Pretty odd title coming from a company that, among other things, creates websites as one of its services.  But one of the things I hear time and time again from business owners typically sounds like this: "I just need a simple, 5 page website".  The number of pages is a bit unimportant...could be 10, 20, whatever.  What's more important is why thinking like this is just a way to set up your business's online marketing efforts for failure and how to avoid wasting money on a website that doesn’t really help your business.

A lot of business owners I come in contact with say that they just need a "simple" website - something with a homepage, about us, services page, and perhaps a few others.  I don't know if "simple" sometimes means "I don't want to spend a lot of money" or if it's more a case of not wanting something too extravagant or complicated.  The good news is that you can have a more effective website created without having to spend a fortune.  But let's talk about why a "Simple 5 page website" is probably going to be a not-so-great investment for your business.

Not Updated Often and No Reason for People or Search Engines to Return
First of all, one of these simple sites is probably going to be a static website, meaning that there's no new content added to the site over time.  It's just the same pages, same list of services and so on.  The problem is that this doesn't give people a good reason to come back to your website.  The same is true for the search engines, which tend to visit frequently updated websites much more often (for obvious reasons).  Many people ask why they're not getting much traffic to their website.  The better question is "Are you giving people a good reason to come there in the first place?”

Less Opportunity to Rank for a Variety of Keywords
Having just a handful of pages also limits your site's ability to rank well for a variety of keywords that people might be using to search for the types of products and services you offer.

Less Credibility for Your Business
A static website without any updates is also less credible these days.  Would you rather purchase from a company with a website that looks like it was built 8 years ago (with copyright info from 8 years ago) or a website that just posted a new article this week on some topic that helps you better understand how their product or service can help you?

Less Chance to "Tell Your Company's Story"
Only having a few pages on your site doesn't really give you a chance to fully tell your company's story.  And by company story, I really mean how your products or services impact the lives of your customers.  What if you ended up on a chiropractor's website and it just had a handful of pages and a contact form.  Then you find another one that has all the basics, plus several case studies about how the doctor was able to solve her patients' back pain, work injury or other problems.  Who would be more likely to earn your business?  Again, if you have any sort of customers (and by definition every business does), then your website is an excellent way to share your success stories and case studies with your website visitors, to toot your own horn a little bit and convince prospects why they should do business with you.

Lousy Benefits for the Costs Involved
The most insidious part of all of this is that some web companies will sell you a "simple 5 page website" with zero regard for how well it's going to help your business.  And the cost?  Nearly the same as what you could pay for a more effective system.

Instead of investing in a "simple 5 page website", we recommend that if you're a business owner interested in setting up a new website or investing in a website re-design, you should get in touch with a professional web marketing company (such as us...shameless plug) that offers web design AND web marketing services.  Working with such a company, you'll discover several options for making a more effective, more profitable website.  It will also help shift your thinking in terms of how to best use your website so that it becomes a powerful sales and marketing tool for your company that converts casual website visitors into lifelong customers.