Do you actually need a website?

Most "do I need a website?" advice comes from people selling websites, so it all lands on yes. That's not useful. Here's the version we give friends, including the cases where we tell them to save their money.

Where customers check you now

Think about the last time you hired anyone: a plumber, a beautician, an accountant. You probably heard about them, then looked them up before committing. What did you check? Their website, their reviews, their Google listing, maybe their Instagram. If there was no website at all, that absence said something, even if you didn't consciously notice it.

That checking behaviour is the whole argument. People don't buy from a website; they use it to decide whether you're real. A Facebook page alone answers "do they exist?" but rarely answers "are they any good and how do I book?" And for the people who search Google instead of scrolling social media, it answers nothing at all.

What a website does that a Facebook page can't

• You own it. Social platforms are rented space. Accounts get restricted, reach gets throttled, and platforms change the rules overnight. A website is yours, with your name on the domain.
• It shows up in search. When someone types "electrician near me" or your business name, a website plus a Google Business Profile is what appears. A Facebook page ranks, but weakly, and only if people search the exact name.
• It works while you work. Your site answers the standard questions (price, area covered, how to book) at 10pm when you're asleep, without a single message from you.
• It makes you look established. Fair or not, customers use a proper website as a shorthand for a proper business. It's often the difference between an enquiry and a scroll-past.
• It ties everything together. One link in your Instagram bio, your Google listing, your van, your invoices. Everything points to one place that's yours.

When you can skip it

We'd rather lose a sale than talk someone into something they don't need. You can hold off on a website if most of these are true for you:

• You're fully booked for months from referrals and word of mouth, and you don't want to grow.
• You're still validating the idea, and you'd rather test it cheaply before committing to anything.
• Your customers come from one narrow channel you already dominate (say, one trade platform, or one recurring contract).
• You're weeks away from a pivot that would change the business entirely.

Missing from that list: "I have an Instagram page", "it's just me", "I'm too small", or "my industry doesn't use the internet". Those are the four reasons we hear most, and none of them hold up. Some of the smallest businesses get the most out of a website precisely because nobody else in their trade has sorted one out yet.

Five questions that settle it

1. Do people search for what you do?

   Type your service and your town into Google. If businesses like yours show up, your future customers are searching too. If nothing meaningful comes up at all, that's rarer than you'd think.

2. People check you out before buying

   Anything considered gets researched: a bathroom refit, a course of treatments, a bookkeeper. The absence of a website costs you these customers quietly; you never see the ones who looked, shrugged, and moved on.

3. You want more or better work

   A website won't fill a diary you don't want filled. But if you want busier, higher-value, or less awkward work (people who've already read your prices), it's the lever that does it.

4. You're tired of explaining the same things

   Prices, areas, what's included, how to book. Every one of those is a page on a website answering the question once, for everyone, forever.

5. Your whole pipeline lives on one platform

   If so, you don't have a marketing setup, you have a single point of failure. A website plus an email list is the backup that means a platform hiccup costs you a bad week, not the business.

What it should cost

Two numbers matter, and big providers are fond of blurring them.

The build (a proper five-page site with your words written, a contact form, and a mobile-friendly design) should be a one-off fee. For a small service business, somewhere in the low hundreds is fair right now; if you're being quoted four figures for a brochure site, you're paying for their office, not your outcome.

The keep-it-live costs (hosting, security, backups, updates) are a small monthly or yearly addition, and you'll need a domain name (typically £15 a year). If anyone quotes you a large monthly fee forever for a small site, ask what exactly it covers and what happens to your site if you stop paying. The honest answers are "hosting and support" and "you take the site with you." Anything vaguer than that, walk away.

Mistakes to avoid

• Paying for more website than you need. A five-page brochure site covers most service businesses; don't fund features you'll never use.
• Waiting for the "quiet season" to sort it. The best time is while enquiries are coming in, so you can see it working.
• Getting a site with no plan for Google. A website nobody finds is a brochure in a drawer. It needs a Google Business Profile and basic on-page setup from day one.
• Building it yourself "for now" and still being on it two years later. Your Sunday evenings are worth more than that.
• Not owning the result. Whatever you buy, make sure the site file and domain are yours and you can walk away with them.

In short

If customers search, compare, or check you out before buying, and nearly all of them do something of the sort, a website earns its keep, and it costs less than you've been telling yourself. If you're fully booked from referrals and happy that way, spend the money on a nice holiday instead.

If you're leaning yes, the numbers you should be expecting are in our honest guide to website costs in the UK, and once it's live the homepage copy is what does the heavy lifting. For the "keep it real" basics of what a website should do, Google's SEO starter guide is free and jargon-light.