Yes, you almost certainly still need a website in 2026. If anything you need one more than you did in 2009, when the first version of this page went live, because these days it is not only people who read it. Google reads it to decide where you rank. Google Business Profile leans on it to confirm your business is real. AI assistants such as ChatGPT read it before deciding whether to recommend you. Take the website away and all three have almost nothing to go on.
Where customers actually look now
Back in 2009 the question was whether your customers had moved from the phone book to the web. They had. In 2026 the web itself has three front doors: ordinary Google search, the local map results powered by Google Business Profile, and AI assistants that answer questions outright. All three pull their facts from the same source: your website. A Business Profile with no site behind it looks thin next to competitors who have one, and when someone asks an assistant who they should use for a job in Cambridge, it recommends businesses it can actually read about. We have written up how ChatGPT decides whether to recommend your business if you want the detail.
The original version of this page listed a handful of reasons to get a site. Most of them still hold, so here they are, updated for how things work now.
Starting your own business
In 2009 we said it was all about online presence. Still true, with one addition: your website is the only part of that presence you actually own. Social accounts can be suspended, throttled or made irrelevant by an algorithm change. Your site stays put, on your domain, saying exactly what you want it to say. If you are launching something new, get the site up early so Google and the AI assistants have time to find it before you need the enquiries. Our small business page explains how we approach builds like this.
DJ, musician, band, designer, photographer. The 2009 page said “don’t think, have your own site”, and we stand by it. Instagram and TikTok are the shop window, but a promoter or venue searching your name wants one link with your work, your dates and a booking form, not a feed to scroll through. A single fast page is often enough.
Selling online
Marketplaces take a cut and keep the customer relationship. Your own store keeps the margin and the mailing list. It works, too: our work with Powertools Direct lifted sales by 22%, and TWF Roller Garage Doors grew revenue by 44%. Neither result came from a marketplace listing.
Reaching new markets
A website is still the cheapest way to trade beyond your own postcode. What has changed is that you no longer need to rank in every town to be found there. An AI assistant asked for a specialist supplier will happily recommend a firm two counties away if its site makes the offer clear. Plain pages that spell out what you do, what you charge for and where you deliver do most of the work.
Looking for a job
The 2009 sum was cover letter + CV + portfolio website = new job. It still adds up. Recruiters search candidates by name, and a one page site with your work, a short bio and your name on the domain beats a PDF attachment every time. It also gives whatever screening tool reads it something sensible to find.
Generating leads
This is the reason most of our clients care about, and it is where the numbers live. RakLAW saw leads rise by 60% after their rebuild. East Anglia Ultrasound took 52% more bookings. Circa London’s enquiries went up 40%. The website is where all of that demand lands. If your customers are local, start with our local SEO checklist to see what the site needs to carry.
Advertising online
Google Ads can put you in front of buyers this afternoon, but every click lands somewhere, and if that somewhere is slow or vague you are paying for visits that go nowhere. We manage Google Ads for clients and the pattern is always the same: the better the page behind the ad, the harder the budget works. Site first, ads second.
Who genuinely does not need one
Honesty corner. If you are a sole trader booked solid on word of mouth and you want no more work, you can skip the website. The same goes if all your income comes through one long standing contract. Everyone else is competing for customers who check Google, the map results and, increasingly, an AI assistant before they call anyone, and those customers choose from what they can see.
What a modern website actually is
Not what it was in 2009. We build fast static sites in Astro: no plugins to update, very little to hack, quick on a phone. Hosting comes bundled with every site we build and manage, on fast LiteSpeed VPS infrastructure with SSL, backups and Cloudflare, as covered on our hosting page. Around the build we handle the finding side: search engine optimisation, generative engine optimisation so AI assistants cite you, Google Ads management, and AI-assisted efficiency work for clients who want the admin behind the site to move quicker.
Luckywebs has been at this a while. Founder Mo Rafi taught WordPress website building at Google Campus London from 2012, and the team today includes Katy Mironenko, our Head of SEO, and Robert Malnieks, our Client Strategy Director. We hold a 4.7 star Google rating from 60 reviews. The longer story is on our story page, and the follow-up to this article, the benefits of having a website, covers what happens once yours is live.
If you are still weighing it up, the conversation costs nothing.
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