Do you need a website, or is Facebook enough?
A Facebook page is a useful noticeboard but a poor shopfront: you do not control it, half your potential customers are not on it, it barely appears in Google searches for your services, and the algorithm decides who sees your posts. A website is the only online property you own. Most businesses need both: Facebook for community and updates, a website to be found, trusted and chosen.
What a Facebook page genuinely does well
Local groups and recommendations drive real work, especially for trades and home services. A page gives you a presence people can tag, a place to post jobs you are proud of, and a message channel customers already use. It costs nothing and takes minutes. Every local business should have one.
Where Facebook quietly fails you
- You are invisible in Google. When someone searches "electrician in your town", the results are websites and Google Business Profiles. Facebook pages barely feature. Whoever has the website gets the customer who never opened Facebook.
- You do not control it. Accounts get locked, pages get cloned, rules change, and support is an unanswered form. Businesses lose years of posts and followers overnight, with no phone number to call.
- The algorithm owns your audience. Your posts reach a fraction of your own followers unless you pay. Your website shows every visitor exactly what you choose, every time.
- It looks like a stopgap. Fairly or not, plenty of customers read "Facebook only" as "not fully established", especially for higher-value jobs where they are shortlisting carefully.
- Nowhere serious to send people. Quotes, price lists, galleries, accreditations and service areas all fight the format. A website presents them properly.
The practical answer for most businesses
Keep the Facebook page and give it one job: activity. Post real work, reply to comments and messages, stay present in local groups. Then let a website do the jobs Facebook cannot: being found in Google by people who need you today, presenting your proof properly, and converting a stranger into an enquiry at 11pm.
The two feed each other. Facebook posts link to the website for details; the website links to Facebook for the living feed of recent jobs. The website is the shop; Facebook is the market chatter that sends people to it.
Frequently asked questions
Can customers find my Facebook page on Google?
Sometimes, if they search your business name. Almost never when they search for the service itself, like "plasterer near me", which is exactly the search that brings new customers. Those results go to websites and Google Business Profiles.
Is a Google Business Profile enough without a website?
It is the single most important free listing and you should absolutely have one. But profiles with a website linked win more clicks and more trust, and the profile itself gives you almost no room to persuade: no gallery of your best work with captions, no detailed service pages, no story. Profile plus website is the combination that works.
What does a website do that social media cannot?
It is owned, not rented: no algorithm, no lockouts, no rule changes. It ranks in Google for service searches. It presents prices, proof and services on your terms. And it works for the majority of your customers who are not active on any particular platform.
I get all my work from Facebook groups. Why change?
Do not change what works; add to it. When someone in a group recommends you, the next thing many buyers do is search your name. If nothing comes up but the same Facebook profile, some of them keep scrolling to the recommended firm with the professional site. A website converts the reputation you have already earned.
The short version
- Facebook is a noticeboard you rent; a website is property you own.
- Service searches on Google go to websites and Business Profiles, not Facebook pages.
- Algorithms, lockouts and cloned pages make Facebook a risky sole presence.
- Run both: Facebook for activity and community, the website to be found and chosen.
Rather skip all this?
If the website is the missing half, ours costs £50 a month with nothing up front: designed for your business, built in seven days, and you only pay once you have approved it.
Claim your spot →