Oil Country Has Money But Terrible Websites — Here's Why That's an Opportunity

I'm going to be direct. I've spent time looking at business websites in oil and energy towns across the country. Williston, ND. Gillette, WY. Amarillo, TX. Farmington, NM. Towns where the median household income is well above the national average. Towns where equipment companies are doing seven figures. Towns where service businesses have more work than they can handle.

And their websites are embarrassing.

I mean genuinely bad. We're talking clip art, broken contact forms, "Copyright 2014" in the footer, no mobile version, and photos that look like they were taken with a flip phone. These are businesses doing real money with websites that look like a school project from 2008.

---

Why Oil Towns Have Bad Websites

It's not because these business owners are dumb. It's because they've never needed a website to get work. When oil is booming, the phone rings no matter what. Everybody knows everybody. You get work through relationships, handshakes, and being the guy who shows up.

So the website gets ignored. It was built once, probably by a relative or a cheap local guy, and nobody has touched it since. It doesn't matter because the work keeps coming.

Until it doesn't.

The Bust Is When Websites Matter Most

Energy towns are cyclical. Everyone knows this. When oil prices drop, the easy money dries up fast. The businesses that survive busts are the ones that diversified, that built a customer base beyond "whoever the oil companies send me."

A website is how you do that. It brings in customers from outside the energy sector. It captures the families, the retirees, the people who live in Williston or Gillette regardless of oil prices. And during a boom, it helps you compete for the new workers flooding into town who don't know anyone and are searching Google for everything.

Nobody Is Targeting These Towns

Here's the real kicker. Big web agencies and marketing firms don't bother with towns like Farmington or Gillette. They're chasing clients in Dallas and Denver. Local "web designers" in these towns are often one-person operations doing it as a side gig, building template sites that all look the same.

That means the bar is on the floor. A professional, modern website in an oil town doesn't just look good — it looks exceptional compared to everything else. You immediately look like the most professional business in your category. And in industries where trust and professionalism win contracts, that matters.

What Oil Town Businesses Actually Need

---

The Opportunity Is Now

I come from a construction background. I know what it's like to be so busy you can't think about marketing. But I also know that the businesses that survive long-term are the ones that build infrastructure during good times so they're protected during bad times.

A website is infrastructure. It works for you 24/7. It captures the new workers searching for services. It makes you look professional to potential partners and clients. And when the cycle turns — because it always does — it keeps bringing in business when the phone stops ringing on its own.

Oil country has the money. It's time the websites matched.