manufacturing outputs from India will get affected badly. It’ll be a great loss for the economy.

With these facts we see that small businesses are the nerves to India’s socio-economic development. In today’s world of internet revolution, a majority of consumers search online for local products and services. However, ironically, nearly 95% of the small businesses neither have any online presence nor have a website. This makes them invisible to a large number of potential customers. This is not all, half of the >5% of people who have a web presence, don’t even advertise online and the other half who do use it, out of that only 30% utilize it for e-commerce.

What most people are unaware of is that, even a single page on the web can do wonders for your small business. So imagine what will happen if you have a full fledged website!!

It has been seen that the SMEs that have a website, gain trust of their customers much faster than the ones who don’t. A website provides credibility to your business and helps in building a long term association with the clients. With a website, you do not have to go door-to-door to inform people about your products and services rather they will reach you through your official domain. The popular your online presence gets, the more popular your business will become!

If we talk about the domain names, anyone can buy any xyz.com by paying hefty charges for the name registration, maintenance and what not. And most of the people wish to see their names in their website links. But what’s the use of it when 100s and 1000 others have the same name as yours? Specifically, in India where the probability of common names is very much high.
On the other hand, if your name/business keywords come up with the name of the city, the search will be more specific. You website name will represent you more clearly. And if you are lucky, you will be the first one to book that name of yours or your product/service/store from your entire city! Isn’t that great?

Let’s take some examples too.

When you search for something on Google, or any other search engine, you will type something like, “Pizza in Lajpat Nagar” and not just “Pizza” in order to have a specific result. Similarly, the results will be more particular if you type, “Pooja Sweet Shop in Delhi” instead of “Pooja Sweet Shop”. This is because; everybody is looking for the exact information on web these days. Nobody wants to read about all the pizza shops or sweet shops located all over the world! All they want to know is which facility/utility/service/product is closest to them!

So, why not give them the exact information that they are looking for, through your website name itself? Now think of it like this: You have a website like- www.delhionline.in/poojasweetshop or poojasweetshop.delhonline.in; how easier will it be for people to find you and your services!

Certainly, the name of the city in your website name is important in attracting targeted leads.
As far as the search engine optimization is concerned, if the name of the city is present along with the business keywords in your website link, you will automatically come on top of people’s search skipping all the xyz.coms! By the time all the dot-coms will manage to come in people’s search, you will already be the leader in that field. And yes, the sole owner of that website link for the rest of your life!

It is also seen that if the SMEs are web-enabled, the chances of higher revenue and profit making increases upto 50%. The average rise in customers is 7% higher than the ones who do not have a website. It is a great opportunity that you can now pick your personal favorite domain name and book it for unlimited time period for your city. And if you get the free plan upgraded after some time, the better and faster the results will be! So don’t wait much, Get Online with your domain now!

India Online Network’s Get Online service provides companies with a free website and Business directory listing in one go to provide them an excellent online presence. While the basic version of the service is available for free, the other paid versions are also available at very nominal and affordable charges. Small businesses from all over India can create their website on their own city domain – from more than 4000+ cities/towns. You can check the list here.