Who needs a website?

I have encountered many individuals who ask the question that goes something like this:  “With all of the social networks out here now which I can use for free, who needs a website?”

This is a valid question and deserves a bit of careful attention.   Who are the people who actually need to have a website for either their business or for their personal brand?  From my experience of building websites for many business owners, those who truly need a website have a few things in common:

1) Those serious about their business

Where there is a will there is a way.   This saying applies to those who need a website.  Many small business owners launch into a new  business with great enthusiasm.  I have a encountered a few who have curbed their own enthusiasm when they discovered the need for a website because getting a website built “cost too much”.  This is understandable .  Sometimes the lists of wants for these business owners far exceed their ability to pay but this does not have to stop them from getting their own presence on the web.   What I recommend for potential clients with this problem is a “phase based” website build.  If they choose to build their website in phases they will eventually get what they desire.  Any business owner serious about their business will realize that having their own website will ensure that: the brand name & associated domain of their business is actually indexed by search engines, they are not depending on another platform (like social media) to display information about their business, they are an actual owner of their web presence.

2) Those desiring to be found on the internet and wanting domain authority.

Having your own website means having your own “Domain”.  I have compared this to renting a place of residence vs owning  a place of residence.  It is okay to rent your space for a while but when you want to begin to get more of a reputation on the internet and have more security and freedom to do what you want it is imperative that you actually own a website.  Owning your webspace is far superior and carries less risk.  When you do not own your webspace, you must abide by the rules of the person who you are renting or borrowing webspace from and sometimes these rules include you releasing all rights to actual intellectual property.

3) Those desiring the security of ownership.

Just to reiterate the above once more.  When you have your own website you actually “own” your content and that will enable you to enforce all of the rights and privileges of being an owner.  If somebody infringes on your property you have the right to actually protect that property.  The unsecure way is to keep your information only on 3rd party websites like Facebook. Twitter, LinkedIn  or an other variation of web spaces that you can use free of charge.  The liability in doing the aforementioned is that if their network goes down or gets hacked you have no power over what happens and you are helpless to a large degree,  When you own your own website you can back up your data and keep multiple copies.