Does my small business even need a website?

A website is a signalling device - it proves you're real first, then you get to prove you’re actually good.

Especially in the mindset of someone buying from a small service-based business, people are more risk-averse and will shop. What are they looking for? They want the business to be at the quality they expect, for the good price they want to pay but, more than anything, they want to be sure that you won’t mess them about.

Imagine you’re looking for a plaster to redo half of your house, as silly as it sounds, it’s an incredibly intimate service to look for - you’re working on the basis that you already have to move all your furniture, live in a mess for two weeks, hope the job works out well and you’re paying for it the whole time. Who are you going to trust in this case, the leaflet through your door of a local man with no online proof of his work who will charge you 20% less, or the established local company with photos and reviews who costs a bit more?

Even if you receive a leaflet for a service, most people will still give the business a quick Google. I can say for me personally, if I don’t see a website, I am immediately put off by their lack of transparency - and I know I’m not alone in that.

The hard-to-measure impact of how well your business could do with or without a real online presence comes down to the very first 20-second decision someone makes after they look you up and see nothing exists. Are you open for business? Are you real? Are you going to show me a single piece of evidence you can do what you say you can do? Before the rest of the pipeline comes up, where you can convince someone to trust you, you're already guiding them through the door by simply putting up a big sign saying here I am, I’m open for business, here’s some proof I’m good at what I do. It’s hard to measure how many people you might be losing walking through your door simply by not showing it to people.

Here's a great example of what you can expect from people without any presence online. They received a knock on the door, had a flyer, but something felt dodgy. But still, this person looked up their business and what do you know? No website. What could have been the moment they turned from distrustful to trusting became concerning enough to post about it in a local Facebook group, where others also said the lack of any information online was suspicious. Could all the problems with this businesses pitch have been solved with this? Possibly not, but I am certain if this person had done a Google search, saw a website with completed jobs, reviews, photos of their work, they would have been much better off. To many, a lack of a website screams unprofessional.

Here are some of the common lines of thinking people have that are all understandable, but could be causing more harm than good:

"We already get enough business through word of mouth."

It's worth wondering how many word-of-mouth recommendations might not write your business down, but look it up and find nothing. How many might look up another business nearby that has a site and go with them instead of you? How many sales might you be losing that you almost had, but lost?‍

"We're just a local business"

Local businesses may benefit from a website even more directly than others. You could be offering emergency plumbing on an hour's notice, building house extensions over a 6-month timeline, baking wedding cakes, signing people into a yoga studio or any number of physical or online businesses. There is no business where being accessible in a few taps of someone's fingers is not going to benefit you directly or indirectly.

"A website is too expensive"

I can understand that running a small business is not an area you want to take up another monthly or yearly cost on, lowering your take home. But the real cost to measure is the absence of not making an investment in a decent quality store front for your operation. Do you truly feel you are operating at your maximum capacity as things are, or do you have room for more work to come in? How much are you leaving on the table by not spending a bit of what’s already in your pocket?

"I already have social media"

Social media is a great tool to have, and one many (including myself) don’t utilise enough. However, the customisability and access of social media in many businesses is not great enough compared to a website. In this age of algorithms, Google will crawl the internet and show people searching for services what it thinks is best - you have a far higher chance of ranking with a website that contains information, images, reviews, blogs, portfolios and prices than you do an Instagram profile containing a short paragraph of text and a number of posts.

"We're too small to need a website"

This brings me back to the earlier question, as a small business, do you really feel you’ve hit the ceiling on your offer? More business could mean your time is more filled, or that your calendar is so booked you can increase your prices to match your demand. Small businesses without a website are leaving themselves behind to be outcompeted by the ones that do. It doesn’t even have to be fancy - but positioning yourself correctly to your audience and price point is something a good web designer will always do. Not every business needs to look like they charge premium prices, so when I design for a client I always keep in mind the real target audience and design for them.