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The moment word of mouth stops being enough
Plenty of businesses run well on word of mouth, a Facebook page and a Google profile, as long as their customers already know them. That changes the moment someone hears your name and looks it up, or searches for what you do in their area. Then they compare, and a business with a site saying what it does, for whom and roughly what it costs usually beats one with only a profile. Your own site is also the only place you control: Facebook can limit your page, Google can suspend your profile. A Google Business Profile is free and a good first step, but whoever hesitates clicks through to your site. How AI assistants read your site is in how to get found in ChatGPT.
Profile, social media or your own site
- Google Business Profile
- What it does wellbeing found on Maps, calls, directions, reviews
- What it missesexplanation, prices, your approach, your own address on the web
- Facebook or Instagram
- What it does wellshowing your work to people who already follow you
- What it missesbeing found in Google for your services, control over your page
- Your own website
- What it does welleverything in one place you control, found for your services
- What it missesonly works if you keep it up and it says something
The combination is strongest: a profile that links to your site, and a site that says what a profile cannot.
Where European businesses stand
Businesses with ten or more staff, 2025Share of businesses
- Belgium, with a website89%
- EU-27, with a website79%
- Belgium, at least 1% of sales online31%
- EU-27, at least 1% of sales online20%
When a site pays for itself
Size the investment against what a new customer brings in. With a 30 percent margin on each job and a one-page site of 1,500 euro, the starting point at our studio:
| Value of a job | Margin per job | Jobs to earn back 1,500 euro |
|---|---|---|
| 200 euro | 60 euro | 25 |
| 500 euro | 150 euro | 10 |
| 1,500 euro | 450 euro | 4 |
| 5,000 euro | 1,500 euro | 1 |
For a contractor or an accountant one new client through the site is enough. For a hairdresser with 40 euro tickets, a profile with online booking is often smarter than a large site. Add the yearly cost of domain, hosting and upkeep, worked out in website cost per year; what a larger site costs is in website cost, and whether to capitalize it in when should you capitalize website costs.
How small can a first site be?
Smaller than many people think. For Park & Wash, a mobile car detailer in Ghent, we built one page with nine sections, a WhatsApp button for private customers and a form for companies with a fleet. For FK Boekhouding it became a site of over a hundred pages in four languages, with a page per sector. Both are the right size for that business. Freelancers also read web design for freelancers; to try it yourself, build your website yourself or hire.
Building it yourself, and what it must show
Can I not just build a site myself with Wix or WordPress?
Certainly, and for a first version that can be enough. Count your own time and the work to make it findable: a site builder gives you a site, not visitors.
What must my site show at the very least?
What you do, for whom, where, roughly what it costs, how to get in touch, and your legal company details. Add a privacy policy and you are covered.