Do I Need a Website if I Already Have Facebook and a Google Listing?
Fair question. Plenty of successful small businesses get along for years without a website. Customers find them on Facebook, they show up on Google Maps, the phone rings. So why pay for one more thing?
Here’s our honest take on what each piece does well, where it comes up short, and how to tell what your business actually needs. (Yes, we build websites. We’ll try to keep that out of the way.)
What your Google Business Profile is good at
Your Google Business Profile is the listing that shows up on Google Maps and on the right side of search results, with your hours, phone number, directions, photos and reviews. For a lot of local searches, it’s the first thing a customer sees, before any website.
It’s free, and it’s very good at answering quick questions: Are you open? Where are you? What do other people say about you? If you only do one thing online, claim and complete this.
The catch is you don’t control the layout, there’s only so much room to explain what you do, and Google decides what to show. If you ever searched for “Google Business Profile website,” you may remember that Google used to let you build a simple site from your profile. Google turned those sites off in 2024, and the old addresses stopped working. Businesses that relied on them as their only “website” had to find something else. Free tools can change or vanish on someone else’s schedule.
What Facebook (and Instagram) are good at
Social media is where your regulars keep up with you. It’s great for photos of new work, this week’s special, a closed-for-weather notice, an event, or a new hire. It feels personal, and it’s where a lot of word of mouth happens.
But it has limits. Not everyone’s on it, and some people won’t log in just to see your page. Even your followers won’t see everything you post. And try finding a business’s price list or service area by scrolling a Facebook feed. Customers won’t do that for long.
The bigger issue is that you’re renting. Your page lives on someone else’s platform, under their rules. Accounts get hacked or locked, and getting one back can take a while. Ask around and you’ll probably find someone in town who’s been through it.
What a website is good at
A website is the one place online that’s fully yours. It’s home base, and the other two point back to it.
It can answer the whole question in one spot: services, prices or a menu, hours, service area, photos, how to book. On your terms, not a platform’s.
It also helps you get found for specific searches. A page about each main service gives Google something to match when someone searches for exactly that. A Facebook post from last March usually doesn’t.
And it builds trust. When someone hears about you from a neighbor, they often look you up before they call. A clean site that works on a phone tells them you’re real and still open. Your domain stays in your name, too, no matter what any platform decides next year.
So, do you need all three?
It depends on how customers find you.
You can probably wait on a website if nearly all your work comes from repeat customers and referrals, you’re booked out, and nobody new needs to find you. In that case, a complete Google profile and an active Facebook page might be enough for now.
You need one if you want new customers who don’t know you yet, you offer several distinct services, you want to run ads, people ask the same questions over and over (prices, hours, area served), or you’d be in real trouble if your Facebook page got locked tomorrow.
For most local businesses that want to grow, our answer is yes, use all of them. They help each other. Your Google profile links to your site. Your site matches the hours and phone number on your profile. Your social posts send people to a page where they can book or call.
It doesn’t have to be a big project
A lot of owners put off a website because they picture months of work and a giant bill. For many small businesses, one well-built page does the job: what you do, where you work, your hours, a few real photos, a contact form and a big tap-to-call button.
That’s basically our Starter site: one scrolling page with a contact form, click-to-call, a map and Google Business Profile setup, for $499. If you need more room, Business ($1,199) gives you up to 5 pages, with a page for each service. Every site we build has SEO included, meaning a unique title and description for each page, clean headings, image descriptions and local business markup so Google knows who you are and where you work. Your first year of hosting is included, and your domain stays in your name.
Keeping it all current without losing your evenings
The real problem usually isn’t setting these up. It’s keeping them going. Hours change, holidays come around, and posting on social media is the first thing to slide when you get busy.
Some habits that help, whether you do it yourself or not:
- Pick a pace you can keep. A couple of posts a week, every week, beats a burst of ten and then two months of silence.
- Use your own photos. Your phone camera is fine. Real work and real people do better than stock images.
- Update holiday hours early, on your Google profile and your website at the same time.
- Ask for reviews every time. A short link or a QR code by the register makes it easy.
If you’d rather hand it off, that’s what our monthly plans are for. Essentials ($79/mo) covers 2 Google posts a month and 5 social posts a month on 2 platforms. Growth adds weekly Google posts and 12 social posts a month on 2 platforms, plus a monthly email newsletter. You approve every post before it goes out. With a new site or a site redo, Growth is first 3 months free (starting when your site launches), then $149/mo. After that it renews monthly at $149. No long-term contract. Cancel anytime with 30 days’ notice.
Our take
Keep using Facebook and your Google listing. They’re great. Just remember they’re rented space, and a simple website is the one piece you actually own.
Not sure which setup fits your business? Tell us how customers find you today, and we’ll send a flat-price quote in writing with a mockup of your new homepage.