Do You Need a Website If You Have a Facebook Page?

Think of it this way: your website is the house you own; your Facebook page is a booth you rent in someone else's mall. Both can bring in customers. But you build your business on the one you own.

Why a Facebook page alone is not enough

A Facebook page is great at one job: keeping you social with people who already know you. The problem is that most new customers do not start on Facebook. They start on Google. And that is exactly where a page falls short.

Here is what a Facebook page cannot do for a local business.

1. Less control over your visibility in Google

A Facebook page can appear in Google search results. A website gives you more control over content, design, service pages and the enquiry process. A complete Google Business Profile also helps customers find your business locally. None of these guarantees a search ranking.

This matters because roughly 76% of consumers look at a business's online presence before they ever visit in person, and the vast majority of those journeys begin with a Google or Maps search. If you are not in the search results, you are invisible at the exact moment someone is ready to buy. A website plus a strong Google profile and reviews is how you get found.

2. You do not own your audience or your data

On Facebook, you do not own your followers. Meta does. The platform decides who sees your posts, changes the rules whenever it likes, and can restrict, hack, or wrongly disable your page with little warning and almost no recourse. If that page is your only online presence, your business can vanish overnight.

A website is different. You own the domain, the content, and the customer list you build from it. No algorithm change can take that away. You are not renting your reach; you have property.

3. Your reach has quietly collapsed

Even your own fans rarely see your Facebook posts anymore. Average organic reach for a business-page post has fallen to roughly 1% to 3% of your followers, down from around 16% a decade ago. Median engagement sits near a fraction of a percent. In plain terms: if 1,000 people like your page, a typical post might reach only 10 to 30 of them unless you pay to boost it. You built that audience, but you have to keep paying to talk to it.

4. It cannot take bookings and payments on your terms

A website can let a customer book an appointment, pay a deposit, join a waitlist, or order ahead in a few taps, around the clock, with no back-and-forth. A Facebook page mostly pushes people into a messy DM thread, and any booking tools you bolt on live inside Facebook's walls and rules. For a service business, frictionless booking is the difference between a captured customer and a lost one.

5. It does not give you full control or full trust

Your Facebook page looks like everyone else's Facebook page. You cannot fully control the layout, the branding, the speed, or what shows up next to your content. That hurts credibility, and the data is blunt about it:

• 84% of U.S. consumers believe a business with a website is more credible than one that has only a social media page.
• About 75% of people judge a company's credibility based on its website design alone.
• Around 81% of shoppers research a business or product online before they buy.
• Roughly 27% to 29% of small businesses still have no website, which means the ones that do stand out instantly.

A polished, fast website signals that you are real, established, and safe to spend money with. A page alone leaves that judgment to chance.

Website vs. Facebook page: what each one actually does

This is not an either-or fight. It is about using each tool for what it is good at. Here is the honest side-by-side.

The takeaway: keep the Facebook page, but make a website your home base. Social posts, ads, and your Google profile should all point back to the site you own.

What a simple, effective website actually needs

Good news: you do not need a 30-page site, a blog, or a shopping cart to win local customers. A small service business only needs a handful of things done well.

• What you do and what it costs — clear services and pricing.
• Hours, location, and a map — so people can find and visit you.
• Your phone number with a click-to-call button — tappable on a phone.
• Online booking or a contact form — so customers act in the moment.
• Real photos of your space, your team, and your work.
• A few real customer reviews for instant trust.
• Fast loading and a clean mobile layout — most local searches happen on a phone, and people form an opinion of a site in about 50 milliseconds.

That is it. One focused page or a small five-page site that loads fast and looks right on a phone beats a sprawling, slow website every time.

How much does it cost, and how fast can it be live?

A professional small-business website is more affordable than most owners expect. Typical one-time costs run from roughly $500 to $5,000, with most functional, mobile-ready local sites landing in the low-to-mid thousands, plus a small yearly fee for your domain and hosting. DIY builders can cost only a few hundred dollars a year, but you pay for the discount with your own time and a lower-quality result.

Website: $500 one time for up to 5 pages in English and French, live within 7 business days. Optional care: Essential at $99/month (hosting, your domain, security updates and 30 minutes of edits) or Growth at $199/month (adds Google Business Profile upkeep, review requests and a monthly report). Care has a 3-month minimum, then month to month. CAD, taxes extra. Full terms on the pricing page. Further reading: how to collect more honest Google reviews

Your website goes live within 7 business days of receiving your logo, photos and details. You get a preview and one round of revisions before launch. Payment is 50% to start and 50% at launch. Any booking or calendar connection quoted as custom work is tested before it goes live.

The bottom line

Keep your Facebook page for updates and conversation, but give your business a home you own: a fast, clear website with your services, hours, a click-to-call button and a simple way to send a request. A complete Google Business Profile then points people to it. None of this guarantees a search ranking, but it gives customers what they need to choose you.