Why NOT to Have a Website

For small business people and artists, maintaining a website, especially a traditional website, and especially a really slick one, is a big task to add to the to-do list. And even with a lot of initial effort and the regular content updates that make a site worthwhile, it's still not enough - in order to stay fresh and functional as things change, it'll need to be changed and redesigned from time to time. Most people have an easier time changing their signage and business cards than their website, and they end up wondering whether it's helping or hurting their goals.

For users who clearly don't need a custom site, I recommend blogging instead, because it serves most people's needs and doesn't cost them much. Web designers (like me) who previously had a hard time offering good value to small businesses are now finding ways to visibly re-brand Wordpress, Blogger and Tumblr accounts, making them more appealing to clients who don't like the idea of geeky logos appearing on their sites.

Most people, however, don't need to do any web publishing. They just need the equivalent of a business card and a sign - online. They need to communicate the basic format of what they're offering, whether it's great sandwitches or great dog photos, and how they can be contacted.

For people using the internet to find products and services, what matters most is being able to find the information they're looking for, and assess how fresh and accurate it is. They'll do a search, check whichever sources of information look promising, and then choose among them depending on which seems most accurate.

Let's examine a typical internet task:

1. Search for store name + city name
2. Scan the top results that look related, and open the official site, as well as a community business listing, in new tabs.
3. Since the business listing and the official site list different hours, get phone number off official site, as it's more likely to be accurate.
   At this point, having to make a phone call for information that should be available online may derail the task, especially if a competing business offers information with a recent date on the content.
4. The business has to deal with another extra phone call.

This is pretty typical on the internet. This business could improve their initial interaction with the customer in three ways:

1. Maintaining awareness of their own online presence, so they knew where their information would need to be updated, and take control over their third-party community listing, and
2. Indicating when the information was last changed, assuring web users that the information has been recently approved by management.
3. Providing a calendar of any closure dates - statutory and bank holidays for example.

Here are some advantages of using 3rd-party listings, social networking and media sharing sites instead of or in addition to an official website.

• Users trust and understand them already.
• It's easy to make it clear that the information is official and up-to-date.
• They're maintained by large companies with research & development budgets, so they can worry about keeping them up-to-date, on their dime.
• Even if their site is tacky, it only reflects on them, not your business.
• Listings sites index very well in search engines - usually better than private websites.
• They usually allow for user comments, which enhances credibility.
• They're well-supported because of their size, so if you need help with something, it's easy to find the answers.
• It's more reliable - less likely to go offline, get attacked, be accidentally blocked by Google, or suffer from traffic overload.
• Businesses benefit by being listed together, providing a context of competitive representation that attracts people's attention, just like stores benefit from themed districts in a city.
• It's much easier to prepare and present the content, because each listings or sharing site has a format that's easy to follow.
• Maintaining several different listings and accounts might seem like a repetitive hassle, but each of them serves a different kind of community in a way that suits them. Each site is an opportunity to present information in a way that maximizes that format and engages that audience.

Some online directories, such as online yellow pages, are open-ended, and some are specific to an industry or a niche, like TripAdvisor.

The real meat of engaging with one's online presence is researching these opportunities, and they're different for everyone and every business. With a little research, anyone can find out where they belong online - and then it's just a matter of keeping things up-to-date, responding to comments, and continuing the research as the landscape changes in reaction to their efforts.

So as usual, the message is, you don't need to spend a bunch of money or waste a bunch of time to look good and get things done on the 'net. It just takes a bit of patience, like everything else about doing business.

Even if you are maintaining profiles on 3rd-party sites, it's nice to have an official site to "anchor" and connect all the online profiles. And it's a good reason to develop an internet presence before creating a private website. But if it takes time away from responding to comments and keeping your profiles and listings fresh, and especially if it doesn't contain content that's not available elsewhere and couldn't be presented better elsewhere, then it's slowing things down.