Do You Need A Website?

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of the same questions all to do with whether you need a website as an entrepreneur:

• Do you need a website for your business?
• In order to be successful and make a lot of money, do you need a website?
• Do you need a website to land paying clients?
• Does it have a negative effect if you don’t have a professionally done website (or a website at all)? 

This is a really important question to be asking because what I noticed is in some instances when this question was being asked, it came from a place of feeling pressure. Pressure to have that website and to do the things that everyone else is doing. It essentially came from a place of fear (what if I don’t have a website? What if I’m missing out on potential clients or income?). 

When you look at it simply, websites are incredible. There is so much power and value in having a well designed and strategically thought out website (from the design to the copy, photography, colours, vibe, mood, etc.). It makes your viewers go through the motions of deciding that they’re ready to make this type of investment and eventually deciding to work with you.

A website will be the online storefront for your business. It directs organic traffic into your website, your social media, or even your offers. It can solidify your business and give you that sense of being well established.

How people make purchasing decisions today

Let’s be honest—for the most part—everyone searches online before making an investment. 

They’re likely going to look for a website and a social media page. Specifically Instagram since it’s a platform everyone seems to use. They might even start digging deeper into reviews.

So having a website really does set you up for success because you have this storefront that people can go through to make an informed decision as to whether they want to work with you or not. 

It even hits different buyer types. There are those people that want all the details before making an investment. With a website, they will learn what you’re all about, what you value, etc. They will learn about your offers in a very detailed way: what’s included, what the timeline is, every single thing they’re getting once they hand over the money to you.

This is probably going to be the deciding factor for them when deciding to invest. 

So, we’ve established that I think websites are incredible. They definitely hold a lot of value and are great investments to make by hiring a designer/ developer to build this website for you. Unless you’re design inclined and go the DIY route. 

With that said, do you technically need a website? Is it going to make or break your business? Not necessarily.

Why you might not need a website for your business

This is where my answer starts to get a little bit deeper. Where it really matters who you are, what you’re trying to achieve, and how you’re trying to achieve those goals. What your strategy is going to be matters because at the end of the day the real answer may be that you don’t need one. 

You might want one and you might benefit from one. But there are a lot of things as a business owner that you could benefit from and that you could definitely want; however your basic needs can still be met without all those additional things.

A website is in fact one of those things that you might not need. Or at least not right now, depending on where you are in your business.

What you should ask yourself instead is:

• What do you actually want this website for?
• When you think you don’t need one, what are those “needs” or reasons?
• What do you actually want your community/ audience to do through your website? 

My personal experience with having a website

I’ve had a website since the very beginning of my business.

Did it help me? A little bit, sure.

Did it break my business or make me super successful overnight? No, definitely not.

Could it have? Maybe, if that was part of my strategy. If a website was how I wanted to grow my business.

However, now I’m in a different stage in my business. I’m at the stage where I’m looking at different avenues as I want to restructure the way that I run my business. So a website in this instance could become one of those crucial things that would help take my business to the next level.

What to consider when deciding if you should have a website

Some of the things you could be exploring when you’re trying to figure out what you want a website for is passive income. If you want to have a shop/ online store (somewhere to sell your templates, products, merchandise, whatever you might want to sell) then you might want to consider a website.

Of course, there are other alternatives. There are other platforms that can host and sell all those products for you. But if you want to have it under your control—under your umbrella—then a website is a good idea.

Something else that may come up when you’re trying to figure out why you want a website is your promotion cycles.

When do you launch? What offers do you launch? What does your product suite look like?

Having a website for evergreen programs or courses

An instance where you might consider having a website is if you have multiple offers that you’re not always promoting. In this situation what a website can do for you is host all of those different sales pages so that viewers can see everything that you have available. This way they can go ahead and invest in those offers even if you’re not actively launching or talking about them. 

There’s definitely a lot of potential if you run evergreen programs or you have offers that people can purchase at any time.

Now your audience has the ability to purchase because they’re not limited to the offers listed on the Instagram link in bio. Let’s be honest, we don’t want to overwhelm our audience with too many options when it comes to that link in bio section.

Scaling your business with a website

Something else that a website can be really powerful for is if you’re trying to scale your business further. When you’re really trying to embody that next level CEO that people look up to and are dying to work with, having a professionally designed website goes a long way. Branding can be so powerful when it comes to reaching the masses and making a much greater impact. 

A strategic website that brings in leads

There’s also the basic reason for a website which is traffic.

If you feel that part of your marketing strategy is going to be blogging, Pinterest, podcasting, or other long shelf-life/evergreen type of content, you’ll want to consider a website. This type of content lives very well on a website and can bring in immense amounts of traffic. That’s new leads to your site, your lead magnets, your subscribe button, and your purchase buttons.

It makes a difference between having to actively promote 24/7 and being able to just create to inspire and have people come to you.

Random perspectives on whether you need a website

But not everybody is ready to blog. Not everybody wants to be on Pinterest. Not everybody wants to podcast. And not everyone wants to have a million offers.

Some people are perfectly happy with having a product suit of one offer, and that’s ok, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that!

Feeling pressure to do certain things in your business because everyone else is doing it? Check out my post on breaking old habits and pursuing my dream life.

On the flip side, if you’re a designer you might want a website. You want to be able to showcase what you’re selling as that’s going to be a big convincing factor. I don’t mean you can’t sell web design packages without having a website (maybe I’ll share more on this later) but it’s definitely one of those things to consider. 

Making business decisions based on your unique set of circumstances

What I want to take away from this is: regardless of how you feel about certain things, certain products, certain strategies, certain things that you “have to do”…

Some things might be applicable to you. That’s what you probably need in order to succeed.

But not everybody is the same and that’s why it’s so important to look at individual situations as what they are (individual, unique, different) and make decisions based on that.

Whether it’s that you need a website, whether it’s that you should be on Pinterest, on Instagram, whether you should outsource… Literally every decision you should make as a business owner is unique to your unique circumstances.  

It’s important to first understand that as a business owner so that you can make better decisions that suit you.

But it’s also important for us to know as human beings that everybody’s story is different, everybody’s situation is different.

We can’t judge, we can’t enforce the, “Hey you need this/ everybody needs this” narrative. No, everyone is different.

A little endnote for you all with respect to messaging in marketing

When it comes to your own marketing, if you are speaking specifically to somebody (a specific target audience let’s say), you likely understand their needs on a deeper and more personal level.

You’re entitled to market yourself any way you want.

If people truly need your services, it’s ok to say they “need it” because you’ve done the research, you understand them intimately. You understand that whatever it is they you offer could be a necessity or maybe it’s a desire or want but you understand that relationship.

You choose to market yourself in a way that works for you and makes sense for your potential and your future clients. As long as you’re not being harmful or mean with your marketing, then you get to market yourself in whichever way you want. 

Technically, at the end of the day most people don’t need most things.

They don’t need a website, they don’t need coaching, they don’t need branding, they don’t need VA’s , they don’t need anything (depending on their circumstance).

So, self-audit your business and figure out what you need. If a website is the answer, go ahead and invest. It will have the potential to literally blow up your business in an incredibly positive way!

Listen to the entire episode on The Fiercely Visible CEO podcast.