Dear SMB website: So long and thanks for all the fish!
Dear SMB website,
You’ve had a good run.
Starting at the end of 90s, every mom and pop shop came on the web. You were the hot, exciting new thing.
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Ah, nostalgia.
Uncle Enzo has a pizza place, and his 14-year old nephew knows how to hack together a bit of HTML, puts a few delicious pics on, Enzo’s menu and the contact information.
You are born.
People can now find Enzo on Google. Nothing fancy, but it serves the purpose.
A year goes by, maybe two.
Enzo wishes to update you every now and then. His nephew does it for him a couple of times, but then grows tired of the annoying tweaking process. Enzo can feel it — and eventually stops bothering him…
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After a few years, you get some new clothes.
Enzo finds a freelancer to remodel you with the slickest new CMS. He can now even update the content himself. So good!
Yet, it still takes a lot of time though. Toooo much time.
Enzo needs to sit in front of his dusty old desktop computer; he does it once or twice and then… forgets about it, again.
You grow older, but still manage to bring in an occasional customer.
And then, just as you start to think nothing will ever change — that you will simply get refurbished every once in a while — the tidal wave begins to emerge.
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It’s called mobile.
Let’s take a look at what the rapid shift to mobile brings for you, dear SMB website:
- Google search directs more and more SMB related traffic from search to Google+ SMB listings.
- Global SMB directory products are becoming extremely slick, driven by the constant innovation of AAA product teams behind them (think Yelp, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare).
- Consumers are getting used to modern SMB directory UIs with up-to-date structured info in comparison to messy, outdated, static SMB websites.
- Even if Enzo has a pretty website, there is a friction for user not having the UX mental model built up (I’m personally starting to much rather open a FB page / Google+ listing — I already have the mental model of the information architecture built up).
- Limited screen real estate on mobile requires much more thoughtful information architecture. Ergo, AAA products push the quality bar so high up that even the best “owned” SMB websites start to feel extremely clunky in comparison.
- It’s actually not Enzo’s job to host the website, update it through a semi-crappy CMS, maintain the domain etc. Instead, what he really needs is a slick UI to monitor reviews, answer feedback, manage bookings and update the contact info.
- More and more solo SMBs are starting to be shifted to UBERized marketplaces or at least packaged in a vertical lead gen product (think Thumbtack, Zaarly, etc).
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In short: mobile brings UX to the next level and consumers’ expectations level up. You really can’t match the new entrants; fancy responsive design won’t save you.
(Oh, and don’t get me started with ideas about becoming an independent SMB mobile app. That’s just wrong.)
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So here is where I think the trends above lead you — 2 categories in the short term with the line between them blurring in the coming years:
- SEMI-INDEPENDENT SMB (restaurants, car repairs shops, dentists, etc): website + heavy SMB directory presence (Google+, Yelp, 4Sq, etc) + (optional) vertical lead gen system presence (Thumbtack, Zaarly, etc) + “CRMish” layer on top to manage both the website and the listings (think Signpost).
- UBERized SMB (moving services, cleaners, handymen, etc): No website + presence on one or more UBERized marketplaces.
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So, dear SMB website — You’ve had a great run.
But the party is now over.
