You Probably Don’t Need a New Website

The internet is filled with bad advice. Including this article.

Most entrepreneurs are told on a daily basis by articles on their social/Google feeds that their website is actively losing them money unless they update it monthly, add a Facebook login button, a weekly blog post, and educational whiteboard videos.

Astute observers will notice that these articles are usually written by businesses that directly profit off of you updating your website, such as agencies and marketing companies.

How much of it is true? The answer is more nuanced than a blog post titled “10 Features You Need For Your Website in 2018” may imply. For most small business owners, your website is not the heart of your business, it’s a face for your business.

So how important is it you have a pretty face? Well that depends if you’re a model, or a construction worker.

In a Perfect World…

In a perfect world, every startup and small business would have a beautiful website, filled with dynamic images, engaging videos, and a thriving social media presence. But the world is not perfect and you don’t have unlimited time or money. Small business owners must spend their resources on initiatives that will make a significant difference in the growth or capacity of their business. Time-consuming, marginal improvements are for established organizations, not early stage companies still finding their footing.

A website isn’t important because it’s 2018 and you need a website. A website is important in relation to the job it performs for your business. If you run a technology company, or an e-commerce website, than having a slick, easy to use website will be crucial. If you recently took over your parents’ restaurant, or sell your own art at Farmer’s Markets, then maybe not.

Understanding Your Website’s Role In Your Business

So far, all I’ve done is cast doubt on whether or not you need a new website for your business, but just adding more indecisiveness to your life is not very helpful. Here are three steps for determining whether or not you really need a new, beautiful website, or if your time and money is better spent elsewhere:

Determine the north star for your business

What is the number one action you want your customers or potential customers to take? This might be booking a reservation, clicking purchase on Amazon, or signing a contract with your firm.

Our friends at Growth Hackers have some great literature on identifying and growing your North Star Metric, for those interested in diving a bit deeper.

Map out the customer discovery process

What are the steps in between a customer discovering you, and them taking the action described above?

Where do your customers usually first hear about you? What leads them to decide to pull the trigger and take the above action? What are the steps in between?

Understand how your website interacts with this process

Is your website at all a part of any of these steps? Does not having a website updated annually inhibit any of these steps in any way, shape, or form?

1. If yes, then it might be worth investing heavily into your web presence.
2. If no, then do not worry about your website. As long as it is not actively working against you (which is unlikely), then you’ll be fine. Spend your time optimizing and improving the channels customers and potential customers are actively engaging with on their journey.

If You Build It, They Won’t Necessarily Come

The 80/20 principle roughly states that 20% of your actions will lead to 80% of your gains. If you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur crunched for time and money, your goal is to identify as soon as possible which 20% of your energy will lead to that 80% increase in your North Star. For most businesses, spending 80% of their time or money on a new website will not lead to an 80% increase in sales, bookings, etc.

Here are a few hypothetical examples of businesses using the above framework to determine if they should invest resources into updating their website:

1. Online clothing store? — Yes, invest in your website. Your customers may discover you based on your Instagram channel, or seeing your t-shirts around town, but your website is critical to customers taking your one desired action: clicking ‘purchase’.
2. Accountant who relies heavily on word of mouth for customers? No, you do not need to invest heavily into your website. Have a simple website that inspires trust and makes it easy to contact you, but your online presence is not a critical part of your customer’s path to you. You do not need a blog, or whatever fancy 2018 website design trends exist. Potential customers are already relying on their friend’s opinion of you, they are just looking for a bit more context and then a way to get in touch. Take the money you would invest into a new website design, and instead reward existing customers for referrals.
3. Accountant who relies heavily on SEO for traffic? Yes. Unlike the above example, your customers are discovering you through Google searches, so you need to have a lean, easy to navigate website that streamlines the process between a user searching “Calgary accountant” and them clicking “submit” on your ‘Contact Us’ form.
4. Café in the heart of downtown? Unlikely. If your strongest marketing factor is your location, then the ROI on having a beautiful, modern website will be dismal. Most of your customers are likely choosing to do business with you because of your convenient location, or welcoming atmosphere. Invest in an Instagram presence to remind your fans you exist, and ensure your hours are easy to find when somebody Google’s your cafe, but otherwise, your website should be basic — if it exists at all.

Flying While Falling

Being an entrepreneur is like trying to build an airplane while falling from the sky — without an instruction manual. This would be hard enough, but it’s made exponentially worse by all the bad advice given by people motivated to improve their business instead of yours.

Coincidentally, every one of these articles is written by a company that sells website design packages

Advice is subjective, and is influenced by a variety of factors, including bias, experience, and expertise. Some people (particularly those whose business relies on dynamic, speedy websites) might find this article to be bad advice.

I don’t know your business’ unique situation, but neither does the author of the article “5 Ways You Will Go Out Of Business Unless You Have a $10,000 Website”. Follow the steps above and ask yourself if the large amount of time and energy needed to redesign your website will lead to a similarly large return. If still in doubt, find business owners in similar industries who have redesigned their website recently, and ask them about the impact it had on their business.

If you do need a new website, there are tons of great options out there (just Google “reasons you need a new website” and you’ll find them). But if you’re like most small business owners, the list of things needed to grow your business is long, and you have to choose carefully which you pursue, and which you don’t. Start with the levers that tangibly bring people closer to taking the actions that bring you and your customers value, and work back from there.