Published on October 16, 2024

Why Every Small Business Needs a Website: Key Benefits and Insights

Having a website is very important for small businesses, but many owners don’t see its value. Some think websites are only for big companies or too costly, but this is a mistake. A website helps attract customers, build trust, and collect useful information.

Without a website, businesses risk losing potential customers and rely too much on social media, which can change its rules at any time. While some might try to do digital marketing without a website, it often leads to wasted time and money.

In short, a website should be one of the first things a business invests in. It helps improve marketing efforts and leads to more success.

What is a Professional Business Website?

A professional website brings together many skills. It draws people in, keeps them interested, and encourages them to take action. A great website can work as a marketing tool, a way to communicate, share your knowledge, and build your brand.

Many people search online for a product or service before buying. Your website is one of the best ways to make a strong first impression on potential customers.

If your website looks outdated or poorly made, you’ll miss the chance to impress visitors. A well-designed, professional website allows your small business to appear just as professional as a big company.

In short, your business needs a website, and it’s easier than ever to get one. It’s a one-time marketing investment that keeps benefiting your business for as long as it operates.

If you want to make your business successful, having a website should be your top priority.

Many small businesses believe they don’t need a website for various reasons. While these reasons may seem appealing and make starting easier, there’s one big problem.

None of these reasons are really true. It might seem easier to skip steps or focus only on the parts you enjoy. However, poor planning and lack of proper marketing are major reasons why more than half of all businesses fail within the first five years.

Most business owners realize they need a website but often don’t know how to create one or struggle to begin for various reasons.

It’s a lot like branding. Business owners know branding is important, but they often make their own logo, forget to define a unique selling point (USP), and don’t see how valuable branding really is.

Why do business owners do this? Why do they overlook important things like having a website and branding? Most of the time, it’s because they lack the knowledge or experience to understand how and why these elements are essential for running a business.

We understand that getting a website is easier said than done. That’s why we’ll address each concern, explaining why it’s not as difficult as it seems and why not having one is even worse.

1. Why Small or New Businesses Still Need a Website

Many small business owners believe that websites are only for larger companies. The truth is, businesses of all sizes need a website. You are never too new or too small to have one.

Don’t Wait: Reasons to Build Your Website Now

First, all your potential customers are online, and most of your competitors have professional websites. If you want to compete and attract those customers, you need to get a website for your business early on.

Believing you can create a website later, once you’re more successful, is an outdated idea. Customers depend on your website and the information they find online to decide if they want to do business with you. If they can’t find this information, they’ll likely look elsewhere on the Internet and choose another business.

Keep in mind that putting things off rarely helps; it just delays what needs to be done. The best outcome is that your business does well but loses potential customers. The worst outcome is that your business fails when it could have done well with a website.

All Websites are Too Expensive

Most new business owners don’t understand how much a website should cost because it can be complicated. Many factors affect the price, such as how complex the project is and the skills of the website designers.

Some websites can cost over $100,000. Fortunately, if you have a small local business, your website will likely be much cheaper. Most small businesses can get a good-looking, professional website for a few thousand dollars. If you want something more elaborate, it might cost in the low tens of thousands.

If you’re getting quotes higher than that, you might need to check if you’re talking to the right website designers. You should also ensure that you’re not asking for a website that’s more complicated than what your business really needs.

Find a Website That Fits Your Budget

Most small businesses don’t need fancy websites with too many features. Think about what will actually help your business. If you have a tight budget, avoid asking for all the extra features. Keep it simple. Focus on a user-friendly experience and great design.

If that’s still too expensive, you could try making your own small business website. It’s free in terms of money, but think about what you could be doing with your time instead. If you get stuck, you might still need to hire an expert to help you finish your website.

At the very least, you can use a website builder to create your own business website. However, you’ll need to spend time learning how to use it and understand website best practices. These builders often have limitations, but they can be a good option if you really can’t afford to hire a professional.

There are options for every type of business to start digital marketing with a website. You just need to find a website that helps you reach your business goals. This means finding one that fits your needs for functionality, design, and budget.

2. Using Social Media as Your Only Platform?

One of the common mistakes some businesses make is trying to use social media accounts as a substitute for a website. Maybe a digital marketing expert told them a Facebook Page is all they need. This is a bad idea for several reasons.

Social Media Guidelines Can Change Anytime

One reason is that you’re dependent on the platforms you use. Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites can change their rules at any time, often in ways that seem random and unfair.

The truth is that all these platforms are for-profit businesses, just like your small business. They have a responsibility to their shareholders to maximize profits. This means they will likely make changes to their platforms to increase revenue, even if it hurts your business.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use these platforms for your business; you definitely should. However, you need to understand that unless you’re paying for ads, they have little incentive to make sure you get enough exposure.

Organic Reach Is Going Down

In January 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the platform had adjusted its algorithm. This change intentionally reduced the time people spent on Facebook by 50 million hours per day, which is a 5% decrease.

Their goal was to get people to spend more time engaging with content from friends. But if the total time on Facebook is going down while posts from friends are going up, it means people are using Facebook less overall, even though they might be interacting more with their friends’ posts.

It doesn’t mean there will be fewer ads. Instead, it means that content from brands and other publishers will reach fewer people for free. This makes it harder to connect with your followers without spending money on social media.

In the end, without a website, you’ll become more disconnected from your current and potential customers.

Social Media Sites Aren’t Always Reliable

On March 13, 2019, Facebook and Instagram experienced a major outage. If you had an important announcement during that time and no other way to reach your followers, you would be unable to communicate with them effectively.

Basically, you’d be out of luck. This is another reason why social media accounts aren’t a complete solution for digital marketing. You should aim to have different ways to reach potential customers that don’t depend only on one platform or company.

It’s not just about the platform crashing for a day or two. Think about using MySpace in the early 2000s. It seemed popular at the time, but it didn’t last. By 2014, The Guardian reported that the platform was losing hundreds of millions of dollars. Essentially, it was no longer relevant.

The same thing could happen to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or any other social media platform. It’s uncertain if or when it will happen, but as a business owner, you should keep this in mind.

Don’t rely too much on any one platform. Use social media to support your digital marketing efforts, including your website. If one platform goes down or shuts down, your business will be better prepared to survive.

You Don’t Have Full Access to Your Data

The issue is that you don’t own your data on social media. When someone follows you on a platform, you usually get very little specific information about them. This is due to privacy and security reasons, but it has a big downside for you as a business.

When you gain followers on Facebook or Instagram, you don’t have full access to them. You can see their names in limited ways, but you can’t export their information to use elsewhere.

For example, you can’t send all your followers an email about a new product you launched. You can’t even send them a group message on Facebook. Instead, you would need to create a promoted post and pay Facebook to make sure all your followers see it.

When you own your own website, you control the rules for how much information you collect. You can use tools like Google Analytics to gather basic data about your visitors. If you want to collect more information about them, you can do that too.

You can do this by adding web forms to your website to collect specific information. The form could be a “Contact Us” form, or you can offer something valuable in return. This might be a newsletter subscription or a more immediate reward, like a lead magnet.

You can’t usually do these things on a social media page. Even when it’s possible, you might not be able to do it the way you want or what’s best for your business. The only sure way to collect and own the data you want is through your own website.

It Limits Your Brand

It also weakens your brand and makes it too dependent on the social media platforms you use. If one of these platforms makes changes, it could negatively impact your brand. Or what if the unexpected happens and your favorite social media platform shuts down, like Vine did in 2017?

Think about strong brands like Apple, AT&T, or Coca-Cola. Consider who they are as brands. What is their brand voice, and how do they use it? They all use social media, but they use it to connect with people who are already on those platforms.

They use these platforms to expand their brand reach, which doesn’t rely on any specific platform. For example, if you visit Apple.com, they don’t even link to their social media accounts. Most other large brands place these links in the footer of their website.

Small businesses don’t have the same brand recognition as Fortune 500 companies, so you’ll need to approach things a bit differently. However, you should still follow their example to some degree. Build your own brand both online and offline, and then use social media to help grow that brand.

Your Hub Isn’t Truly Yours

Finally, if possible, you always want to be your own hub as a business. You should use most or all of your marketing efforts to direct people to that hub. In the physical world, this might mean getting people to visit your store. In digital marketing, it means driving people to your website.

If you rely on Facebook or Instagram as your hub, you have to direct people to your account on those platforms. This isn’t as effective, and you lose control. You’re restricted to what each platform allows you to do.

For example, Instagram doesn’t allow you to link to other websites in your posts. This isn’t helpful if you want to share an article from a local newspaper that features your business. You also have limited control over how they display your information, and, as mentioned earlier, this can change at any time.

3. Too Expensive for What You Get

The third big reason we hear from small business owners is that they think it’s not worth the cost. They don’t want to spend money on digital marketing, like getting a website. They know social media isn’t the best option, but they either accept the downsides or just avoid it altogether.

Why Websites and Digital Marketing Are a Smart Investment

In 2017, Deloitte released a study with Google about how businesses use digital marketing. They found that 38% of businesses believed digital marketing was “not effective for [their] business.” On the other hand, 38% thought it helped increase sales and revenue, while 31% said it improved brand awareness.

The study divided businesses into four groups: basic, intermediate, high, and advanced. These groups were based on how engaged the businesses were with digital marketing. The bottom 20% relied only on traditional marketing and didn’t have websites, while the top 20% used more advanced digital marketing techniques.

Deloitte found that being in the advanced group offered huge benefits compared to the basic group. The advanced businesses:

With these advantages, it’s clear that a website and other digital marketing are worth the investment. However, the Deloitte study also found that 80% of small businesses are not making the most of their digital marketing efforts, which hurts their success.

One of their key takeaways was that these businesses need to learn about digital opportunities. They called it the “vital first step.”

Having a website is the first important step to moving from the basic to the intermediate level. Once you take that step, it will become easier to adopt more advanced digital marketing strategies.

What to Do If You Think It’s Not Worth Investing

Some business owners may still believe it’s not a good idea. What do these owners do? They often avoid digital marketing completely or end up running campaigns that bring in very little or even negative return on investment (ROI).

Let’s explore the two options a business has if they are unwilling to get a website.

Just Skip All of Digital Marketing

This might sound like a bad idea, but it can often be the second-best option. While it may seem unusual, especially coming from a marketing agency, there’s truth to the saying, “If you’re going to do something, do it right.” A related idea could be that if you’re not going to do it right, then it’s better not to do it at all.

If you don’t have your own real website, it will be very hard to create successful digital marketing campaigns. Since you can’t control the entire experience for your potential customers, it will be tough to improve your efforts. It will only get harder as competition increases in every digital marketing area.

Instead of wasting time and money on incomplete and messy digital marketing efforts, it might be better to skip it altogether. Just do the bare minimum. If you don’t believe in digital marketing, why spend your time thinking about it?

Use a lead generation service in your industry. For example, if you’re a plumber, try HomeAdvisor. Real estate agents can use Zillow, and lawyers can use LegalZoom. Just search on Google for your industry plus “lead generation service.”

Will this be as effective as handling your own digital marketing? Probably not, but it will likely be better than randomly spending money on different digital marketing campaigns without a clear plan.

Marketing Online Without a Website

The other option is to invest in digital marketing efforts without having a website. A website is the foundation of digital marketing and should be the first step after creating your digital marketing strategy. Because of this, it’s not a good idea for many reasons.

There are ways to do digital marketing without a website. For example, you can use your social media profile as your hub or landing page. While we talked about why this is not a good idea, it is still an option.

You could also try to direct traffic to your physical store using digital ads on social media or by listing your address and phone number in ads across the internet.

However, the main issue with these alternative solutions is that they make everything else harder. You’ll be competing against businesses that have a solid digital marketing foundation, including a website. This means you’ll likely have to spend more and will always be at a disadvantage.

Why Some Business Owners Believe a Website Isn’t Necessary

Every business needs a website, and you should get one as soon as you can. Ideally, you should consider it when you create your initial business plan. If you’re unsure how to include your website in your plan, think about consulting a digital marketing expert. They can help ensure your website and digital marketing efforts get the attention they need.

No matter how you choose to move forward, keep in mind that having a website is essential for any business. Consider your website one of your first digital marketing costs. It should definitely be included in your small business marketing budget.

If you want to improve your digital marketing, starting with a website is a must. Having a website will boost the return on investment (ROI) of your future marketing efforts. Don’t rush the process; getting a website first is really important.

If you have another reason you believe having a website isn’t worth it, or if you have a story about how your business website made a significant impact, please share it in the comments! We’d love to hear your experiences and insights!