Do I actually need a website?

An agency telling you that you need a website is like a barber telling you that you need a haircut. So here is the version where sometimes you do not.

The three jobs a website does

Everything else is detail.

1. Found: somebody searching for what you do finds you
2. Verified: somebody who has your name checks you are real and competent
3. Contacted: they can reach you without effort

If all three already happen reliably, you may not need one. If any is failing, a site is usually the cheapest fix available.

When you probably do not need one

You are at capacity and have been for years. If work comes entirely through recommendation and you are turning it away, a website solves a problem you do not have. Revisit when it goes quiet.

You are a sole trader with a strong Google Business Profile. For a lot of local trades, a well-kept Business Profile with real photos and genuine reviews does most of the job, free. We tell people this regularly.

You sell entirely through a marketplace. If Etsy, Amazon or eBay is the whole business, your effort belongs there first.

When you definitely do

People search for what you do and find somebody else. This is the expensive one, because you never see the enquiries you did not get.

You are being judged before you are met. Anything high-trust gets checked: legal, medical, financial, anything in someone’s home. A thin or absent web presence is a reason to pick the other firm.

You are only on social. Facebook and Instagram are rented. The reach changes, the rules change, and the account can be suspended with no appeal you will win. Fine as a channel. Dangerous as the only one.

You are explaining the same thing repeatedly. When you say the same twenty minutes on every call, that is a page. It will pay for itself in time alone.

The honest middle ground

Plenty of businesses need something, not everything. A single well-built page with what you do, proof, and how to reach you is a real option and costs a fraction of a full site. Nobody will offer it to you unprompted, so ask.

How to decide this week

Search for what you do plus your town, in a private window. Then search your business name.

If you cannot find yourself in the first, and the second shows nothing you control, you have your answer. If you are there and it looks decent, you may have better uses for the money, and we would rather tell you that now.

If you do want one, our prices are published, which is a short way of saying you can work out the answer without a sales call.