Not every business should have a website. I know this sounds ironical coming from a website designer. But that is the truth.

Having a website is like having a dog. Buying it is just the first of many steps.

If you want it to give you the love and companionship you desire, you have to feed it daily, bath it, take her for a walk etc. Without all these extra efforts put, it is better you don’t own a dog, else it will become a problem for you.

It will become scraggy, dirty and may even become rabid and bite your neighbour’s 10-year-old son in which case you have to spend lots of money on treatment, issue apologies etc. This is in addition to having lots more unpleasant experiences (like tick infestation on your children’s bed) that come with owning a dog that is neglected.

The same can be said of having a website. If you are not ready or willing to put in the extra efforts that come with having a website like adding fresh content, updating plugins, fixing errors when they occur, paying for recurrent fees such as annual hosting and domain name renewal as at when due, etc. you’re better off not having one. Period!

A Dormant website gives your organization a bad name

Having a dormant website that looks abandoned does not just give your company or organization a bad name; it also makes you appear inefficient and unorganized.

After all, if your people cannot manage something as basic as a website, how can you be trusted to run a company effectively? If you are a cynic, you can argue all you want that this is not true – but that is the way it is. That is exactly what your potential partners and clients think. Especially if they are abroad and don’t have physical access to your organization/company’s location.

You can easily get hacked if you neglect your website

Another danger that comes with having a dormant outdated website is the possibility of being hacked. 30,000 websites get hacked every day.

If you don’t manage your website properly, chances are that the website’s plugins, templates and other scripts associated with it will become outdated. And when this happens, it’s like locking the front door and leaving a back window open for thieves to slip through. In such a case, they can hijack your official email address and use it to send fake, fraudulent or spam messages to unsuspecting victims. After all, it was sent from your official email address. You can be sued for this.

Your data could get stolen

Also, your client’s data such as name, email, phone no. credit/debit card details etc. stored in your server can be stolen easily. How embarrassing will it be to your company when it is finally exposed that your website was the source through which your customers’ data were stolen?

Don’t own a website if you are not ready to manage it

This is what I normally advise my potential clients – if you are not really ready or don’t have the capacity to manage a website, you are better off outsourcing your website management or not having any website at all because it might turn into a disaster for your organization. I have experienced a countless number of cases where CEOs of companies are terribly embarrassed because their websites were expired and they didn’t even know.

One of my latest clients only found out that his website was expired during an international conference he attended in the UK. When he referred potential partners and investors to check out more information about his company online, they simply told him he had just wasted their time because his company didn’t have a functional website. Of course, they did that in a diplomatic way.

In another case, a client failed his visa application because they thought he lied and they couldn’t confirm from the domain name he supplied because it was not accessible online.

Are you really ready to have a website?

So, when next you want to pick up that phone and call a website designer, you need to ask yourself; should I really have a website? Am I really ready to own a website?

AUTHOR: Dr. Smart Okpi is the Creative Director at eBrand Promotion. He can be reached via 08105882416 or 09034244099 or just send an email to sales@ebrandpromotion.com – I normally reply within a few minutes or hours (on weekends).