Buying a website is not the same as buying customers

A website can work exactly as intended and still leave its owner wondering where the customers are.

That does not automatically mean the website is poor. It does mean we need to examine what it was expected to achieve.

A recent conversation with an old friend brought this home.

We had built him a website for around £1,000. He chose the Good option from our Good, Better and Best packages.

It included service information, journey pricing API integrations, a booking system, email setup and twelve months of hosting.

Customers could enter their journey details, receive a price and move towards booking.

That is a useful commercial function. But someone still has to bring the customer to the website.

My friend wanted bookings every day. There is nothing unreasonable about wanting that outcome. The question is what would be required to achieve it.

The package covered building and hosting the website. It did not include an ongoing marketing campaign.

For Lancashire businesses buying a website, that distinction deserves a proper conversation before money changes hands.

'SEO optimised' is often where expectations become blurred.

A website might be structured so search engines can access and understand it. That does not establish whether it can compete with businesses that have spent years building useful content, customer reviews, relevant links and recognition.

Before accepting a promise about visibility, ask:

• Which searches are we trying to appear for?
• Are prospective customers actually making those searches?
• Which businesses already appear, and why?
• What would it realistically take to compete?
• Would the likely value of the enquiries justify the investment?

The answers will differ between businesses, even when their websites cost the same.

An overlooked local service and a fiercely competitive market are different commercial opportunities.

Spending more does not guarantee success. Spending less does not rule it out. The evidence should guide the decision.

It also helps to examine the customer journey in stages.

If people cannot find you, investigate visibility.

If they visit but do not enquire, examine the offer, pricing, trust and booking process.

If enquiries arrive but rarely become profitable work, look at their quality and the economics of the service.

Treating every disappointing result as an SEO problem can send money towards the wrong solution.

My friend also raised a concern about competitors seeing his prices. That is understandable. But withholding information can affect customers too.

Would a prospective buyer wait for a quote, or move to a competitor who makes the next step easier?

That is a commercial trade-off worth examining, rather than assuming either approach is always right.

At Froogle Media, our growth diagnostic starts with the business, its market and its numbers before recommending activity.

Sometimes the evidence supports investing in SEO. Sometimes another issue needs attention first. Sometimes the sensible answer is to hold back.

We are also examining assumptions about service-and-location domains through three websites: Blackburn SEO, Clitheroe SEO and Burnley SEO.

These are experiments. They are not evidence of success or failure yet. Any conclusions need data and a clear account of the activity behind them.

I explore the original conversation and the three-site experiment in A Website Can Be Technically Optimised and Still Be Commercially Invisible.

Before buying a website, ask the supplier to explain what is included, what attracting customers will require and how progress will be assessed.

You deserve to understand the commercial job you are paying it to do.