Why Facebook isn't enough for small businesses
A Facebook page feels like a website, costs nothing, and quietly caps how many customers you can reach. Here's the trade you're making.
Facebook is a great place to prove you exist. It's a terrible place to be the only place you exist.
The four things a page can't do
- Rank for what people search. Nobody types "plumber near me" into Facebook. Search happens on Google, and Google ranks pages, not posts.
- Convert on your terms. No custom quote flow, no booking, no upsell path, no analytics worth the name.
- Survive a policy change. Organic reach for local pages has fallen for a decade and will keep falling. You do not control that dial.
- Belong to you. Account locked, page hacked, wrong appeal outcome, and your entire customer list is gone.
Rented land vs owned land
Social platforms are rented land. You build a shopfront, they own the street, and they can change the rent, the footpath or the opening hours whenever they want. A website is the only piece of your online presence you own outright.
The right split
- Facebook / Instagram: proof, personality, recent work, community
- Website: search visibility, credibility, conversion, email capture
- Google Business Profile: the map pack and "open now" searches
Every social post should point somewhere you own. That's the whole strategy.
A realistic starting point
You don't need twenty pages. You need: home, one page per service, service areas, about, contact, fast, honest, and yours. See Website Development, or if you want the posting handled too, Social Media Management.