Most small businesses don't need a complicated website. They need a website that makes them look professional, explains what they do, gets found and makes it easy for customers to contact them.
There's a tendency when building a new website to start adding things.
A blog.
Online bookings.
Customer accounts.
Animations.
Live chat.
A content management system.
Social feeds.
Pop-ups.
Newsletter integrations.
Fancy effects.
Before long, what started as a simple five-page business website has turned into a miniature software project.
Sometimes those features are genuinely useful.
But there's a question worth asking before adding any of them:
Does my business actually need this?
What Is a Simple Website?
When I talk about a simple website, I don't mean a bad website.
And I definitely don't mean an amateur-looking website.
I mean a website that does a relatively small number of things well.
For a typical small business or sole trader, that might include:
- A homepage
- About information
- Services
- Individual service pages
- Service areas
- Testimonials
- Photos or previous work
- Contact information
- An enquiry form
That's enough for a surprising number of businesses.
A plumber doesn't necessarily need an elaborate web application.
They need someone searching for a plumber to find them, trust them and call them.
Simple Doesn't Mean Cheap-Looking
This distinction is important.
Simple and cheap aren't the same thing.
A simple website can still have professional typography, good photography, thoughtful design, clear messaging, strong SEO foundations and an excellent mobile experience.
In fact, simplicity can make a website feel more professional.
Think about some of the best websites you've used.
They're often remarkably straightforward.
You know where you are.
You know what to do.
You aren't fighting the interface.
Good design often involves deciding what not to include.
What Is a Complex Website?
A complex website generally has functionality beyond presenting information.
For example:
An online store with hundreds of products.
Customer accounts.
Memberships.
Online courses.
Complex booking systems.
Payment processing.
User-generated content.
Dashboards.
Property listings.
Large searchable databases.
Custom calculators.
Integration with business software.
Different access levels for different users.
At some point, you're no longer simply building pages.
You're building software.
That changes the cost, technology, development time and ongoing maintenance requirements considerably.
Start With the Business Problem, Not the Features
Instead of asking:
"What features can we put on my website?"
I'd start with:
"What does my business need the website to accomplish?"
Suppose you're a landscaper.
Your goal might be:
I want homeowners around Dubbo who are looking for landscaping to find me, see examples of my work and request a quote.
Great.
Now we can work backwards.
You probably need information about your services.
You need photographs of your work.
You need information about where you operate.
You need reasons for people to trust you.
You need an easy way to request a quote.
That's the website.
We don't need to add customer accounts just because we can.
Every Feature Has a Cost
The obvious cost is development.
Complex features take longer to build.
But there's another cost:
Complexity itself.
Features need to be maintained.
Software needs updating.
Plugins can break.
Integrations change.
Third-party services can disappear.
Accounts need managing.
Subscriptions accumulate.
Security becomes more complicated.
Staff need training.
Every additional moving part creates something else that can potentially go wrong.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't add features.
It means a feature should provide enough value to justify its existence.
Do You Actually Need a Content Management System?
This is a good example.
A content management system such as WordPress lets you log in and change your website yourself.
That's extremely useful if you're regularly publishing articles or updating information.
But what if your website changes twice a year?
Do you need an entire content management system permanently running so you can change your phone number once every five years?
Maybe not.
For many straightforward small business websites, I prefer building with lightweight HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
There's no CMS administration panel.
No collection of plugins.
No database required to generate ordinary pages.
The trade-off is that the business owner generally can't log in and edit the website themselves.
Instead, they contact me when something needs changing.
For businesses that rarely update their website, that can actually be simpler.
When WordPress, Wix or Squarespace Makes More Sense
My approach isn't right for everybody.
If you want to regularly edit your own pages, publish articles every week or constantly change your website, a content management system can be the better option.
Wix and Squarespace can make sense for business owners who want to manage everything themselves.
WordPress can make sense when you need extensive content management and flexibility.
The technology should fit the business.
You shouldn't have to change the way your business operates to suit the website.
When Shopify Makes More Sense
If you're running a serious online store, I'd usually look towards a dedicated ecommerce platform such as Shopify rather than trying to turn a simple static website into something it isn't.
An online shop needs considerably more than a few product pages.
There's inventory.
Payments.
Orders.
Shipping.
Taxes.
Customer information.
Product management.
Emails.
Refunds.
Security.
Trying to reinvent all of that to keep the website "simple" wouldn't be simple at all.
Sometimes using a larger platform is actually the simpler solution.
Do You Need Online Bookings?
Maybe.
But ask why.
If you're a hairdresser taking dozens of appointments every week, an online booking system could save an enormous amount of time.
If you're a builder who needs to speak with every potential customer before agreeing to anything, a giant automated booking system might solve a problem you don't have.
Perhaps you just need:
Call me.
Or:
Request a quote.
Don't automate something simply because automation exists.
Do You Need Live Chat?
Again, maybe.
If someone is actually available to answer it and customers use it, fantastic.
Otherwise, you may have installed another widget, another script and another thing to manage just so visitors can receive:
"Sorry, we're currently offline. Leave a message."
That's basically a contact form with extra steps.
Do You Need a Blog?
Only if you have a reason for having one.
A blog can be useful for SEO, demonstrating expertise, answering customer questions and attracting potential customers.
But a blog containing three posts from 2019 doesn't add much.
If you're going to publish useful material, great.
If you aren't, don't feel like every business website is required to have a blog.
What About AI Features?
AI has made it possible to add increasingly sophisticated features to websites.
Chatbots.
Recommendation systems.
Content generators.
Automated support.
Personalisation.
Again:
What problem are we solving?
Putting an AI chatbot on a five-page plumbing website doesn't automatically make it better.
Sometimes the visitor would prefer to see the phone number.
Technology should make things easier for customers, not exist to demonstrate that you're using technology.
Simple Websites Can Be Faster
One advantage of keeping a website technically lean is performance.
For many of the small business websites I build, the browser is receiving relatively straightforward HTML, CSS, JavaScript and optimised images.
There isn't necessarily a large framework, database or collection of plugins involved in displaying the page.
That can make websites lightweight and quick to load.
It's particularly useful for mobile visitors who may not have a perfect internet connection.
If something doesn't need to be downloaded, processed or executed, leaving it out is one of the easiest ways to make a website faster.
Simple Websites Can Have a Smaller Attack Surface
Complexity can also affect security.
A static website isn't magically secure.
Hosting, forms, scripts and server configuration still need to be handled properly.
But if there's no CMS login, database or large collection of third-party plugins, there are fewer application components available to attack.
That's one reason I like simple technology when the project allows it.
Don't install ten things when you need three.
Complexity Should Earn Its Keep
This is probably my general philosophy towards small business websites.
Every bit of complexity should earn its place.
If online bookings save you five hours every week, add them.
If ecommerce generates half your revenue, absolutely build for ecommerce.
If regularly publishing articles brings customers through Google, use a content management system.
If customers need accounts, build customer accounts.
But if the feature exists because somebody said:
"Websites are supposed to have that,"
I'd question it.
Simple Websites Can Also Cost Less
Unsurprisingly, simpler websites are generally cheaper to build.
That's one reason many of the straightforward small business websites I build come in at under $1,000.
I'm not trying to turn every local business website into a $10,000 development project.
If your business genuinely needs $10,000 worth of functionality, that's different.
But if what you need is five or ten well-designed pages that explain your business and generate enquiries, why build something more complicated?
A Simple Test
Here's a useful exercise.
For every feature you're considering adding to your website, finish this sentence:
"We need this because..."
"We need online bookings because our staff currently spend ten hours a week arranging appointments."
Good reason.
"We need separate service pages because customers search for those individual services and we want to target them through Google."
Good reason.
"We need a customer login because our customers need access to private documents."
Good reason.
"We need an animated 3D globe because it looks cool."
Maybe not quite as compelling.
Features should support a business objective.
What Does the Average Small Business Actually Need?
For many service businesses, I'd start with something remarkably simple:
A professional design.
Clear explanation of what you do.
Good information about your services.
The areas you service.
Reasons to trust you.
Real photographs where possible.
Good mobile usability.
Fast loading.
Basic SEO foundations.
A phone number and contact form that are impossible to miss.
Get those things right first.
You can always add more later.
Build the Smallest Website That Does the Job Well
That's the approach I prefer.
Not the smallest website possible.
The smallest website that does the job properly.
There's a difference.
Sometimes that's five pages.
Sometimes it's fifty.
Sometimes it's a simple static website.
Sometimes the right answer is WordPress.
Sometimes it's Shopify.
Sometimes you genuinely need custom software.
Start with the problem.
Then choose the technology.
Not the other way around.
Not Sure How Much Website You Actually Need?
If you're planning a website for your small business or wondering whether your existing website has become unnecessarily complicated, I'm happy to take a look.
I specialise in websites for small businesses and sole traders, particularly local and regional businesses.
Many straightforward websites I build cost under $1,000, with managed Australian hosting available for $30 per month or $360 per year.
If you need something more complicated, I'll tell you.
If you don't, I'll tell you that too.
Contact me for a free website assessment and we can work out what your business actually needs, rather than how many features we can squeeze into it.