First of all and it’s probably obvious to say but I am a website designer, so I will indeed have some bias towards businesses having their own website! That isn’t to say that I think every business has to have a website straight out of the gate or even a full website where a landing page might suffice.
I’ve been designing and building websites for many years now (we are talking something like 11 years – gosh sometimes I feel old) and have worked with big and small businesses. Depending on needs sometimes a one page website can work wonders and other times it is a large website with many, many pages.
The three scenarios you likely fall under
- In the early stages of building a business it can be more important to focus on testing the idea before investing in a website. This is where using a marketplace like Etsy for example can be beneficial to test the popularity and you will likely be using other forms of marketing like social media or ads so you can see whether your idea has legs.
- Maybe you’ve been going awhile but not truly felt the need for a website, perhaps you have a physical location that gets footfall, a successful social media presence, run by word of mouth, visit markets and fairs, use a marketplace or directory website instead or have a facebook page. And if that is working for you, then great! So is that job done and you don’t need to even think about a website then? I’d argue not so quickly as I still think a web presence that you truly own is the ideal for the reasons I am about to go into.
- And the third reason, albeit less common is that you have a website and you are tempted to get rid of it! This could be because you hate using it on the admin side, you don’t get much traffic to it (and perhaps excel in another area) or it feels an expensive monthly cost.
What are the alternative options to having a website?
Let’s look at the options you might already be doing or thinking about and assessing how effective are they on their own and whether you would still benefit from a website in addition or instead.
Using a marketplace for product businesses and some services too
Depending on what you offer there are numerous niche and not so niche marketplaces that you could list your products on to sell. In fact sometimes you will see listings for custom and bespoke services/products too. The benefits are that for a small listing fee and/or sale fee you can easily list your product with minimal tech skills.
On a marketplace like Etsy there is a chance that you’ll show up high in the search results for someone looking for exactly what you offer. So in theory this approach can be done without the need for extra marketing.
Ideally if a marketplace is working for you, then I think you’d do well to have both and to focus on marketing to your own website (no competition being shown, data you own, get people on your newsletter etc) but also be on Etsy probably and optimise your listings to potentially get a slice of their audience.
I would also recommend that you have a strategy (that doesn’t breach the marketplace terms) for getting people that have purchased from you to engage with you elsewhere – a great idea would be including a card with a link to join you on social media or sign up for your newsletter.
A booking website for your industry – such as a listing and booking site for hairdressers
Similar to the above but typically for services like hair and beauty, wellbeing, exercise or gym passes these websites will allow someone to search for the service they require near to them. A huge benefit is expanding your reach to people who otherwise might not have come across your business. They also handle things like the scheduling of an appointment, taking payment and follow up emails to your clients.
I would probably caution about pointing existing clients back to that sort of website as they may be more likely to shop around, but having your own booking system that syncs with the website could work instead.
This options viability might depending on the type of clients you would like to get, are they likely to use a website like this or are they searching on google or would a marketing method reach them better.
What you gain in simplicity you lose in flexibility, there are typically minimal ways to add your own branding. And the main brand people might think of is the websites name – not yours when recommending to a friend.
Social media only
I need to start with the biggest caution I have on just using social media which in summary is your business is left at the whims of people like Zuck and Musk. And whatever they decide to do… whether that be a random rebrand (Twitter to X!?), favouring a certain content type, algorithm changes, closing your account or closing the platform.
A facebook page (or group)
I’ve typically seen this option used by local independent shop owners, beauticians, hair stylists, tradespeople, cafes and even some local restaurants in lieu of having a website. I would recommend sticking with the page option rather than a group, but I believe groups do get better reach – yet are less easy to access and see.
There is a huge con for using a facebook page which comes down to the whims of the social media owners again, where your page or group could be taken down or you locked out at any point. As mentioned too your posts might only get seen by a small number of your audience.
Landing pages (via your email marketing software or other solution)
Increasingly I have noticed that email marketing platforms are offering a way to create individual landing pages or even ‘sites’ through their services. The benefit to these are that it may be included in your package so cost effective and you can easily link it to email automation sequences.
The cons tend to be lack of customisation options beyond the basics of colour and maybe font choice, as well as limited layout options. It does tend to work best to create it as just a landing page if you are going to. You will also want to check whether they provide good analytics for you so you can see how well it is performing.
I’d suggest this is best as a temporary solution as a website will offer more flexibility for landing pages as well as a main website.
A physical location
I would say whether a physical location based business needs a website or not depends entirely on the business. If you get good footfall past your location, that leads to plenty of custom then you might question if the benefits of a website would be worth it. Using google my business might mean that you already show up when people search ‘X near me’ which can be really helpful, but again where do people go to then find out more?
I recently looked up a restaurant that my husband was driving past and found them on google maps, but they didn’t have a website where I could check if they did vegan options. They didn’t even link through to Facebook but once I found them on there because of the way most Facebook pages are it wasn’t really optimised for me to look up things like a menu!
For the most part having a website for a physical location business would be a benefit because a lot of people like to check websites before booking/working with a business. It can also be a great hub to include information such as opening times, or in the instance of something like a salon or yoga studio then the ability to book in will also be very good to include!
Markets and fairs
If the primary way people find out about your business is from doing fairs and markets, what you will need to assess is whether that is meeting your business goals or if an online shop could help to drive more business.
A common scenario might be that you go to these types of events and you also have an Etsy shop that you can send people who are interested but not ready to buy too, or perhaps point them to your social media. And if you aren’t doing one of them then I would recommend having some way to keep in touch with people you meet or are interested – a great way to do this would be by taking down their email to add to your email list.
Having a memorable domain name (probably your brand name) to point people to for more could also be very effective as they may look it up and then proceed to purchase from you.
Word of mouth
Word of mouth is a very powerful way of gaining new business/sales and can be highly effective there is no doubt about that! Again for the most part I would suspect you’d probably also have another method from the list above as a way for people to get in touch or purchase, but perhaps not if people just give out your email address!
Considerations that can help you to maximise the results of your website
- Before embarking on building your own website or hiring someone to create you one it’s important to consider the objectives for your website.
What are the ultimate goals, for an e-commerce website this will be purchasing, for a salon this would probably be booking an appointment, for a service provider this would likely be enquiring about working together. Think about what pages you might need on your website. Further to this, what specific actions do you want people to take from each page?
- Take the time to look at the opportunities that it could provide for you and how it can help to solve problems.
For example maybe adding in an FAQ page or sections to your website will cutdown on answering customer service questions. Using a booking form will reduce the need for staff to answer the phone in a salon. Ensuring that the ideal next steps (that help you meet your website objectives) are clear to take on a website.
- Whilst a website is good to have, you have to drive your own traffic to it through marketing.
Unless you spend a fair bit of time or money on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) then the chances are you need to tell people about your website for it to work for you. Aka marketing! The marketing methods you choose are up to you, but you do need to choose one or some or people won’t find your website.
Benefits of having your own website
- A website that meets your needs
- On brand appearance
- Own the data submitted
- Ability to expand and optimise too
- Competition elsewhere
- Grow your own email list
- An information hub
I believe having your own website to point people too, an email list and a marketing strategy that works for your business is the ideal.
You can then also consider the options on this list in addition or to be your main way for people to learn about your brand in the first place. But ultimately it’s important to have a website presence that you own and a way to contact your customers/clients/audience easily which is where the email marketing comes in.
Which website builder should be use?
If you are wondering whether to use something like WordPress or Squarespace or Shopify or Showit or Wix or ??? to build your website then check out my guide on website platforms.
I typically design and build websites with WordPress as it allows for so much flexibility and the ability for the website to be expanded upon. There are so many plugins for pretty much all possible scenarios. It’s also great for green website design because you can optimise it well and choose to use green hosting. Find out more about the benefits of a WordPress build here.
