When we consult with small businesses who have been sued over website accessibility, it’s not uncommon for our clients to ask, “Should I just take my site down and be done with it?”
This is an option worth considering for multiple reasons. Let’s go over all of the factors.
Table of Contents
Top 5 Reasons to Delete Your Website
- Peace of mind. For some small business owners, it’s just not worth being in constant fear of being sued.
- Hassle. Some clients decide they simply don’t want to deal with website accessibility, especially when they have a lawsuit pending.
- Too expensive. Many small businesses can’t afford $7,500 to $12,500 for audit and remediation services.
- Low traffic / revenue. If your website isn’t showing signs of generating income, then the return on investment (ROI) may not be worth it.
- Maintenance. We can make your website WCAG 2.1 AA conformant, but that level of accessibility won’t last if your team doesn’t add content or edit code accessibly.
Top 5 Reasons To Keep Your Website
- Revenue. If you have a nice, incoming-producing asset, the ROI usually makes it worth keeping.
- SEO. Similar to revenue, if you have a website that ranks well, we advise against throwing away all of that potential.
- Age. Aged websites (the older, the better) are more valuable because they’re established and they’ve earned trust in Google.
- Design. If you’ve invested in a beautiful, custom design, this is another compelling reason to not delete your website.
- Simple. Simpler, information-based websites are much easier to make WCAG 2.1 AA conformant.
Alternatives To Going Offline
- Simplify your website by removing dynamic or interactive elements. This will make it easier to make your website accessible.
- Turn your website into a simple informational site with just your basic information and links to social media.
- Forward your domain name to a social media account like your Facebook business page, Instagram, or TikTok.
- Forward your domain name to your Amazon store front. Or, maintain your product pages and send customers to Amazon to checkout (more risk).
- Take our ADA Compliance Course. This course that tells you exactly how to find and fix accessibility issues to significantly lower risk of being sued.
Our Advice
Many website owners are completely frustrated after being sued for something many of them didn’t even know existed. And when they think about the possibility of being sued again, it’s scary for many.
Especially when you consider that several digital accessibility companies lie to sell you “solutions” that don’t actually help.
We like to reassure clients that this is very common and something that is workable. The loss of significant time and money is a negative, there’s no doubt about it.
But we can help and if you go the DIY route with the ADA Compliance Course, we can also help you implement code fixes that are more technically advanced.
Whatever way we can, we’ll try to make your bad experience into a positive.
And we know many clients are nonplussed by this, but accessibility really does improve access and overall user experience (even for users without disabilities). Over time, there is the potential for this to return money in the form of better conversions and user experience.
Before you take your website down completely, consult with us to go over any other options.
We see deleting your website as a last resort, but sometimes it is the option that makes the most sense.
If you have any doubt, take a look at our services and/or book a consulting session with Kris.
