Do You Need a Website or a System? An Honest Answer

Someone has quoted you three thousand pounds for a new website. Before you spend it, work out whether the website is the problem.

Often it is not.

The test

Look at your last twenty customers and answer one question: how did each of them find you?

If most came from word of mouth, repeat business, or somebody ringing the number on your van, a new website will not change your revenue. It might make you feel better about the business, which is worth something, but it is not worth three thousand pounds.

If most found you by searching and then chose someone else, the website matters.

When you genuinely need a website

When people search for what you do and cannot find you. That is a real problem and it costs real money. Though be aware it is usually not a design problem, it is a being findable problem, which is different and cheaper.

When people find you and immediately leave. If the site loads slowly, looks abandoned, or does not say plainly what you do, you are losing people who were already interested.

When you need to be believed. Higher value work, professional services, anything where somebody is deciding whether to trust you with money. The site is doing a job there.

When you need a system instead

When enquiries arrive and go cold. If people are contacting you and you are answering on Tuesday, the site did its job. Everything after it is broken.

When the work is winning and the admin is drowning. New website will not touch this. It is the wrong end of the business.

When you are the bottleneck. Everything waits on you because everything lives in your head. That is a system problem and no amount of design fixes it.

When you already have enough leads. This is more common than people admit. Plenty of small businesses do not need more enquiries, they need to stop losing the ones they have.

The uncomfortable version

Most small businesses I speak to are pouring money into the top of the funnel while the bottom leaks.

They want more traffic to a site that converts badly, feeding enquiries they answer two days late, into a process that loses a third of them. Fixing the leak first costs less and returns more, and it is much less fun, which is why nobody sells it to you.

What I would do

Spend a fortnight measuring before spending anything.

Count where enquiries come from. Count how long you take to answer. Count how many go nowhere and why. Twenty minutes a week and a notebook.

At the end you will know which of the two you need, and you will not be guessing. Most people who do this find the answer surprises them.

If it turns out to be a findability problem, why your small business is invisible on Google covers the four usual causes. If it turns out to be a leak, how to stop losing enquiries that come in after hours is where the money is.

If you are being quoted for a website and want a second opinion on whether you need one, get in touch. I have talked people out of it before. Or see what I build.