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Do I Need A Website? A Guide For Small Businesses
We explore how getting a high-quality custom website can help you as a small business owner to take your brand to the next level.
In a previous article, we described our entire web design process to give you an idea of what to expect if you decide to work with us on your next web project. In another article, we covered the essentials of getting a new website, in which we outlined the essential decisions you need to make when starting a new website.
In these and other articles we said that a website is not a be-all and end-all solution to a business’ problems. In fact, when a website is launched without proper planning or willingness to develop it, it usually produces little to no value to the business.
Website owners become hesitant to promote it, not knowing how to really make it work, so it ends up sitting on the sidelines, not doing much. Having gone through such a demotivating and frustrating experience or having heard stories of expensive websites not working out, some business owners shun the idea of having a website, and we can’t blame them.
As a web agency, we have heard it many times: “I don’t need a website”, followed by “I have a Facebook page, I do all my business there.”, or “people simply call me on the phone”. We get it. In fact, these are reasonable statements, especially when business is running smoothly.
Many small businesses successfully rely primarily on word of mouth for their marketing, use local, offline advertising, or focus on social media profiles to reach customers. These tools and strategies work to an extent, but they can’t provide the full benefits of a well-designed website.
In this article, we will explore how getting a high-quality custom website can help you as a small business owner to take your brand to the next level.
As an experienced brand and web agency, we have seen examples of and worked with a number of businesses that do well without a website. They are generally small, service-based and limited to specific geographic areas.
Here are some examples:
- Nail Technicians: Many nail techs rely heavily on Instagram or TikTok to showcase their work, attract clients, and manage bookings.
- Tattoo Artists: Tattoo artists often gain clients through social media platforms where they can display their portfolios, interact with clients, and handle inquiries.
- Barbers and Hair Stylists: Many barbers rely on social media, especially Instagram, to showcase their work and book appointments.
- Plumbers: Many plumbers rely on word-of-mouth recommendations and listings on local service directories like Yelp or HomeAdvisor.
- Electricians: Like plumbers, electricians can often be found through local directories, and many clients trust recommendations from friends and family.
- Freelance House Cleaners: Many house cleaners get repeat business from loyal clients and don’t need much more than a phone number or social media presence.
- Food Trucks: Food trucks can thrive on social media, where they announce their locations and menus.
- Local Handymen: Handyman services are often booked through personal referrals or apps like TaskRabbit.
- Street Vendors: Small local vendors that sell in person at markets or on the street can survive using foot traffic and social media to promote their offerings.
- Taxi Drivers or Ride-Sharing Services: Many independent drivers rely on Uber, Lyft, or local equivalents.
- Dog Walkers and Pet Sitters: Platforms like Rover and word of mouth are often the primary ways pet care professionals find clients.
- Local Tutors: Tutors often operate through personal networks or freelance sites.
As all these examples illustrate, it is entirely possible to run a business without a website, but as we will see in just a moment, this may not be the best strategy for long-term growth.
Even if you can survive without a website, having one offers key advantages that can help your business thrive, not just survive. It can give you the freedom to control what business information is shown and to whom, it can allow you to develop and establish your brand, it can grant your business a new level of credibility, make it more efficient and greatly expand your customer base.
Social media and third-party listing sites can be fantastic tools. We as an agency maintain a number of them for the benefits they provide, but they do, however, come with their own set of limitations and problems.
One of the main ones is that you’re subject to their design, algorithms, and advertising policies, which can negatively affect your business in a number of ways.First, you may never be able to make a listing page look exactly as you’d like. It will always look like any other business page on the platform. There will be very limited room for differentiation.
This will make it all the more difficult to convince customers to choose you instead of the thousands of other businesses in your category whose profiles look almost exactly like yours.
To stand out from the crowd, one of the things you will need is a strong brand. This will include a great recognizable logo that you can use in any format you wish, not just in the tiny box provided by the platform. This will also mean you will have your own brand colors and fonts that customers will begin to associate with great value, quality, dependability, and other positive attributes.
Perhaps you have already recognized the power of having your own brand by distributing business cards, brochures and other branded materials to your customers. A website will allow you to take your brand to a new level. Prospective customers who haven’t had the chance to meet you yet will be greeted by your digital presence and you will have the chance to make a great first impression.
Another issue with social media profiles and listings is the limited control you have over your business’ information displayed there. As they need to look after their own brand, these platforms limit what businesses can post on their profiles, what information they provide, if they can update it and how often, etc.
This can lead to many unforeseen problems down the line. In our experience, we have seen businesses struggle to update outdated information, delete old pictures or handle malicious reviews. In some cases, this is not only an issue of your brand being damaged, but an existential business risk.
Your business may, for example, fall victim to malicious reviews that can lead to your profile being shut down, shadow-banned or, at the very least, made so unattractive as to push potential customers away. Some platforms make it impossible to contest or delete customer reviews, even if they are malicious. Some platforms delete your profile without warning with no way to bring it back. If your business relies exclusively on such a profile to generate leads and sales, you may have to shut down.
Reviews aside, updating information on these platforms can be difficult or, in some cases, impossible. For example, some platforms may require every piece of information to be verified by a moderator or an algorithm. If, for any reason, the change is denied, you will be stuck with the old information.
We have seen businesses unable to move their listings to a new physical address and delete the old one, unable to change their phone number, unable to change their business name, etc. Needless to say, at the very least, this can lead to frustrated customers and lost business.
Another issue is the images you can upload to the platforms. Perhaps you want to upload high-resolution pictures of your new office, but the platform only supports smaller files. Perhaps you want to remove photos of your old shop but can’t because they were uploaded by a user, and the platform refuses to take them down.
There are many more such examples of platform policies and bugs damaging, or, in some cases, fatally hurting a business. To avoid them, you can create your own website where you will have complete freedom over your business’ information and will not be beholden to a social media profile or directory listing.
Another reason why you should consider getting a website even if you get by without one is that customers have grown to expect that every serious business should have one. We believe that this trend is only set to accelerate.
If a potential customer searches for your business online and doesn’t find a website, they might assume your business isn’t legitimate or as professional as competitors who do have websites. Having a well-designed site signals that you're a serious, credible business. On the flip-side, there is nothing more discouraging than seeing a competitor at the top of search results despite their lower service quality, simply because they have a professional website.
To build even more trust in potential customers, you can use your website to pool reviews from various platforms, effectively showcase previous work and display testimonials.
Having a website also allows you to reach potential customers that you wouldn’t have reached without one. Specifically, you can gain access to those customers that search for your services on the web.
This can be achieved through paid advertising or SEO (Search engine Optimization), a practice of optimizing your website to appear higher in search engine results. For example, if someone Googles "plumber near me" or "best electrician in town," a well-optimized website can help your business rank higher in those results, driving more traffic and potentially more customers to your door.
Once potential customers have discovered your site, you will be able to, among other things, collect their email addresses or phone numbers. This is invaluable for future marketing campaigns, promotions, or simply keeping your customers informed about new services or discounts.
On the flip-side, if you don’t help customers on the web discover you like this, a competitor in your market might capture their business, allowing them to reach scale, preventing you from growing, and ultimately driving you out of business.
A well-designed website may also be able to improve the quality of your service by making it faster, easier to use and more convenient. For example, you can integrate tools in your website that allow customers to book appointments with you.
In addition to making the appointment process significantly faster, more straightforward and convenient for customers, this can also save you countless hours of calls and avoid mistakes in scheduling, which should ultimately result in higher profits.
An automated scheduling system, to name just one example, can also help you scale your business to service more customers more frequently and in more geographical locations. Such tools can help you to more effectively manage a team to work for you.
Imagine, for instance, that you’re a real estate business that employs a number of realtors, each of whom is responsible for a particular location. You can set up a contact form on your website that collects information about the customer’s location and sends the inquiry to the relevant realtor. Imagine how much more efficient your business will become!
If we’ve managed to convince you that getting a custom website is a good idea, the next step is to ensure that your investment pays off. If you choose to work with us on your web project, we will consult you and guide you on how to make the most of it.
In short, in order to provide value to you and your clients, a website needs to be well designed with your customers in mind. It needs to answer all of their relevant questions in an engaging way. It needs to be easy to use and pleasant to navigate. It should make users want to spend more time on it.
You can use your website to educate potential customers about your products or services. If customers have unanswered questions, they may be too shy or unwilling to ask. In most cases, they never tell you, they will simply look for solutions elsewhere.
To address this, you can, among other things, answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) and write articles (or have them written for you). If they contain relevant, easily digestible information users enjoy reading, search engines like Google will notice it. Over time, they should recommend your website more and more to users with similar queries. This is a key component of SEO, as we discussed earlier in the article.
To keep users engaged and to keep them coming back for more, you need to update the content of your website regularly. This will show visitors that your business is alive, active and growing.
To turn your website into an effective tool for generating leads and sales, you should encourage visitors to engage with your business. For example, you can lead them to sign up for newsletters, make appointments, schedule free consultations, or use discount coupons. This is achieved by using Calls To Action (CTAs) such as “buy now!”, “read more”, “sign up today”, etc. They should be thoughtfully placed at key locations in your website to guide users to what you want them to do.
Above all else, you should be proud of your brand and website. You should promote them every chance you get. If you have doubts, address them as soon as possible. To make your web presence work, you should care for it, make efforts to develop it, constantly looking for ways to improve with the needs of your customers in mind.
If you do this, the results will come and the efforts will pay off.
As we have shown in this article, it is true that many businesses survive and run well without a website. They are usually small, service-based and tied to a particular geographical location.
Example of such businesses include plumbers, electricians, handymen, barbers, hair stylists and others. They typically rely on word of mouth, local and offline advertising, as well as social media profiles and directory listings.
While a website might not be needed for day-to-day operations, a well-designed one can be a powerful tool to help the business scale. It can do so, among other things, by allowing for a strong brand to be developed, by giving control to business owners over their information, by helping reach potential new customers and markets, by signaling professionalism, and, last but not least, by improving service quality and operational efficiency.
In order to achieve these goals, however, a website needs, among other things, to be well-designed with the customer in mind and to be regularly updated with engaging and relevant content.
If you want a beautiful new website that works, send us your brief!
Get in touch today!
