Building a Winning Web Strategy for Your Business in 2025

Intro: [00:00:00] The internet opened to the public in April, 1993, and since then, it has revolutionized how we do business at Good Web Strategy podcast. We bring you stories of successful digital strategies, uncover the secrets to creating effective online presence and processes, and implementing strategies that drive your business growth holistically.

Welcome to the Good Web Strategy podcast, the podcast that dives into the art and science of building a thriving online business.

Sony: Hello, everyone. This is Sony. We work together at a firm where we help small and medium sized businesses come online, and build their businesses, and grow them. So Raj, before we step into the meat of the content, Raj, why is this podcast called Good Web Strategy? Do you want to shed some light on that?

Raj: Yes. When I started in, in an online space, started building websites for an organization I was working for, I didn't know how to develop a website. 2008-9, around the time, I went to a friend of mine and asked, "Hey, can we build a website for my organization? There is a lot of young people working in the organization. They want to get to know what's happening in our organization, and we want to put the content out so that they can attend our events and things like that." 

And he built a website. It was amazing. The organization was benefited by it. People can go and see what's happening, but it's not the same anymore. So, that you create a website- everyone can create a website. Those days, if you're able to have a website, it's a big deal. I think, social media at the time was just three years old, and if you post content, connect your website there, and have registrations there, it was just a big deal at that time.

Currently it’s totally different from how we used to do, and I hope that this podcast will help them understand what's happening. For me, the Internet is just a tool to help the business. It is not a magical place where once you create things, it just automatically happens. It takes the same amount of effort that you put in an offline business, to also make it successful online.

In fact, to be online, you need to be much more organized because offline, you can actually go with intuitions, you can go with changes very quickly because you have a brain that can adapt to situations. When you put your business online, it doesn't have its own brain. It is happening slowly in the AI age, but you need to think through all the processes. You need to think through how your presence is going to help the people you're trying to help. 

So, for me, a good web strategy is needed for every business, every [00:03:00] small and medium sized business. Most of the time they don't understand the times, and they don't understand how they can actually solve the problems they have by using these tools available to them.

So, with experts, that will be very helpful. Yeah.

Sony: Thank you. Thank you. It's interesting that you mentioned the word adaptability, especially in the previous portion, you were talking about how the Internet is just 30 years old, and it's changed a lot. What do you think, in whatever you have read up or heard in the recent days, where do you think the Internet is going in the next five years?

What are the predictions? What are experts saying?

Raj: Oh, definitely. So, let me start from the beginning, okay? The early Internet age, the creation of the World Wide Web. All you do is, you create a, let's say, a page. You put in information, you connect with other information available. It's very useful to them. They don't have to carry a lot of books, and papers, and print outs to read things.

They can just go to a computer and read stuff and understand what's happening. Slowly, people realized that this is much more useful in the way you can use the internet. Amazon started a website in '90s, right? 1995. They started selling books right after they understood how valued that's going to be.

And then the .com era, 1998 to 2000, Google was there. Music started to come online. You can listen to music online. In 2003 and 2010, it's a social media age, right? Web 2.0. They used to call it. YouTube started to come. You can watch videos online. The iPhone was launched. So, first, the screen is your computer, and you also get to have a second screen that is always in your pocket.

So, the mobile app used to be a big thing for businesses who want to reach out to people. And if you create an app, able to solve a problem for the people who are using the mobile, like Uber came in that era. So, during all this time, businesses used those technologies to solve a problem, and made it easy for people who are using it.

So, it is a tool. Internet is a tool. Web is a tool for small and medium sized businesses to grow and solve problems for the clients. Now, with the AI age, it's completely going to transform it, but the fundamental is going to be the same. So, the fundamental is- for any business to succeed, you're actually solving [00:06:00] a problem for someone.

Because you're solving a problem, and being helpful, they're willing to pay you for the services. Let's divide the sector into two categories, which is e-commerce- product categories, and then, service categories. I think the most affected one will be the service category. 

I think this, for the new data and the AI age, all the data that's been collected over the past 30 years, how people actually use the internet, it's going to be even more customized. If you go to Amazon, earlier, it used to be recommendations. I think, Amazon in the next two, one or two years, you would have, you can just ask, again, "This is the problem I'm facing. What are the things I need to solve this?" Right? 

So, let's say, you have a high electricity bill. It might suggest to you all the things needed to fix that. Right? They might even be able to integrate with a small business nearby to go and actually replace all the electricals for you. So, it can be more and more customized. For a service industry, let's say, a financial sector, earlier, you would have if you want to take a service, you go to the website. You can input information, or you can ask customers some information, and then, they would either email you back, they'd call you to fix your problem, or whatever problem you're facing. 

Now, when you input things, the system might be able to generate, "Okay, these are the things that will be helpful for you. Do you want to take any of the services?" To some extent, it's already there in the chat, but it is not powerful enough. People don't like some of the things that is being, the information that's presented to you. But I think it will be much more powerful, and much more useful because of AI, because it has its own learning models for people to help.

So, I think it's going to be very powerful for small and medium sized businesses if they start using those technologies now. They'll be in the forefront of what they're selling, and the services they're providing, and they would be able to capture a huge chunk of the market if they implement it well.

So, the AI age, it's not just going to [00:09:00] be AI, right? So, it needs to integrate with your business. AI is one of the tools that you can use. It doesn't, it can't provide services on its own. It might be able to one day, but we are not there yet. 

So, it's all about how you can have a good strategy, good web strategy, to make the new technologies that are currently being developed for your business, and use it right now and solve the problems that clients are facing.

Sony: The Amazon idea that you shared sounds very surreal. I mean, when you have a problem, you, maybe you call an electrician or a plumber, but then, this feels like a super, super helper where you're just defining your problem, and they're going to magically send whatever fix that you need.

So, yeah, definitely very interesting to see it in that perspective.

Raj: Yeah, I think, in India, at least, we have something called "urban company". So, you, earlier, 10 years ago, you need to go to the market, and stand and try to find people, electricians, right? Now, they come to your home, and they fix your things just by press of a button, right?

Like, you say, "I need the service," and imagine ‘urban company’ is connecting with Amazon, and they're able to solve the problem for the client. It's really much more personalized. I think the AI age will be more personalized service for the customers, and businesses that use those personalizations will be the ones that's going to explode. Right?

Sony: Indeed. Indeed. I think, we've spoken a lot about the 'web' part of good web strategy. What about the 'strategy' aspect of good web strategy?

Raj: I think, AI is just going to be a small part of what's going to happen in the future. I think the whole industry is going to change. I think 2020 to 2030 is going to be a much more defining years for next hundred years or so, the things that's going to happen in the next five years is going to define how the world is going to function. 

Whenever we talk about strategy, we are talking about what's happening in the world, and how we can adapt and solve the problems of the current world, right?

So, it's so interesting that the 1990s, beginning of the Internet Age, just before it, China transformed themself into production house. They are the [00:12:00] one who produced pretty much everything they could make changes in. They can invest in something and produce something in a much faster phase than any other country in the world, mostly because they are a communist country, and they are able to make changes to the population, and adapt and transform the way the cities are built, and factories are built. 

They are ready to produce, mass produce, to the world. And then, the Internet came, age came, and people took advantage of it. They really understood Internet can sell things. So, by early 2000s, or mid-2000s, they had a lot of financial incentives to start new things. They took a lot of loans, invested in China. They manufactured all the things. They shipped it back to the US, or the European countries, and made a lot of money. Right? 

So, that all happened, in the last 20, 30 years in a much more mass scale. So, the world was much more interconnected, and we were able to use the technology, and connect the world much better, and do services, products anywhere in the world. I remember the story, at least in India for us, 1994-95, GE wanted to outsource their processing checks for the US banks, right? They deposit in the bank on Monday. It comes to, so all the information is in the system, they process it over the night, and the next day when they come, they have cash in their account, right?

So, it used to take two days, and it became one day. So, all those evolutions happened all around the world using technology. Now, in this decade, everyone is very protective of their country, and also, the demography is changing. The Chinese population is much more older. I mean, Apple moved out of China, to a large part because there is no work, workers, right?

So, you can't produce like before, and everyone is moving back to their country. There's a huge incentive to produce in their own country instead of abroad. So, everything is becoming localized, and the export, to some extent, is affected. So, obviously, the way the technology is going to be used for [00:15:00] those markets are going to change a lot, how it is produced.

So, the way it is assembled, the way it is produced, the way it is sold is going to change for the product industry. So, obviously your online presence is going to change accordingly, right? So, you might be able to integrate your end to end much more locally. Let's say, people are ordering something, and then, you don't have to wait for a huge inventory to always be kept, and to be sent.

You can manufacture it and send it because it's much more local. So, all those things are happening in the next decade, or so. And then, so, the technology that will help those industries, the processes to help those industries are going to change, and with addition of AI and the data to train those AI models or machine learning models, is a complete breakdown of system and creating a new system in the way the world is going to function. 

So, the world is going to change, and the strategy for businesses is going to change because they need to adapt to the real world, right? So, your web strategy needs to change for the real world that's happening. Economy, demography, you know, the way they purchase things. The way that people take services, it's all going to change. 

So, depending upon what problem you're solving, you need to have a good web strategy to make that happen. I'm so excited about this year to bring in experts in various fields, and to just talk about how we can improve your business, and how you can actually go online, and be competitive, and win your customers, and grow exponentially. So, I'm excited. Yeah.

Sony: Yeah. That's what you can expect from the podcast. We're going to bring in experts, people who have done this before, people who are actively building their businesses online, we're going to bring them onto the podcast, let them share their insights, their ideas, and learn together.

That's what Good Web Strategy podcast is going to be. Yeah.

Raj: Looking forward to it.

Sony: Yeah, exactly. Excited! Excited, and looking forward to it.

Raj: Yes. It's going to be an exciting time, and also meet with others and see what they are coming up with, new ideas, new strategies, and learn from others as well. And I'm looking forward to share those [00:18:00] with anyone who listens to this podcast, and looking forward to talk to you all.

Thanks for listening. If you found this episode helpful, please subscribe, and share with a friend, and leave us a review. Don't forget to follow us on our social media channels, and we will be back soon with more episodes and content to help you thrive online.

See you soon guys.