#MarketingTipMonday No. 69

Does your small business need a website? 🤔

I’ve seen a few business gurus post a “hot take” on social media that having a website is a waste of time. Reasons include:

❌ They’ve grown their business through referrals.

❌ Websites take time and resource that could be spent elsewhere.

❌ They don’t have capacity to take on any more clients.

❌ Their website wouldn’t get much traffic anyhow.

❌ They make it easy to connect with them elsewhere (LinkedIn, etc).

 

And while those are all reasonable arguments against a website, these points only tell one side of the story. Point by point, here’s my counterargument of why every legitimate business needs a website:

✅ That’s great you’ve grown your business exclusively through referrals! Me too. But, you never know when you’ll need a new source of leads. You’ll want to have a website with strong domain authority and smart SEO strategies in place when the time comes.

✅ Websites can take a lot of time and resource — that’s true! You can have a reasonable website that isn’t expensive or hard to maintain. For some small businesses, particularly freelancers and solopreneurs, even a one page site with infrequent, but meaningful updates can do the trick.

✅ Again, you never know when your business will have capacity for more clients. SEO and Domain Authority take years to build. Don’t delay!

✅ For many small businesses, the goal of your website isn’t to have tons of traffic, but rather to legitimize your business, showcase your portfolio, and share case studies.

✅ Algorithms change. Social media profiles get restructured. The only places where you have total control over what your customers and prospects see are on your website and in their inbox. A website with an easy opt-in and a frequent, valuable subscriber email will get you further in the long run than being dependent on a fickle social platform will.

 

Not sure how a website fits into your small business marketing’s growth? Let’s chat. I’ll advice you for a sized-right site that’s appropriate to your business’ size, growth goals, and budget.