3 Sad Excuses You Don’t Have A Real Website [And Why You Need One]

There are times where I am searching for a business, band, restaurant, whatever, and the top result is a Google+ Place page, or a Yelp page. Or worse, a Facebook page. No real website. This usually happens with smaller or new businesses.

Don’t get us wrong. Having a Facebook, Google+ Page, and Yelp pages are great, and will definitely help your search engine ranking. But you still need an official home on the web where your content lives.

What happens if Facebook shuts down tomorrow and you rely on them to host your web presence?

The web is also a fickle place. Remember back when MySpace was king? , MySpace quickly disappeared into irrelevance. You had to scramble to set up a new home online.

It’s 2015. The time when you didn’t need a real website passed well over a decade ago.

So why don’t you have a website yet? Here are some excuses that I’ve heard:

1. The cost is too high.

That’s a valid reason. Budget is usually one of the top concerns that all of our clients have when they come to us for a new project.

The thing is, you can have a great website at any budget. Whether you have the budget of a mega corporation like McDonald’s, or the budget of Terry McDonald, owner of Terry’s Cupcakes.

Starting with a premium website template (purchased from a site like Themeforest) is a great way to save money on design costs. After some customizations, content, and images you’re set with a brand new website.

Other options are to break your website project into phases. Start with a design refresh, then move onto other things you may need. Like new content, SEO, or even more advanced projects like a client login area or a CRM integration.

2. I don’t have time to maintain or update it.

You don’t need to spend more than a couple of hours a week on your website. Check your webmaster tools report for errors, write a blog post (Google rewards new content), and do any updates for plugins that you may have.

Spread the updates across your team and get everyone involved. Ask team members to write at least one blog a month and you’ll have a new blog a week on your site before you know it.

You can also set up a maintenance schedule or content schedule to check off every week or month which will help you stay on course.

3. I don’t know what I’m doing.

That’s what we’re here for. We’re experts at building quality websites. That’s why our clients come to us, just like why your clients go to you. We’re here for you to build you the best possible website, and show you how to use it in the process. We like to enable our clients to fully own their website.

This post originally appeared on LyntonWeb.