Do you actually need a website? Sometimes no.

Every article on this is written by someone who sells websites. Including this one, which you should factor in.

So let's start with when you shouldn't bother.

You probably don't need one if

You're booked solid and turning work away. A website generates demand you can't service. Fix capacity first — you'd just be buying yourself more calls to decline.

You're testing an idea. A social page and a phone number is enough to find out whether anybody wants it. Don't build infrastructure for a business that might not exist by spring.

Everything comes through one contract or one platform and you're content with that. Though read the next section before you settle on "content."

You almost certainly do if

People search for what you sell. Type your service and your town into Google. Something comes up. Right now that's a competitor.

Your buyers check you out first. Anything substantial — contracts, commercial work, health, professional advice — gets looked up before anyone phones. That search either reassures them or it doesn't, and you don't get to be in the room for it.

You want work beyond word of mouth. Referrals have a hard ceiling: the number of people your existing customers happen to know. Search doesn't have that ceiling.

You depend on one platform. If your whole presence lives on one social account, a suspension removes your reach overnight and the appeal is a form and a wait.

The cost nobody quotes

A website isn't a purchase, it's a small ongoing commitment. Build, then hosting, a domain, maintenance.

Businesses that ignore the second half end up with a site that quietly breaks. The classic is a contact form that stopped delivering — nothing announces it, you just get fewer enquiries and assume things are slow.

Can't fund the ongoing part? Build something smaller. A maintained three-page site beats an abandoned twenty-page one every time.

The version worth starting with

Smallest thing that does three jobs: says what you do and where, proves you're real, makes contact effortless.

That's a handful of pages. Quick to build, fraction of the cost, and it can grow. Most businesses that regret their website over-built at the start and never finished writing the content, and then the whole thing sat half-done for two years.

The test

Somebody hears your name tonight and looks you up. What do they find?

If the honest answer is nothing, or something four years out of date, that's your gap — and it's usually cheaper to close than you're expecting.