“Can I be Bothered?” Who Needs a Website?
Open up Chrome. Or Firefox. Or Internet Explorer. Or whatever browser you use. How many websites do you click through in a day? How about in a week, or a month? I checked my usage on the 9th of October 2020 just by counting through the pages in my history and before the day was half done I had visited 60 pages on my desktop using Firefox alone. This number doesn’t include what I have visited separately on chrome, it doesn’t include pages visited on my phone, either.
The average internet user spends nearly 7 hours online daily. That’s more than 100 days a year. In that time we visit vast arrays of websites. Social media, e-commerce, famous figures, online encyclopaedias, and search engines just to list a few types of websites and the content we explore. There were more than 1.8 billion websites online in 2019, and this number is growing hour by hour.
You may feel that, in an online world where your website is a tiny fish in a vast digital ocean with billions more, is it worth creating a website? If you’re serious about what you do, the answer is yes. At the time of writing this article Google had registered 4,358,505,570 searches so far that day. If you want success you will want to be appearing in at least some of these searches.
Twenty years ago, the average layperson could have just about found success without the internet. Take the time to think of some of the most prolific people in their fields of business; Diane Arbus, Frida Kahlo, Stephen King, Paul McCartney. These people were all famous long before home internet was fully conceptualised, so of course they succeeded without the internet. But we aren’t discussing the need for a website twenty years ago, we are discussing the need for a website now. Everyone is so deeply rooted into technology that It takes approximately 50 milliseconds for a user to form an opinion of your website. if you don’t have a website, then it’s unlikely people will form an opinion of you at all. If you can’t be found online, then you’re not making an impact. If you’re not making an impact, no one will be interested in what you do, whether it is something you’re a specialist in or something more general. The world is so saturated with options for music, reading, film, food, and many more things that if you don’t consider getting a website then you are unlikely to ever achieve real recognition for your work.
But, just because you have a website, it doesn’t mean you are destined for success. 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout are unattractive. If you don’t think to correctly lay out a website then you will likely end up in a similar position as those who don’t have websites at all. You also have to remember that 57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile, so if your site doesn’t have responsive web design features for mobile phones then you’ll be waving goodbye to a potential audience that could have stuck around. Even if your website looks amazing, people won’t turn up at random. Advertising is key to get there. In 2019 almost 40% of consumers will buy something a quarter of the time that they see an ad. That’s good news for those who are selling things on their websites, but even if you don’t sell anything according to a recent survey 49% of people click on text ads; 31% click on Shopping ads; and 16% click on video ads.
In this modern, technological world we live in, if you don’t have a website you will be committing commercial suicide. It’s not a case of preferences, it’s not a case of bias. People generally just won’t consider avenues that don’t appear on their radar. To get on the radar in the first place, you need a website. But a website that is left unattended will not garner you swaths of customers or loyal followers. Constant updating as well as advertising on relevant platforms are both key to keeping in favour with your desired audience. If you feel the hassle of doing this isn’t for you, then you probably should consider a different kind of career where you don’t need your own website. If you want to be a creative or a business owner then having a website is key to your success.
