Do I need a website for my business?

Short answer: For almost every UK business, yes. A website is the one place online that you own outright, where people can find you, check you are real, and get in touch. Social profiles and directory listings help, but they sit on land you rent, not land you own.

Why a website still matters

Most buying decisions now start with a search. Someone hears your name, or spots your van, and the first thing they do is look you up. If nothing comes back, or all they find is a half-finished social page, you look smaller and less established than you are.

A website answers the basic questions before anyone has to ask: what you do, where you work, what it costs, and how to reach you. It works at 11pm on a Sunday when you are asleep. It does not lose messages the way a busy inbox or a shared phone can. And it lets you show your actual work, in your own words, without a platform deciding who gets to see it.

There are a few businesses that genuinely do not need one, a fully booked sole trader who only takes referrals, for example. But even they usually find that a simple site cuts down on time-wasting enquiries, because people can read the details first.

What "a website" actually needs to be

You do not need something huge. A good small-business site is often four or five pages: a clear home page, a page on what you offer, some examples of your work, and a way to get in touch. That is enough to look credible and to convert visitors into enquiries.

What matters far more than size is that it loads fast, works on a phone, and makes the next step obvious. Plenty of expensive sites fail on those basics. If you want a sense of what a lean, effective site includes, our web design service page walks through it, and you can browse real examples of our work to see the standard.

The mistake we see most often is people either overbuilding, paying for pages nobody visits, or underbuilding, a single cramped page that answers nothing. A handful of focused pages beats both.

What it costs to get one

This is where a lot of people hesitate, usually because they have been quoted eye-watering figures or pushed onto a monthly plan that never ends.

We do it differently. A basic service website is a one-off £300. An online shop is £750. There are optional add-ons from £60 if you want extras like extra pages or booking, and hosting is free, forever, if you would rather we look after it. There is no subscription, and you own the site. You pay a 50% deposit to start and the rest on launch, and most sites go live in two to four weeks.

If you are weighing this up against a "free" social-only presence, it helps to read do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile, because the two do different jobs.

How to decide

Ask yourself three things. Do people look you up before they buy? Do you want enquiries to come in while you are working or asleep? Do you want a presence that a platform cannot switch off or bury? If the answer to any of those is yes, a website earns its keep quickly, usually from a single job it brings in.

The good news is you do not have to guess at cost. Answer a few questions and you will get a clear price in a couple of minutes, with no pushy follow-up.

Ready to see what yours would cost? Get a price now.