You don’t need a website

If you think you need one, you probably really need a web application.

You don’t need a website. At least not the one you probably think you do. Today there are really only web applications. (There are sites, too, sure, but you don’t need one, and you shouldn’t want one.) Applications exist to help people perform certain tasks. They are essentially functional. And that’s what’s helpful.

Businesses and organizations frequently spend lots of money and time in the wrong ways and on the wrong things. Instead, web agencies worth their salt should be focused on encouraging their clients to invest less in the right things, and in the right ways.

The great secret among agencies is that websites—think brochure pages, online bulletin boards, etc.—generate almost no meaningful traffic. Google has replaced that need. That doesn’t mean you don’t need to be present. Google has to index and read something. But the presentation doesn’t need to—and shouldn’t—stay the same.

Google, and social media, too, to some extent, have replaced the work your website used to do because, well, they do the work. A site that you probably paid dearly for might still look splashy, but it’s probably a security nightmare, and it probably isn’t helpfully functional.

The exception to this trend is e-commerce. People with products to sell have been selling on functional web applications for years. Like these companies, to ensure a good ROI, people and businesses need to begin asking seriously what they want their website to do. What task is it going to help their users to execute? Everyone is selling something and that means everyone who thinks they need a website really needs a web application.