Do You Need A Website In 2024?
Opinion: I’ve heard a few people say recently that a website isn’t necessary if you’re just getting started with an online business. While the web designer side of me of course disagrees with that, even as a social media manager and marketer, I can’t 100% get behind this idea. The theory goes that if you’re just getting started you can use social media platforms to sell to your audience or email providers to build your list, without being slowed down by spending time building a website. And while I’m all about getting things moving fast in your business, I disagree with this all or nothing approach.
Own your effort
For me, the problem lies in ownership. When you rely on social media you don’t own your platform. If your account gets hacked or you get blocked and that’s all you’ve built your business on, then your audience is gone. If you set up a landing page via a third party email provider, you’re at least growing a list that you own, but any marketing efforts or spending you do sends people to a third party site - building traffic for them and not building links to internet ‘property’ owned by you.
You see a cornerstone of building a website lies in owning a domain. If you’re going to build a website, then you ultimately need a domain for people to find it - and that my friend is your very own online real estate. Once you own that domain and have it secured, it remains yours for as long as you continue renewing ownership.
So this brings me back to the question posed in the title - do you need a website in 2024?
My answer is ideally yes. In my free ‘Launch Your Online Business With Ease’ guide, I recommend a website as the very first thing you do when setting up an online business so that you secure that online real estate from the get go. Your website is a hub for all your content creation, from blogging to podcasts to YouTube and beyond. It’s also a 24/7 marketing tool that promotes and sells your products or services. With the right content and strategies your website can help turn prospects into clients and attract new eyes on your business. If you’re just starting out, you can keep things simple at the beginning and scale up over time, and owning your own website if gives you the flexibility to do that. However, if you’re absolutely convinced that having a website is just too much to manage, then I recommend using a 3rd party platform that let’s you use your own domain.
Why is a domain so important?
When you buy a domain through a provider such as GoDaddy or Hostgator, you buy an address that directs people to wherever you want them to go. If you own a website, you can point your domain there, or if you point a domain at a third-party landing page, you can redirect that domain to a website or different provider if you decide to scale or move later. If you correctly point the domain from the old location or website to a new one, your traffic should continue to follow you wherever you go.
The importance of this lies in your marketing spend and efforts. If you’re spending money on Facebook ads or doing Pinterest marketing, for example, then you’re putting time and money into driving traffic and building links to a domain. If you own that domain, then you reap the rewards of all your effort. If you’re driving traffic or creating links to a third party site and you later switch providers or decide to buy a domain of your own, those links will be broken.
Final thoughts
Having a website is about creating a solid foundation for your business that sets you up to scale over time. Developing content strategies and ways to capture emails from your website and not being solely reliant on social media can take a huge load off when it comes to the demands of having a social media presence. Whether you’re a coach, course creator or creative business owner, using a website as part of your marketing strategy will ease your social media time commitment and give you greater flexibility for traffic generation and expanding your audience.
TLDR:
Do you absolutely need a website in 2024? Ideally yes, but if you’re absolutely set that you’re not going to build a website, make sure you own your domain, traffic and email list!