Does Your Business Still Need a Website in 2026?
Google's own team recently debated whether businesses need websites. Here's the honest answer, and what's actually changed.
Here's something that doesn't happen often: Google's own Search Relations team publicly debated whether businesses even need a website anymore.
The argument, which circulated in early 2026, went something like this: between Google Business Profile, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook Shops, a small business can have a fully functional online presence without ever registering a domain. Why bother with the hosting fees and the maintenance and the whole headache of a website?
It's a fair question. If you're running a hawker stall or a one-person nail salon in Tampines, you might be wondering the same thing.
So here's the honest answer: yes, your business still needs a website. But probably not for the reasons you've been told.
The Case Against Websites (And Why It Sounds Convincing)
The "you don't need a website" camp isn't entirely wrong. Social media has become genuinely functional as a business tool. Instagram lets you showcase products with shoppable posts. TikTok drives discovery at a scale that Google Ads can't touch for certain audiences. Facebook Pages rank in Google search results. WhatsApp Business handles customer service. Google Business Profile puts you on the map, literally.
For a certain category of business, especially those selling to consumers in person, this might be enough. The wonton noodle uncle at Tiong Bahru Market doesn't need a website. His regulars know where he is, and tourists find him on Google Maps.
But the moment you're a business that needs to grow, nurture leads, or convert strangers into customers online, the equation shifts completely.
Reason 1: You Don't Own Any of That
This is the one that business owners don't think about until it's too late.
Every Instagram follower, every Facebook fan, every TikTok subscriber: you don't own them. Meta does. ByteDance does. If Instagram decides tomorrow to cut organic reach (which they have, repeatedly), your audience of 10,000 followers might suddenly be seeing 2% of your posts. If your account gets flagged, hacked, or banned, you have no recourse and no backup.
Your website is yours. Your email list is yours. The leads you collect through your own forms, under your own PDPA-compliant data policy, belong to you.
For SMEs building a business that lasts beyond the current algorithm cycle, owned channels aren't optional. They're the only thing that compounds over time.
Reason 2: Local Search Still Runs Through Websites
Google Business Profile is excellent, and you should absolutely have one. But here's what most business owners don't know: the quality of your Google Business Profile is partly determined by the website it links to.
Google uses your website content to understand what your business actually does. It cross-references your site against your GBP listing to verify consistency. Businesses with well-optimised websites that include their suburb, their services, and local signals tend to outrank those without.
From the Backlinko Google user behaviour study: 42% of searchers who conduct a local search click on results inside the Google Maps Pack. That's the top 3 businesses shown on the map. Getting into that pack requires signals your website can provide: location pages, service descriptions, review schema markup, consistent NAP (name, address, phone) data.
The businesses winning local search in Singapore aren't doing it on social media alone. They have a website, and it's doing quiet, unglamorous SEO work every day.
Reason 3: Ads Don't Work Without Landing Pages
This one is purely practical. If you ever plan to run Google Ads or Meta Ads, you need somewhere to send the traffic.
Google's Quality Score system partly evaluates the relevance and load speed of the landing page your ad sends people to. A bad landing page increases your cost per click. A social media profile as a landing page is almost always a Quality Score disaster.
For any Singapore business doing paid advertising, the structure is the same: ad click, landing page, conversion action (form fill, phone call, WhatsApp message). You can't reliably do step two without a website.
Even Meta's own lead generation forms, while useful for quick campaigns, have lower conversion quality than properly built landing pages with a trust-building layout. This is consistently borne out in any serious A/B test.
Reason 4: Credibility Is Still Currency
Singapore consumers are sophisticated. Before making any meaningful purchase or engaging a service provider, they research. They Google the company name. They check if there's a website. They look for testimonials, case studies, a physical address.
A business with only a social media presence gets filtered out at this stage. Not because the business isn't legitimate, but because the absence of a website reads as a red flag. It signals: small operation, can't be bothered, possibly not serious.
This matters more in B2B contexts. If you're selling to other businesses, accounting firms, law practices, clinic groups, corporate clients, you are almost certainly not getting past the procurement screening without a website with a proper domain and a professional email address. (No, Gmail doesn't count.)
Reason 5: PDPA Compliance Requires It
Here's one that's uniquely Singapore. Under the Personal Data Protection Act, any business collecting personal data (names, emails, phone numbers) must have a clearly accessible privacy policy explaining what data you collect and how you use it.
Social media platforms have their own privacy policies covering their own data collection. They don't cover yours. If you're running lead generation campaigns and collecting form submissions, you need a PDPA-compliant privacy policy on your own platform.
The fine for PDPA breaches in Singapore can reach $1 million for egregious cases. Most SME cases don't hit that, but the PDPC has been increasingly active in enforcement. Getting this right starts with having your own website with proper legal pages.
[This is not legal advice. Consult a qualified legal professional for specific PDPA compliance questions.]
When You Might Actually Not Need One
Let's be honest about the exceptions, because pretending they don't exist helps no one.
If your business is entirely referral-driven and you have no intention of doing digital marketing, a website is genuinely a nice-to-have rather than a must-have. Some very successful Singapore contractors, consultants, and specialists operate entirely on word of mouth and have no website to speak of.
If you're testing a business concept before committing, a well-managed Instagram or Facebook presence is a faster and cheaper way to validate demand than building a full website.
If your audience is entirely on a platform where your presence is strong, say, a Telegram channel with 5,000 engaged subscribers buying your products, you might not need a website right now. But you're building on rented land, and at some point that changes.
The honest framing: most businesses need a website. The businesses that don't tend to be at one extreme or the other: either very established with a full referral pipeline, or very early-stage and still validating.
What a Good Website Actually Looks Like in 2026
The bar has shifted. A five-page brochure site built in 2019, never updated, loading slowly on mobile, with stock photos your competitors are also using: that's not a website. That's digital clutter that may actually be hurting you.
In 2026, the minimum viable website for an SME looks like this:
Mobile-first. Over 80% of local searches in Singapore happen on mobile. If your site isn't fast and functional on a phone, it's effectively broken for most of your audience.
Clear about what you do and who for. Within five seconds of landing, a visitor should know what you sell, who it's for, and what to do next. Most SME websites fail this test.
Locally optimised. Your city, neighbourhood, and service areas should appear naturally in your content. Not stuffed in awkwardly, but integrated like a business that actually knows Singapore.
Conversion-ready. A phone number. A WhatsApp link. A contact form. Clear calls to action. The website should be actively generating enquiries, not just sitting there.
Updated occasionally. Google notices when a website hasn't been touched in two years. So do humans.
If your current website doesn't meet these criteria, the question isn't "do I need a website?" It's "do I need a better one?"
The Bottom Line
Google's team was right that the landscape has changed. Social media platforms are more powerful than ever for discovery and engagement. Google Business Profile is a legitimate business tool. You can run a meaningful online presence using platforms you don't pay for.
But here's what hasn't changed: your website is the only online property you fully own and control. It's where your data strategy, your paid ads, your local SEO, and your PDPA compliance all converge. It's the conversion hub that turns strangers into enquiries.
For most businesses, the question isn't whether you need a website. It's whether the one you have is actually working.
If you're not sure, we can take a look. Magnified's web design service is built for SMEs who want a site that does more than exist.
All statistics and claims in this article are based on available industry research. Singapore-specific data points are sourced from government agencies and publicly available studies. For PDPA compliance advice, consult a qualified legal professional.