Facebook Page vs. Website: Which One Does Your Business Really Need?

Let's give Facebook its due first. For a lot of small businesses it's where the first customers came from. You posted photos of a job, a neighbor shared it, and the phone rang. It costs nothing, it takes ten minutes to set up, and a lot of your town checks it every day. If the question were "should I have a Facebook page," the answer is yes.

The question owners actually ask us is different: "Can I just use Facebook instead of a website?" And the answer to that one is no. Here's why, with the honest version of what each does well.

What a Facebook page does well

• It's free and fast. No cost, no setup, no technical anything.
• Your customers are already there. Especially in a small town, where community groups do a lot of the recommending.
• It's good for the running story of the business. Today's job, this week's special, a storm update, a new hire. Quick posts with a photo.
• Reviews and recommendations happen there naturally. People tag you in "anyone know a good electrician?" threads.
• Messenger is an easy way for some customers to reach you.

None of that goes away when you get a website. Keep doing it.

Where a Facebook page falls short

1. You don't own it, and there's no one to call

Your page belongs to Meta. Pages get restricted, hacked, or shut down over a flagged post or a stolen login every day, and there is no phone number to call to get it back. We've talked to owners who lost years of reviews and photos overnight. Your website and your domain name are yours. Nobody can take them, and the renewal goes on your card, not someone else's rules.

2. Most of your followers never see your posts

Facebook decides who sees what. A typical business page post reaches only a small fraction of the people who follow it, often in the low single digits as a percentage, unless you pay to boost it. You are renting visibility one post at a time. A website shows the same thing to every visitor, every time, for free.

3. It barely shows up in Google

When someone searches "tree removal Middletown CT," Google shows websites and Google Business Profiles. Facebook pages rarely make the first page, and even when they do, visitors who aren't logged in hit a wall asking them to sign in. Your website can rank for your services and your towns, which is where the customers who don't already know you come from.

4. Not everyone is on Facebook

Plenty of people have left it or never used it, and the younger end of your customer base is somewhere else entirely. A website is open to everyone, on any device, with no account.

5. It can't answer the basic questions well

What services do you offer, what areas do you cover, what's the process, what does it cost, what do your past jobs look like? On Facebook that's scattered across posts that are buried in a week. On a website it's organized into pages a customer can scan in a minute, and that Google can read.

6. It looks like everyone else's

Same blue header, same layout, same fonts. You get a logo and a cover photo. A website is the one place online that looks like your business and nobody else's, which is a big part of looking established.

7. The AI tools don't use it

More people are asking ChatGPT, Google's AI results, and similar tools to recommend businesses. Those tools pull their answers from websites and Google Business Profiles. A Facebook page mostly isn't part of what they read.

Side by side

Website column reflects a Beacon Web Works site. Pricing is on our pricing page.

How to use both, the right way

The businesses that do this well treat the website as home base and Facebook as the place they go to meet people and bring them home. In practice:

• Put your website address on your Facebook page in the About section, the "Website" field, and the button at the top ("Get Quote" or "Learn More" pointing to your site).
• End posts with a link. "See more of our deck work at [your site]/gallery." Each post is a doorway, not the destination.
• Keep the permanent stuff on the website. Services, service area, pricing, process, reviews, photos of your best work. Keep the daily stuff on Facebook.
• Collect reviews on Google, not just Facebook. Google reviews show up in search and on your website. Facebook reviews mostly stay on Facebook. Ask for Google first.
• Put your Facebook link on your website too, in the footer. People who want the running story can find it.
• Turn on two-factor authentication on your Facebook account today. Most of the "my page got hacked" stories we hear would have been prevented by that one setting.

What to do with your Facebook page once you have a website

Nothing dramatic. Keep posting the way you do now. Add your website address to the page and start pointing posts at it. Over a few months you'll notice the questions in Messenger drop, because people found the answer on the site, and the calls you get are from people who already know what you do and what you charge. That's the whole point.

Common questions

The bottom line

Facebook is a great place to be seen. It's a bad place to live. Keep the page, use it to meet people, and send them somewhere you own, where every visitor sees the same thing, Google can find it, and nobody can lock you out. If you've been running on Facebook alone, request a free home page design below and see what your business would look like with a real home online. No obligation either way.

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