Do small businesses really need a website?
Over 20% of small businesses are relying on their social media pages as a substitute for a traditional website. A realistic evaluation of why relying on social media is hurting your growth.
We get why it's tempting to forego the traditional website—they cost money, they can be difficult to maintain, and there's really no such thing as an "easy-to-use" website builder.
On the flip side, social media feels familiar and appears free. Your audience finds you, you get clients; what more would you really get from a website too?
The short answer: a lot. Relying on social media as a replacement for a website can fundamentally limit your businesses reach and growth.
Is social media enough for a small business?
Social media platforms make you pay to play.
Remember when you could actually scroll to the end of an Instagram feed, and your timeline only showed you posts from accounts you followed? These were the golden days of social media and building organic followings. In the past 12+ years, the rise of algorithm based feeds has created a monetization focus for social media platforms—and with it organic reach has plummeted.
Since 2012, organic reach across major platforms has decreased by 85% or more. As companies increased personalization features and focused on platform engagement they created a system that forces brands to pay money if they want their content seen.
To better illustrate the impact of this shift, take Instagram: with an average organic reach of 1.5% only 15 out of every 1,000 followers will ever see your content.
Your audience isn't your own
While it may feel like social media makes it easy to access your customers, this access can be fleeting.
With no way to contact or communicate with your audience outside of social media these relationships are entirely at the mercy of an ever-changing algorithm. You can get banned or locked out of accounts with no way to access your audience—and if people choose to leave the platform they loose access to you in return.
Having a website makes your business more trustworthy
Just the existence of a website can increase a consumer's trust in a business and their perception of a brand's credibility by 41%.
Interestingly, while behaviors and trends on social media are traditionally driven by younger demographics, they're also the most resistant to purchase from brands without a website. 72% of 18-24 year olds feel that a business looses credibility if it does not have a website.
Consumers tend to trust the information published on a website as being the most accurate, with 58% of users relying on websites to confirm information they saw on social media.
Why small businesses need to have a website
A website increases your business's visibility and reach
Relying on social media limits your audience to that platform's active user base, and further limits the actual reach of your content.
While growing your website traffic may feel less immediate than social media—it ultimately allows you to reach a far greater audience. A whopping 99% of consumers rely on the internet to discover local businesses. Having a website allows your business to appear in search results and be found.
Customers feel safer spending money on websites
While shopping integrations are widely integrated across social media platforms consumers average spend is almost 400% higher on websites as compared to purchases made through social media.
Websites help drive more purchases as well. 45% of consumers between the age of 18 and 44 have actually chosen not to visit or purchase from a business specifically because it lacked a website.
Why your business needs social media and a website
The bottom line is that while relying on social media as a replacement for a website will hurt your business, you shouldn't scrap your social accounts all together. This isn't a one or the other situation. Even with declining reach, social media is still a powerful tool for discovery; especially when leveraged as a paid advertising platform.
A website however gives your business, and business information, a permanent home—and a place to provide greater depth from which they can make a purchasing decision.
When combined, businesses with both a website and a presence on social media generate roughly twice the revenue of businesses relying solely on social channels.