Let’s start by answering the question. Yes, we think all SMEs should focus on website solutions from the get-go. Or, rather, should we say, anyone SMEs pay to do their website design should plan scalable website solutions. Read on to find out why.
What Website Scalability Means
Website scalability is the ability of a website to be extended in terms of traffic, content, user interactions, or all of the above without degrading its performance. Website performance is essential.
Collectively, a scalable website has more visitors without additional structure and meets new requirements, including new features, complicated functionality, or the implementation of new technologies like AI or e-commerce. Essentially, it’s always improving. Scalability means that as your business grows, the website can also grow with it.
This takes the form of optimising infrastructure, choosing appropriate scalable technologies, and implementing load balancing, caching, and/or database optimisation strategies.
Scalability Ensures Long-Term Business Growth
Every SME should have long-term business growth at the forefront of their mind.
A website that can’t cope with the needs of increased sitting traffic, more content, or greater functionality will quickly become a liability. A scalable website is created to withstand traffic surges and shift its purpose over time without compromising efficiency. For example, times of high traffic are quite predictable, like during a particular product launch or a festive season, and a scalable site will handle such situations without crashing or slowing customers’ experiences.
Note: Customers expect a website to load within 2 seconds.
It Saves Time and Money in the Long Run
Initially, it may seem that for SMEs, the most economical approach is to build a quick and simple website in the first few months.
The strategy of wanting to save money is, however, more expensive in the long term. When enterprises expand, their websites that were not designed with growth in mind have to be updated or even changed completely. This process induces downtimes, operational inefficiencies, and high costs associated with change or improvement of the current website.
Conversely, if a business makes up its mind about having a reliable, scalable web system from the beginning, it doesn’t necessarily have to update or strengthen its system later on- or at least, not as intensely. With a solid content management system (CMS) and dynamic architecture, SMEs can easily add functionalities, scale up traffic, and increase business activities. This added flexibility will maintain time and cost-effectiveness.
Enhances Customer Experience and Satisfaction
A website that is easy to scale should be about the customers. We know we’ve kept going on about money and time – but it’s the customers that’ll benefit.
Why? Any slight hold-up or obstruction to their browsing experience can and does result in a loss of sales and brand reputation. One study found that 60% of users abandon their shopping experience due to poor website user experience. When websites can’t cater to the maximum number of users or provide interactivity, the users will simply go somewhere else.
With scalability, SMEs can guarantee that their websites will always load swiftly and securely (unless there is an external issue like hosting), regardless of the number of users visiting the website.
A scalable internet platform will also allow people to use engagement tools like recommendation systems or personalised content – both are effective for conversion rates and long-term growth.
Scalability Future-Proofs Your Business
Times change, and with them, people’s tastes and the way they do business.
Those SMEs incorporating growth into their business plan are future-oriented and don’t risk being irrelevant. A scalable website can always make changes without drastically changing, by adapting to new requirements with features or other tools.
To illustrate this, since voice search or artificial intelligence (AI) applications are more commonplace, a scalable site can integrate these features with ease. Although we would say voice search isn’t as common for web design, we can almost guarantee it will be. Doesn’t it sound so much easier for your users to voice search for a product or service they’re searching for rather than using a standard navigation system?
The issues we think so many SMEs have is because they’re not future-proofing their business; they’re only focusing on the startup and initial process. And we get it: brands want to secure initial growth, but it’s not exactly the best way.
Scalability is not an opportunity; rather, it is part of website strategy. Always allow yourself the opportunity to grow and achieve more by investing in a scalable website in the first place.
Contact us to find out more.
