Alan Sugar didn’t start pointing the finger at terrified suited professionals overnight, and Richard Branson didn’t become the go-to name in everything from home media to air travel within his first week on the job.
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Freelancers, the unsung heroes of Britain’s business landscape and economy, are to be celebrated and recognised next week as part of National Freelancers Day.
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Did you know that in 2025, Britons were found to spend up to 8.8% of their annual income, which works out at approximately £64 per week. An analysis conducted by Public Desire found the average spend per year is £3,328. With more and more of us reaching to the geographically boundary-free world of the internet to do our shopping, read reviews, read the news, book flights, watch television, download music, chat to friends, conduct business, and the myriad of other tasks you can carry out conveniently and leisurely online, it stands to reason that every business needs a website, right? Not necessarily.
In the final part of this series, we will ask… Do you even need a website? It sounds controversial, but in our last article about consistency across the web, we listed a host of channels that any business seeking success is likely to need to set up and populate. That takes time – a lot more time than you think. So, before you rush to add your website to the to-do list, it’s good to take a moment and ask… Do you really need one?
It sounds shocking, doesn’t it? And depending on your industry, it might be a non-starter, but more and more often I’m sitting down with SME’s, who think their websites are doing well and bringing in new business, but when I look at the analytics, it tells a different story.
‘What? You mean they are not reading the lengthy pages of copy and images that I have painstakingly prepared? No, sorry.
Google is changing, and more and more information is being served to the searcher in the Google results page rather than requiring another click to a website. Try searching for trains from one city to another, and the results appear right there in front of you in the search results. Now try finding out the exchange rate for ‘$500’ – same results again.
So, for the business above, if they allow their contact details to be served in the search results, then do they even need a website? It’s this realisation that can save a business a lot of money (and time) – especially when starting up.
Maybe not having a web presence is too radical for you, and I can understand why you feel this way. However, if you’re planning on a new website or update to your existing website then take this opportunity to at least simplify your website requirements and consider that every page needs a purpose, this approach alone will save you time and money.
If you already have a site, then take a look at the analytics to help you figure out and learn more about how people are using your site.
Analytics is the data to shows how people are using your website. Google Analytics is a free tool – hopefully you know exactly what this is and you’re using it – if not, and you have a website, get it installed ASAP.
When you start to look at this data, you can learn so much. It can inform you about where your visitors are coming from:
Let’s concentrate on the first two in that list; organic is actually direct. Organic is usually the biggest driver of traffic; therefore, the business owner often thinks that their website is vital for them and is doing really well in search.
However, when we look into it further, the organic traffic that is coming to the site is mainly searching for the business name, which isn’t actually organic traffic as such, but direct traffic. We are changing the way we use browsers, and Google and co are playing a massive role in this. Just typing a name in the URL area causes a search. For example, I visit the BBC website probably every day and yet I still search on Google ‘BBC’. And I’m not alone in doing this, as the stats show.
If we take a closer look at the pages actually being viewed chances are you will fall into the category of most non-ecommerce websites where actually the pages being viewed are the homepage, the about us page (or pricing page) and then the contact us page, and that’s if your website is working for you.
This tells me, and the business owners, that all the visitor wants is to find out how to contact your business. More than that the the visitor is actually finding the website by searching the business name – hence the website isn’t actually attracting new customers, but just helping those who already know you.
If you go through the same process as above, don’t worry. Like the preferred end of any relationship, ‘it’s not you, it’s them’. Things have changed. Search is still changing. If you think about how you are using the web, you are probably changing too. Excluding buying a product online, when was the last time you spent any time on the website of a business you want something from – price, trust, contact, and you’re done!
It’s all very well saying if a website doesn’t appear on page one of Google it might not well exist, but if it is bursting with elements that make visitors leave in a hurry before they have even had a chance to digest what the site is all about, you may as well not have one, right?
There are plenty of reasons people hastily leave a website, such as being bombarded with highly annoying auto-sound that can drive us nuts, being faced with popups – the sooner we see them the sooner we leave -, slow load times, if it doesn’t load up almost instantly, the impatient digital generation are likely to look elsewhere! And finally, if a website is difficult to navigate, prioritises ads over content, is laden with typos and poorly written content, and is cluttered with cookies, ask yourself – if people are likely to leave it no sooner have they arrived, is it really worth the bother of having a website in the first place?
So, if at this point you still strongly believe that you need a website, then please at least take the following from reading this article:
I’m a digital marketing consultant and I’m yet to sort my own website out – a bit like a plumber with a leaky tap at home – however I don’t need more clients right now – but in the future I will and my website could be vital – I too will fall into the trap of over thinking it, over engineering it and I will most probably end up with something taking much longer and costing much more than what I actually needed.
I will make a note now to re-read this again when I come to the planning stage.
Thanks for listening, I hope you found this useful. If you missed any of my other blogs in this series, read them here…
One Voice: Consistency of your branding online
The Impact of Branding in Business: Colours and Symbols
Creating a brand within a budget: Professional doesn’t always mean expensive
Simon McCaskill is a digital marketing specialist and the man behind ‘Bear and Fly’. Simon also works for Google as part of their dedicated digital outreach team.
Digital marketing can be confusing and frustrating, and it shouldn’t be. Bear and Fly’s approach is all about working with you, the client, taking you step by step through the processes so you feel more comfortable with how you are marketing your business online.
There is no better, more appealing word for someone in a business venture – from a large organisation to a sole trader – than productivity. With employees spending just 45% of their working day on primary job duties, many issues plague the productivity of a business, and some are more avoidable than others.
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Rolling out of bed at 8.50am. Blearily making yourself a coffee and starting work at 9.00am still in your pyjamas! Sounds heavenly doesn’t it? But is the lure of homeworking as productive, convenient and appealing as it seems? Let us answer the question: Do I need office Space?
Read More about Why you need office space – when you thought you didn’t
This is a holistic guide for business owners to better balance business strategy with employee well-being and workspace organisation. This optimistic time of year when new life emerges and the sun finally begins to shine can be a great time, not only to spring clean your home, but to spring clean your business.
From trading dusty accounting books with a more sophisticated system to rearranging filing cabinets in a more coherent manner, now’s the time to organise your workspace and enhance employee happiness, well-being and motivation by implementing to following office spring cleaning tips.
Are your current marketing practices cost-effective? Are they bringing you the Return On Investment you are aspiring? Or perhaps you stand guilty of lamely neglecting marketing and need to start from scratch? Whatever your marketing qualms are, now is the time to rethink a more comprehensive, cost-effective and powerful marketing approach.
For example, do you currently have a content marketing regime in place? According to the Content Marketing Institute, nine out of 10 B-to-B marketers are actively engaged in content marketing, regardless of their type and size of business. Presenting engaging content and repurposing existing content across new platforms can be a cost-effective way to reach out to multiple-selling environments, such as websites, social media, press releases, and company brochures.
Battling on in the dark won’t heighten your brand’s identity – Get your message out there through valuable and engaging content.
It is not uncommon for small businesses to waste valuable time battling with accounting systems that are not capable of dealing with information and data efficiently.
With the new tax year around the corner, it could prove provident to update the business’s accounting processes. You might want to consider moving your accounts into the cloud. As Tech Radar advises, moving accounts away from traditional desktop software to cloud solutions can give small business owners greater flexibility to deal with invoices and keep on top of cash flow.
If you’ve not already got an adequate firewall in place to help protect company data and cloud servers, now might be a good time to install data protection software to ensure company data remains protected and out of the hands of cybercriminals.
A cluttered desk with paperwork scattered between half-drank coffee cups does not do your mental well-being at work any favours. In fact, one study shows that physical clutter negatively affects our ability to focus and process information.
By contrast, a clear and uncluttered desk creates feelings of calm, making us feel more driven and motivated to take on the tasks that lie ahead. One of the quickest and most effective ways to spring clean the office for workplace motivation is to simply declutter your desk.
Having a clean office, an orderly filing system and neat and tidy drawers and cupboards is likely to boost staff morale, not to mention your own sanity!
An office that’s airy and bright, with swathes of natural daylight filtering into the room, which boasts a contemporary design infused by stylish and comfortable furniture and fittings, a vibrant colour scheme and plenty of visual stimulation, will go a long way in augmenting employee motivation.
Alternatively, it might be easier to move into office space that already ticks the motivational-boosting checklist, that’s stylish, bright and airy with plenty of ‘third places’ and an open-plan design, which encourages collaboration and banter. If that’s the case, WorkWell’s serviced offices in Leeds and Harrogate
Some dads can be notoriously difficult to shop for – they either have everything they could possibly want or need, or they have niche interests for which equipment
Whilst more and more employers are beginning to recognise the multitude of benefits that go hand in hand with flexible office space and flexible working arrangements, there is always going to be a few flexible working sceptics.
Read More about How to Sell flexible office space to a Sceptic
The UK has become more flexible in the way that it works. People are no longer tied to the office all week Read More about How Co-working can boost motivation in the workplace
