Having a professional website has always been important for businesses, yet it’s become almost non-negotiable for all types of companies and startups. The modern way of life means it’s simply not a good idea to run a business without first establishing an online presence - and a website should form the core part of this.
But why do some small businesses still operate without a website despite knowing that they’re important?
High Upfront Costs & Maintenance
By far and away the biggest reason some small businesses still plough on without a website is that they expect it to cost too much. People have heard stories of website projects costing tens of thousands of pounds - and that’s not including the ongoing maintenance fees. For a small startup without much working capital, the belief is that this doesn’t make much financial sense.
In reality, they’re focused on specific instances rather than the entire reality of how much a website costs. As demonstrated by the pay monthly websites by Webtik, businesses can purchase professional sites for a set monthly fee instead of spending lots of money in one go. It makes the idea of a website more cost-efficient, so the perception of them costing a fortune upfront doesn’t really exist anymore.
Relying On Repeat Customers & Word-Of-Mouth
Many small businesses have always relied on the fact that most of their business comes through either existing relationships, customer referrals or recommendations through word-of-mouth. They have built up a reliable customer base that continuously provides them with work without the need for investing in a website or other digital marketing.
It's easy to understand that if a business has consistent income from these recommendations, they’re less incentivised to want to build and maintain a website. However, this can really limit the opportunities for growth long term by being unable to reach new customers and leave the business vulnerable if the existing customer base no longer requires the business's services.
Lack Of Confidence & Knowledge
A lot of business owners won’t have the technical know-how needed to build, run and update a website. Even using simpler website-building platforms can feel overwhelming if you don’t really know what to do or where to start. It means that a lot of owners don't think it's worth the time or effort and will just be put off even longer from starting a website.
There are a lot of other concerns that come with running a website, like maintaining security, updating software and dealing with technical issues, with the responsibility falling on the business owner's shoulders if anything were to go wrong. Understandably, someone lacking technical knowledge and confidence doesn’t want the added burden of running a website.
The Belief A Website Is Irrelevant
Some businesses may feel that having a website isn’t necessary for their industry. This can be the case for certain companies that operate through trade networks, personal relationships or by just having a physical store. A lot of smaller restaurants or cafes, for example, may just rely on their store's presentation or maybe, at a push, a profile page on Google for people to find them. A lot of businesses believe that their store and/or recommendations provide more than enough visibility for their brand.
The problem with this mindset is that these businesses will be dramatically limiting their potential reach to new customers. A lot of people will search for businesses to see examples of their work before committing to any sort of purchase, and that doesn’t just apply to online only products and services. Any business, no matter the industry, can benefit from a website.
Reliance On Social Media Platforms
Creating business pages on different social media platforms is often a lot simpler than building a website, whilst also often being free. Some businesses go further and sell through marketplaces instead of their own site for the same reasons and can sell their own products without needing their own ecommerce platform to sell things on.
The major downside to these simplified marketing and selling tools is that businesses lose a lot of control over their branding, as well as having very little access to data about their customers. How likely a business is to be seen by new people is completely out of the business's hands and totally on social media algorithms used to push pages. It can end up being totally reliant and dependent on the platform functionality and policies, whilst there is always the possibility of losing control of the page if something were to go wrong, like being locked out of your account.
With a website, you’d be in complete control with no risk of losing your page and customer base and with complete and total creative freedom.
Too Busy To Prioritise Building A Website
Being a business owner is already a busy job. You have to balance multiple responsibilities like managing customer relations, handling finances, admin, marketing; the list goes on. Adding building, running and maintaining a website to that endless list can feel impossible, so it's understandable why some people choose not to create one.
A lot of businesses, especially smaller ones, don’t have a large amount of staff, let alone a dedicated marketing or IT department, making new tasks a lot more impactful to the business. Each new thing a business does has to be carefully considered and prioritised so it doesn’t negatively impact the business's productivity. So, even if owners understand the potential benefits of having a website, it gets pushed further down the list of priorities.
Even though a lot of businesses do continue to operate successfully without a website, with new ways customers interact with companies, they may not be able to grow and thrive. Whether it's down to the perceived cost, the time and effort it takes, or just a feeling it's unnecessary for them, what is now becoming undeniable is that without a site, they are missing out on valuable opportunities from establishing a solid online presence.
