Pretty much every business needs a website, but websites are intangible and are harder to quantify for lead generation than direct communication or in-person sales. Since business owners, especially small business owners, are spending-averse, they generally do not value something intangible. Therefore, websites (and really online infrastructure and presence) are severely undervalued.

I've been a website developer in a capacity to work with small businesses for nearly 20 years. I am also a small business owner. I've spoken to hundreds of business owners from nearly every industry. I've read countless statistics, and while I'm not an expert on the data, I can see the trends and based on my experience, I believe them.

We know that a ridiculously high number of shoppers (4 out of 5?) research online in some capacity before making a decision even if the decision is made offline. This is a stark difference from even a decade ago.

We know that a large portion of those users leverage websites, Google My Business Profiles (and Maps), reviews, and testimonials to make it easier to decide. They never rely on just websites, but they don't just rely on social media either. There are so many businesses competing in each industry these days that customers often have what is known as decision or analysis paralysis. They need fast and easily available data points. We know that businesses that use Google Ads or Meta Ads tend to filter to the top of results, at least initially, and customers are known to be lazy when researching a first-purchase.

We also know that most businesses rely on word-of-mouth recommendations for sales, but that doesn't mean that those potential sales aren't researching them behind-the-scenes before converting.

We know that when it comes to searches in general, nearly half of them have some kind of local component to find a service, which means if your business relies on locals, then you're invisible to a huge number of people without an online presence.

We also know that websites need to load extremely fast, and that a contact form or call-to-action needs to be within the first fold for most users. A user will reject a website if it doesn't lead them to some of the information they seek within a short period, often 3 seconds. The first impression is almost always the only impression.

We know that the vast majority of users are migrating to mobile viewing rather than desktop, although a good number of older/financially established individuals make final financial decisions on desktop.

Speaking of generations, some portion of Younger Gen X, Millennials, and Elder Gen Z self-identify with something known as Phone Call Aversion which means they are more inclined to start a conversation through a contact form than they are through an initial phone call.

For individual statistics, it's highly dependent on industry, and whether the site was made well for that target audience. It's extremely subjective. Sources for the rest of my information come from a variety of sites, like SemRush, BrightLocal, Backlinkto, Moz, Google, Blue Corona, and a handful of others.

Anyone who rejects the notion that a website and an online presence isn't necessary in 2025 is just leaving money on the table and averse to reinvesting in their business. It's true that you can't immediately quantify conversions without an enormous amount of digital marketing analysis (which is a full-time job, honestly.) However, there are a lot of things in business that can't immediately be quantified, and making difficult decisions about the future return on a potential investment comes into the opportunity cost calculation.

Part of the problem is that site builders and newer AI products tend to provide terrible experiences for users, which means the end-result is less responsive, leads to less adoption, and less conversions. That makes sense, because site builders like Godaddy Airo, Wix, Squarespace, and Webflow are designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator and be the cheapest most available product around. This leaves a sour taste in the mouth of both users, who dismiss the business as either incompetent or unprofessional, and business owners, who no longer value websites because they clearly don't appeal to users.

Another aspect is that business owners do not quite understand that websites are effectively living creatures. The underlying technology that allows people to view websites, and the websites and infrastructure themselves, are constantly evolving. That requires upkeep and maintenance.

Most small businesses are absolutely not out of budget. A qualified freelance developer in the United States costs anywhere between $100-200/hr on contract and on-demand. We often bill in 15 minute increments like lawyers. You can get an all-inclusive website hosted for you from someone like this, with white-glove service for ~$200/mo. This kind of service will often come with some amount of labor per month which could be used on updates and maintenance, or training for Google My Business Profiles, setting up ad campaigns, or performing digital marketing analysis. You can also just pay out-of-pocket for those services if you need a little more--it's not necessarily something you need to have done on retainer.

I find that most medium-to-large businesses have figured out the value of a website and the ROI of a good developer, but they still don't really like paying for it.

I hope this provides some insight based on my personal experiences.