When you’re facing the costs of starting a business or enhancing your marketing efforts, it’s natural to look for places to trim. You start asking yourself questions about what you can do yourself and what you have to contract out. You consider which marketing vehicles can wait. “Do I really need a website?” you ask yourself.
And that depends … Do you want more business or less business?
Here’s the thing about having a website these days: It lends credibility. (Provided the site isn’t truly awful.)
When my husband and I were planning our wedding, we asked our venue for string quartet recommendations. They provided three. We eliminated one immediately because they didn’t have a website. To us, having a website (even if it only contained a couple pages) was the mark of a real company doing real work. It demonstrated professionalism.
Some people think they don’t need a website because all of their business comes through referral or a large percentage of their prospects aren’t likely online anyway. But let’s say you’re selling a service to seniors. Even if Grandpa Ed isn’t Web savvy, his daughter probably is. And she’ll want to be able to research you.
If you want to advance in search rankings, you’ll need a robust site that’s updated frequently, but for small businesses, this isn’t always possible with a small marketing budget. You can get by with a professionally designed website with well written content. But these days, it’s getting harder and harder to get by without a website at all.