Local business · Guide
Do you need a website if you've got a Facebook page?
Short version: keep the Facebook page — but don't let it be your whole presence online. A page is great for staying in front of people who already follow you. It's a poor substitute for a website, though, because you don't own it and it barely shows up when someone googles what you do. The two do different jobs; here's how to get the best of both.
What a Facebook page is genuinely good for
A Facebook page does one thing really well: it keeps you in front of people who already know you. Regulars, past customers, locals who follow along — they see your posts, your latest offer, the photo from this morning, and they can message you in a couple of taps. For that ongoing, day-to-day relationship it's hard to beat, and it's free.
If your business runs on community and repeat custom — a café, a salon, a market stall — an active page with real posts and quick replies genuinely pulls its weight. Nothing below is a reason to drop it. It's a reason not to lean on it alone.
Where a Facebook page stops short
The first catch is that you don't own it. The page sits on Meta's platform, on Meta's terms. How many of your followers actually see a post is up to their algorithm — reach for business pages has been quietly throttled for years, so "we've got 800 followers" rarely means 800 people see anything. And if a page gets restricted or suspended, fairly or not, there's often no quick way to reach a human who'll fix it. Everything you've built lives somewhere you're only borrowing.
The second is that a Facebook page barely shows up when it matters most. Someone googling "plumber in [your town]" or "[your service] near me" is shown websites and Google Business Profiles — not your Facebook page. So the people actively looking to spend money right now mostly never see it. That's exactly the job a website and a Google Business Profile do, which is a big part of why they're worth having.
And "find us on Facebook" quietly reads as less established. A business with its own website and its own email address — rather than only a Gmail and a Facebook page — simply looks more like a real, settled operation you'd trust with the job. Fair or not, that impression costs enquiries.
What a website adds
A website is the part you actually own. It's on your own domain, it can't be throttled or switched off by someone else's algorithm, and it's where you set out your services in full, show your work and post honest prices — the whole case for hiring you, in your own words and your own brand rather than Facebook's template.
It's also what earns you a place in Google's results for "[your service] in [your town]", and the same domain gives you a proper email address (you@yourbusiness.co.uk instead of a Gmail). That ownership — site, domain and email all yours — is the thing a Facebook page can never give you.
How the two work together
The honest setup isn't website instead of Facebook — it's a website you own at the centre, with the Facebook page (and a Google Business Profile) pointing at it. Facebook keeps the relationship warm with regulars and shows people you're active; the website is the home base that does the convincing, ranks in search and captures the enquiry.
Link the page to the site, keep your name, number and details matching across all three, and they read as one joined-up presence rather than scattered odds and ends. That's how I set things up for clients — website, Google Business Profile, hosting and email all pointing at each other.
So which should you sort first?
If a Facebook page is all you've got, the missing piece is the thing you own. A website — with a Google Business Profile alongside it — is what gets you found by people who don't already follow you, and what makes you look like a business worth calling. That's usually the higher-leverage next step, not more posting.
You don't have to choose between them, and you shouldn't. Keep the page for what it's good at, and add the website that does the jobs it can't.