Does a Small Business in Singapore Still Need a Website?
Short answer: yes, if the business sells anything a customer searches for before buying. Social pages, marketplaces and Google Business Profile each cover one channel and each keeps the customer record. A website is the one page you control that Google, ChatGPT and a customer at 11pm can all read. The smallest useful version is one page and a WhatsApp button.
Singapore had 371,000 enterprises in 2025, 369,500 of them SMEs, per the Department of Statistics. Most of them compete for the same local searches.
Is a social media page enough?
A social page is a broadcast channel with a bio link. It is good at showing work, bad at answering a search.
Where it falls short:
- Reach is rented. Organic reach on Facebook business pages averaged about 1.37% of followers in 2024, per a Social Status figure reported by NapoleonCat. A post reaches around 14 of every 1,000 followers unless you pay.
- It does not rank. A search for "accounting firm Tampines" returns websites and map listings. Instagram posts almost never appear for service searches.
- It cannot hold structured facts. Prices, service areas, opening hours and credentials live in captions, not on pages that Google or an AI assistant can parse.
- You cannot export it. Followers, messages and reviews stay on the platform. An account restriction removes all three at once.
Keep the social page. Point it at a website where the facts live.
What does a website do that a marketplace profile cannot?
Shopee, Lazada and Carousell are transaction venues. They bring buyers who are already on the platform, and they charge for it.
| Marketplace listing | Own website | |
|---|---|---|
| Who brings the buyer | The platform's search and ads | Google, AI assistants, your own links |
| Fees per order | Commission plus transaction fee; third-party guides checked October 2026 put Shopee Singapore at a 2.18% transaction fee plus 2% to 6% commission for non-mall sellers | Payment gateway fee only, typically 2% to 3.4% |
| Customer record | Belongs to the platform | Belongs to you, subject to PDPA duties |
| Competitors on the same screen | Yes, by design | No |
| Brand and pricing control | Within platform rules and campaigns | Full |
| Repeat purchase | Through the platform | Direct, by WhatsApp or email |
The split that works for most small sellers is both: the marketplace for volume and first-time buyers, the website for brand, repeat orders and anything the marketplace does not allow. The own store vs Shopee and Lazada comparison goes into the numbers.
For service businesses, a marketplace profile is rarely relevant and the question is the website versus nothing.
How do AI assistants find businesses without websites?
They mostly do not. ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity answer a question like "good physiotherapist near Novena with weekend hours" by searching the web, reading pages and citing them. OpenAI's help documentation describes ChatGPT search as returning answers with links to sources, and its bot documentation names OAI-SearchBot as the crawler that must be allowed for a site to appear.
A business with no site is described from whatever the crawler can read:
- Directory entries, often outdated.
- Review sites, with whatever the last reviewer wrote.
- Social captions, if the platform allows crawling, which most limit.
The result is an answer that names a competitor with a clear page, or names you with wrong hours. The fix is a crawlable page that states the facts: services, prices or starting prices, address, hours, who you serve. The guide to getting mentioned by ChatGPT covers the full method.
Google Business Profile helps with map results but does not substitute. Google retired the free websites it generated from profiles on 5 March 2024, redirecting them to the profile, and the profile itself has no service pages for a crawler to read.
What is the smallest useful website?
One page, in this order:
- Headline: who you serve and what you do, in under 12 words.
- Three proof points: years in business, licences, number of clients or a named project.
- Services with prices or starting prices. A range beats no number.
- Location, service area and hours.
- A WhatsApp button with a prefilled message, and a phone number as a tap-to-call link.
- Registered business name and UEN in the footer.
This page can be built and live in under a week on any platform. It ranks for your business name immediately and for service-plus-area searches once Google has read it a few times.
When time allows, grow it in this order:
- One page per service, each answering the question a buyer types.
- An about page with the people and credentials.
- Articles answering the 10 questions customers ask on WhatsApp.
Keep every enquiry in a place you control: a WhatsApp number on the business account and a form that writes to a database you can export.
What does it cost to start?
Three routes, with published or quoted figures.
| Route | Year-one cost | Ongoing | Owner's time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace, Framer) | About S$200 to S$500 plan plus domain | Same each year | 20 to 40 hours to write and build, then edits |
| Freelancer on a template | S$500 to S$1,500, estimate from published Singapore packages | Hosting and plugin upkeep, often S$30 to S$100 a month | 5 to 10 hours for copy and review |
| Studio, coded site | Quoted in full after one call | Domain renewal; S$0 monthly on a static site | 2 to 4 hours of calls and approvals |
Builder plan prices are from each platform's pricing page as compared in the AI website builder vs web designer guide. The freelancer range is an estimate drawn from Singapore packages published in October 2026 and varies with scope.
The recurring cost matters more than the first-year figure. A S$40 monthly plan is S$2,400 over 5 years, with no asset at the end. A one-time build with S$0 monthly fees is an asset you own. Enterprise Singapore's EDGE grant can cover part of a qualifying build for eligible SMEs.
What cense does
cense builds small business websites from one page upward, quoted in full after one call, with a first draft 14 days later. The client owns the domain, code, hosting and data, and pays S$0 monthly maintenance. A free SEO report is sent on WhatsApp within 2 working days.
Is an Instagram or Facebook page enough for a small business?+
It works as a feed, not as a reference. The platform controls reach, the page cannot rank for a Google search about your service, and you cannot export followers if the account is restricted.
Can I rely on Shopee or Lazada instead of my own site?+
For transactions, yes. For your brand, no. Marketplace fees take a percentage of each order, the buyer record belongs to the platform, and your listing sits next to competitors on the same screen.
Is Google Business Profile a substitute for a website?+
It is the map listing, free and worth completing. Google retired the free websites it generated from profiles in March 2024, and the profile itself has no service pages for Google or AI assistants to read.
How do ChatGPT and Gemini find a business?+
They search the web and read pages. A business with no crawlable page of its own is described from directories and reviews, or left out.
What is the smallest useful website?+
One page: who you serve, what you do, 3 proof points, prices or a starting price, location and hours, and a WhatsApp button. Add a page per service when you have time.
What does a small business website cost in Singapore?+
A builder plan runs about S$200 to S$500 a year plus your own time. A coded one-page to five-page site from a studio starts around S$2,000 with no monthly fee.
