Here's something I do that probably sounds a bit odd. I open Google Maps, search something like "hairdresser Portishead" or "plumber Clevedon", and scroll through the listings.
What I'm looking for is a particular kind of business. Forty reviews, four and a half stars, photos of actual work, clearly busy and clearly good. And then nothing at all in the website field. Just a phone number.
There are far more of them than you would guess. Most are running everything through a Facebook page.
So the obvious question, and the one I get asked when I mention this to people: do they actually need a website?
Sometimes no. I'll start there, because it's the part most web designers skip.
When a Facebook page is genuinely fine
If you're already at capacity and turning work away, a website will not help you. It might even annoy you by generating enquiries you have to decline. I've told people this and watched them visibly relax.
If your customers are almost entirely local, already know who you are, and find you by asking a neighbour, then Facebook is doing exactly what it needs to. A mobile dog groomer with a full book and a village that talks to itself does not need me.
And if you enjoy running the page, post regularly, and get messages through it, that's a working system. Don't let anyone talk you out of something that's working on the grounds that it looks a bit amateur.
I'd rather say all that up front than pretend every business on earth is one website away from doubling.
The bit that quietly costs you
Here's where it stops being fine, and it's very specific.
Go and look at your Google listing. Not your Facebook page, the Google one that shows up in Maps and on the right hand side when somebody searches your name. If you've got reviews on there, somebody is reading them.
Now think about what that person does next. They've just read fifteen people saying you're brilliant. They're about as close to booking as a customer ever gets. They want to know your prices, or whether you do the particular thing they need, or if you're open on a Saturday.
And there's nowhere for them to go.
Some of them will ring you. Plenty won't, because ringing a stranger to ask a price is an uncomfortable thing for a lot of people. They'll go back to the search results and click the next business along, the one with a website that answers the question.
You never find out that happened. That's the problem with it. There's no notification for the customer who didn't bother.
What a Facebook page can't do
It can't show up properly in Google. When someone searches "wedding photographer Cardiff", Facebook pages rarely make the first page. That's a lot of people looking for exactly what you sell, finding somebody else.
It can't be found by anyone who isn't on Facebook, and that's a lot more people than it used to be. Plenty have deleted it, plenty never signed up, and they're not going to make an account to find your opening hours.
It isn't yours. This is the one I'd worry about. Your page exists because Meta allows it to. Accounts get locked, hacked and suspended, usually with no warning, and appealing means shouting into a form. If it happens, everything you built on it goes too, and there is nobody to ring. A domain in your own name can't be taken off you like that.
You need less than you think
The reason people put this off is that "getting a website" sounds like a project. Weeks of work, a big invoice, decisions about fonts.
For most local businesses it's three pages.
One page saying what you do and who for. One with prices, or at least a rough guide so people stop having to ring and ask. One with your contact details, opening hours and where you are. That's genuinely it.
Everything else is optional. You can add a blog later, or never. You don't need a booking system unless bookings are a headache. You almost certainly don't need an online shop.
And crucially, you keep the Facebook page. This isn't one or the other. Facebook is where you show people you exist and post the day to day stuff. The website is where they go to check you're legitimate and find out what you charge. They do different jobs.
What it costs
I'll be straight about numbers because nobody else seems to be.
A small site like that from me is £499 with a care plan, or £799 if you'd rather pay once and own it outright. Hosting is £20 a month either way, which covers the server, the security certificate and your domain renewal. Care plans start at £49 a month if you want me looking after it, and there's a longer post on what maintenance actually costs if you want to understand that side properly.
You could also build it yourself on Squarespace or Wix for a few quid a month. That's a fair option and I'd rather you did that than nothing. It'll take you a weekend and it won't be as good, but a mediocre website that exists beats a brilliant one you never got round to.
The test
If you want a quick way to decide, do this.
Search your own business name on your phone, as if you were a customer who'd just been recommended you. Look at what comes up. Then ask yourself whether someone who'd never heard of you could work out, in about twenty seconds, what you do and roughly what it costs.
If they could, you're fine. Carry on.
If they couldn't, you're probably losing a couple of customers a month to a competitor who answered the question. Over a year that adds up to a lot more than £499.
If you're in Bristol, Cardiff or anywhere round Portishead and North Somerset and you want someone to look at it honestly, drop me a message. I'll tell you if I think you don't need one. It happens more often than you'd expect, and I'd rather be the person who said so.