I make my living building websites, so I am not writing this impartially and I will not pretend otherwise. Even so, I know cases where a website does not help a company and the money is better spent elsewhere. Here it is straight: which ones.
When you really do not need a website
You are fully booked and the work comes from referrals. If you have months of work ahead of you and you would turn new enquiries down anyway, a website will bring you nothing right now. Come back to it when you want to grow or to change the kind of work you take.
You sell to one large customer. If your company stands on two long-term contracts, a website is a business card, not a sales channel. A simple page with contact details is enough, and you do not need to spend €4,000 on it.
There is nobody to pick up the phone. A website that brings in enquiries nobody answers is worse than no website at all. The customer remembers that you did not get back to them.
You are looking for a miracle. A website is a tool, not a solution. If the company is not clear about what it sells and to whom, a website will not fix that. It will only write it in bigger letters.
When a website does make sense
People check you out before they call. Almost everyone does this now. If all they find is a directory listing from 2019, they mark you down.
You keep explaining the same thing. If you repeat in every meeting how the work goes and what is included in the price, the website explains it for you. You then talk to people who already know.
Your competitors look better than they work. That is uncomfortable, but it decides.
You want different work from the work you have. A website is the cheapest way to show that you do bigger and more demanding jobs too.
A website will not win the work for you. But it says up front what you otherwise explain again in every meeting.
What a website cannot do
I will not promise you how many enquiries it will bring. I have no influence over what the demand in your field looks like, what your prices are, or how fast you answer. Anyone who promises you that number is guessing.
What I can influence is the work I deliver. That the website is fast and understandable, that it looks good on a phone, and that nothing falls apart on it in two years.
Before you decide
Try to answer one question. If someone who had never heard of you landed on your website tomorrow, would they understand within ten seconds what you do and whether it is for them? If not, that is where the problem is, and it makes no difference whether you have a website or not.
