Do I need a website if I have a Facebook page?
Keep the Facebook page. That's the first thing worth saying, because most articles on this question open by telling you your page is worthless, and it isn't.
It's also worth clearing up two claims you'll read everywhere, because both are out of date and once you notice they're wrong it's fair to distrust the rest of the argument.
"Facebook pages don't show up on Google." They do. A business page is indexed and often ranks for the business name, sometimes above the website.
"You can't take bookings or enquiries on Facebook." You can. Facebook has had appointment booking, Book Now buttons and messaging for years, and for plenty of businesses they work fine.
So if someone tells you those things. They're selling you something with a bad argument. Here's the real one.
The actual difference is ownership
Your page, your reach, your reviews and your photos all sit on somebody else's platform. That means three things:
The rules change without asking you. Organic reach for business pages has fallen steadily for a decade. What got 500 people last year might get 40 now. Nothing you did caused it and nothing you do fixes it.
The layout isn't yours. Every business on Facebook looks the same. You can't lead with the thing that actually makes you different. You get the same header, the same tabs, the same order as the panelbeater down the road.
If the account is ever locked. You lose the lot at once. Not just posts, reviews, messages, photos, the audience. Recovering a locked business account is famously difficult, and there is no one to ring. This is the argument. Everything else is a detail.
A website is the one thing online that's genuinely yours.
What each one is actually good at
They do different jobs, and businesses that do well online usually run both.
Facebook is good at reach. It's where people who weren't looking for you find you. It's where regulars see you're doing a Christmas special. It's social proof in public.
A website is good at converting. It's where somebody who's already interested goes to check you're real, see what things cost, and decide to ring. It answers questions in a specific order that you chose. It works for people who have never heard of you and are searching for a service, not a name.
Put simply: Facebook is how they find you, the website is where they decide.
When a page really is enough
Sometimes it is, and we'd rather say so.
If you're fully booked on word of mouth, if you don't want more customers, or if you're testing an idea and don't know yet whether it's a business, a Facebook page is a perfectly sensible place to be. Don't spend money to look serious.
When it isn't
- When people search for what you do, not who you are. "Emergency plumber Newtown" isn't a Facebook search.
- When you need to explain prices, packages or process. That's hard in a feed and easy on a page.
- When you're quoting for bigger jobs, where a stranger is deciding whether to trust you with real money.
- When you've had a scare, a hacked account, a wrongly flagged post, and realised how much sits somewhere you don't control.
The middle path
You don't have to choose. Keep the page for reach, add a site as the address you own, and link them to each other. Most of our customers keep posting exactly as they did. They just have somewhere to send people now.
You keep your existing domain, email and Google listing too. None of that has to move.