Do I *really* need a website?
Hold your horses. There’s some important questions to ask first
We’ve built a lot of websites, and often, we have people coming to us that are looking for a website that simply don’t need one. But first, let us emphasise this:
You do need an online presence in 2019.
An online presence is not the same thing as a website. It’s your presence on social media, your listings on Google Maps, your presence on sites like Yelp. For lots of businesses, this will suffice: a website isn’t always necessary. But when 97% of consumers go online to find local businesses (Adaptive Marketing), not being online in some way is commercial suicide, plain and simple.
Before you decide whether or not you actually need a website, there’s three important questions you should ask yourself.
Do you already have an audience?
A website can’t build an audience by itself — certainly not very quickly. Websites need people to visit them. Even if your website has search engine optimisation (SEO) built into it and ranks well on Google, your new website and your new brand is a small fish in a very big pond. I read an article which put it very nicely:
A good website capitalises on an already established audience.
Perhaps you’d be better off starting to build your brand on websites like Facebook or Tumblr, and coming back to the website issue in a few months’ time when your audience is better established? The web designer will still be there. Remember that a website is not a silver bullet: you need to be able to convince people to visit it, and that has to go beyond appearing on Google.
💡 In a nutshell: it’s all about cross-promotion. You should promote your blog posts on Twitter, your Instagram posts on Facebook, your YouTube videos on your website. A website on its own will never do as well as it could as part of a wider approach.
⚠️ But! Ask yourself, could a website work well as part of a wider social media strategy? For lots of small businesses, the answer is often yes.
What are you selling?
Ultimately, you’re looking to reach as many potential customers as possible. Is there an already established platform that lets you reach these people more easily?
A good recent example was a client who came to us looking for a website for her hand-crafted gifts. But after talking to her about what she does and her goals, we ultimately decided she was better off going to Etsy to sell her products — it was a much better fit for her. She wanted to use her website to sell her products, but:
- she didn’t have an already established audience
- she only had a small selection of products to sell
Using an existing platform allowed her to reach a larger audience faster and for her, it was the better option. But unfortunately, this one is something only you can decide for yourself.
💡 In a nutshell: some types of business — like selling small hand-crafted goods — could do better on a platform that already exists to better compete, rather than going it alone.
⚠️ But! Remember that using a platform like Etsy limits you a lot more than your own website would. It’s down to you to decide how important being able to have a unique design and custom functionality is to you.
What do people need to know?
Who are you? Are you a freelancer with a portfolio to share? A restaurant that needs a place to share its menus with potential diners? Or are you a corner shop?
Sometimes, if there isn’t anything in particularly special that your customers would want or need to know, you’re better off with a simple listing on Google Maps or Yelp. Having a website is not an absolute necessity nowadays (despite what you might think) — would your business having a website actually add any value to it?
💡 In a nutshell: if there isn’t any particular information beyond your location and contact details you need to share, how much value would a website actually add?
Some final points to consider
As well as those three big questions, there are some other important points to keep in mind:
- Do it properly — or don’t do it at all. 75% of people have judged a business’ credibility based on its website design (Kineses Inc). If you aren’t going to commit to having a well-built, professional-looking website, a poor website could do more damage than none at all.
- Social media is shifting away from businesses. Facebook’s algorithm is changing to prioritise people over businesses in your News Feed — it’s something to bear in mind.
- You have ultimate control of a website. Other platforms can disappear. Your Facebook page is, at the end of the day, not actually yours. If Facebook, or Twitter, or any other social network want to remove your business’ profile, they can do so. Would you be ready to bounce back from that?
- Consider your audience. 30% of all consumers won’t consider working with a business without a website, and this number is a lot higher amongst younger age groups. Who is your target demographic?
At the end of the day, it’s only you that can decide whether or not a website is right for your business. But, if you decide you do want to get online, Pitch is here to help — we’ve made getting a professional website faster, easier and a lot less expensive. Get your free no-commitment quote at getpitch.co.uk.
