Answered: the excuses for not having a website
Sifting through my Feedly last week, I stumbled across an interesting infographic on Six Revisions by Patrick Antinozzi entitled The Excuses for Not Having a Website.
I thought about each one of the excuses presented by small businesses and the answers suggested, which are all skewed towards the United States (even though the author is based in Toronto, Canada).
For every problem, there is a solution.
Each one of these is an excuse I’ve heard before, even recently (within the past 12 months), believe it or not.
Let’s take a look in a bit more detail at them from a UK perspective.
Bear in mind that as of September 2015, exactly one year ago, a major study conducted by Nominet revealed that some 60% of the UK’s smallest businesses, almost one fifth of Britain’s small business population, currently lack their own website. Many of these are tradespeople, who can pick up an average of 21 additional jobs a year if they have a website.
Excuses for not having a website
1. I don’t need one
Look, you need a website. No question. Your customers use the Internet, don’t they?
If you want to do business today, you need a website. You need to be found by your prospective clients and customers in searches. You need to show up in local searches especially (more on that later). You can’t and won’t be found on a Google search if you don’t have a website.
According to the latest figures published by the Office for National Statistics:
- 87.9% of adults in the UK (45.9 million) had recently (in the last 3 months) used the Internet, compared with 86.2% in 2015.
- Almost all adults aged 16 to 24 years were recent internet users (99.2%), in contrast with 38.7% of adults aged 75 years and over.
- 89.4% of men (22.8 million) and 86.4% of women (23.1 million) were recent internet users, up from 87.9% and 84.6% in 2015.
2. My industry isn’t online
Didn’t I just say your customers use the Internet? As the author of the infographic states, 61% of Internet users research products online.
Don’t assume that just because competitors aren’t online, your target audience isn’t either.
3. I don’t have the money
There are plenty of inexpensive options available. Plus you shouldn’t look at your website as a cost.
Look at your website as an investment instead. It’s there to bring in leads for your business. It’s not doing that if it doesn’t exist in the first place and if you don’t invest in it properly.
4. I have enough customers
Don’t be ridiculous! If you have enough customers, I want a slice of your business! Seriously, if you have “enough” or “too many” customers, that simply means your business hasn’t been able to scale to cope with the growth that is happening.
If you are serious about growing your business, are you showing up in search results?
- 50% of all mobile searches are conducted in hopes of finding local results.
- Customers are searching for you and won’t find you without a web presence.
5. I use social media instead
Excellent, but remember, that’s only part of the story.
You don’t own the platform, so if something goes bang, you’re sunk. (That’s always the main reason for having your own website, which you have full control of.) Having your own website is like owning a car. There are less expensive or free alternatives, which are like taking public transport. If the public transport network goes on strike or breaks down, you’re stuck.
- If you haven’t got your own site, are you only posting curated content (i.e. other people’s articles)?
- Why not direct them to your own content instead?
6. I don’t have time to maintain it
That’s a no-brainer. Outsource it.
- There are plenty of low cost outsourcing options to relieve you of the pressure of having to manage security, backups, software and content updates.
- Don’t let the upkeep of your site be a sticking point.
Summary
If, after all this, you’re still not convinced, maybe you won’t ever see the need for a website. If, however, you don’t yet have a website and you’re looking to get one for your small business, check out our 10 Step Website Planning Guide. It’ll help you create your plan and once you’re ready, get started.
Originally published at PENNInk Productions.
