With the advent of social media (almost 10 years ago now), websites have become a little bit of an afterthought – after making sure to keep your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media profiles updated. And without a doubt, this is great practice. But, websites are just as important in 2015 as they ever have been – if not more-so. Here are a few reasons why:

While having active social media accounts is an awesome online strategy for getting your business “out there”, having a great-looking and functional website behind it all really makes your brand stand out as being professional, “here to stay”, and not just interested in the latest fads and trends.

Your website is a place where information about your company lives – and can be quickly accessed by anyone looking to learn about who you are. Too often, business and brands rely on a single paragraph in an “about us” section on Facebook – leaving new customers scratching their heads about what exactly it is that you do. If all you have are Facebook status updates, new customers looking to learn about you will have to scroll through months of status updates just to get a feel for your company/brand. A well polished website is a much stronger way to leave a lasting impact in their minds – while directing them to your social media FROM your website is a great way to keep them engaged day to day.

This might be the most important reason of all. If a social media site decides to change up its business model, they could delete your content, or even remove your entire profile if they so choose – if you were seen as a competitor or as breaching their terms in some way. At the end of the day, they own the content on their website – just like you own the content on your own. So while generating Facebook likes, Instagram Followers, and Twitter Followers is great – it shouldn’t keep you from building your own user base through your website as well- via something like an email list or even allowing them to become members of your own website (WordPress has this capability built-in). This way, you can guarantee that your own brand won’t get wiped-out with the next change to Facebook’s algorithm or Instagram’s new privacy terms and conditions. I know many bands who built huge followings on MySpace (if you can remember back that far) – only to lose that following when the website died out. Had they been promoting their website alongside their social media the whole time, they wouldn’t have taken as hard of a hit when change came. And if there’s one thing we know to be true about the internet, it’s that it is constantly changing. Will Facebook die out soon? It’s unlikely, but having a strong website presence is a great way to ensure you remain captain of your online ship.

Again, none of these reasons should prevent you from using Social Media and posting often! Social Media is a really powerful tool to generate interest in your company/brand. But having a website to go along with it gives you something solid to link to from Social Media – and puts the control back into your hands – allowing you to craft content that fits YOU – rather than just content that fits a social media website. It’s your way of telling people that you’re in this thing for the long haul – not just another “here today, gone tomorrow” company.

There are a ton more reasons why having your own website is still important today – like e-commerce and being able to control your own online store. Do you have something to add? Let us know in the comments! We love reading your ideas.