Your Small Business Still Needs A Website

Over at Search Engine Land, Hanan Lifshitz, CEO of local search provider Palore, asks: Do Small Businesses Need A Website? In his post, Hanan offers a case study showing how a New York cardiologist was able to make her way into Google’s 7-pack WITHOUT the benefit of a Web site. Instead, the cardiologist claimed her listings on sites like Yelp and used social media to gain search ranking. Does a small business need a Web site? The CEO ultimately says “probably, yes”, however, unless you read to the last two lines, that’s not really the message Hanan’s post gives off. It sounds like Yet Another Web Sites Are Dying post and he’s not the only one (intentionally or not) giving off that message.

The truth is, as social media continues its rise, there have been a rash of posts explaining how the shiny new marketing tactic can be used as a workaround to having your own site. Back in March, David Port wrote a similar piece for Entrepreneur.com, arguing that the need for a Web site is going away thanks to SMBs ability to create relationships through social media. I know we’ve had this discussion over here before, but it sounds like we need to have it again.

Building a social media presence without a Web site is like getting people hot and bothered over your product and then being too lazy to open the door when they attempt to come in.  What was the point?

Follow the ‘via’ link to go to the source…