Do I need a website if I'm on Steam?

The short answer: you do not need one to sell your game, but a small website is the one place you control, and it is cheaper and quicker to set up than most developers expect. If you are short of time, a good Steam page and a good trailer come first. If you have a bit more, a small site pays for itself.

What your Steam page does for you

A Steam page is your store: the place people wishlist, buy and read reviews, with Steam’s own audience and tools behind it. For the sale itself, it is hard to beat, and nothing below replaces it.

What it does not do

• It is not yours. The page, its layout and the rules around it belong to the platform, and they can change.
• It is not your brand’s home. It sits among thousands of other games, and the surrounding page is Steam’s, not yours.
• You do not control how you are found. You cannot add it to your own Search Console, shape its structure or give it a sitemap.
• It is not a press kit. Journalists and creators want facts, screenshots and a logo in one place that is easy to link to.
• It does not keep your audience. If you move platforms, add a console version or sell elsewhere as well, the page does not come with you.

Why a small website is worth having

1. Search for your game’s name. A site you own can be the result that appears first for the name, with the Steam page one click away.
2. A press kit. One address you can put in every email: facts, trailer, screenshots, logo, contact. Here is what a press kit should contain.
3. A stable link. A single address for your socials, your trailer description and your Discord that does not change if the store page does.
4. A place for what is not a store. A devlog, a mailing list sign-up, an FAQ, a changelog and a page for people who want to follow the game before it is out.
5. Independence. It works the same whether you are on Steam, itch.io, a console, or none of them yet.

What it can be

It does not need to be big. One home page, a trailer, a handful of screenshots, a sign-up box and a press page is plenty. It should be fast, readable on a phone, and have the game’s real name in the page title and heading so people searching for it find it.

When you do not need one

If the game is a small jam entry, a side project or you are not yet sure the game will be finished, spend the time on the game, the page and the trailer instead. A website is for a game you intend to promote, and you can add it later without losing anything.

How I do it

I build these as quick static sites on the game’s own domain, with the website at the root and the game on its own path, so the domain does the job of the shop window. You can see two examples in the FarmFolk case study and the Last Lighthouse case study, and the service is described on the indie game websites page.

What to do next

If you are weighing it up, send me a short message with the game’s name and where it is up to, and I will say plainly whether a site is worth it yet.