Website vs Facebook Page or Instagram: Do You Need Both?
Keep the page, add a website, and link them both ways. They do different jobs, and the job a social page isn’t built for is the one a stranger searching for you needs most.
The short answer: they do different jobs
If customers already find you on Facebook or Instagram, that page is working and you should keep it. The real question is what happens when someone who has never heard of you searches “bakery near me”, or your name, on Google, Maps or ChatGPT.
A social page is built for people who already follow you. A website is built for people who don’t know you yet. Most local businesses get the best result from both, linked to each other: the social page for what is new this week, the website for the facts that stay true for months.
What a Facebook page or Instagram profile does well
- Showing what is new. Today’s special, this week’s cakes, a finished kitchen, a fresh haircut. Feeds are made for a steady stream of photos and short videos.
- Talking with regulars. Comments, messages and stories keep you in touch with people who already like you, and bring them back.
- Reaching friends of customers. Shares, tags and check-ins put you in front of people your customers know.
- Costing nothing and taking minutes. Anyone with a phone can set one up and post the same day.
For many bars, bakeries, barbers and nail studios, a large part of the conversation with customers happens there. That is worth protecting, not replacing.
Where social pages fall short when someone searches locally
The gap shows up with people who don’t follow you yet. They search on Google or Maps, or ask an AI assistant, and they want five facts: are you open, where are you, what do you offer, roughly what does it cost, and how do I book or call. A social profile can hold those facts, but it isn’t organised around them.
- The facts sink into the feed. Hours, prices and the menu end up in a post from three months ago, under dozens of newer photos. The visitor has to scroll and guess whether it is still true.
- Not everyone can see it. Facebook and Instagram often interrupt visitors who aren’t logged in with a sign-in prompt, and plenty of future customers don’t use one platform or the other.
- Search engines and AI assistants read open web pages most easily. A website with your hours, address and services in plain text, plus structured data, gives Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini something clear to read and quote. Content behind a login is harder for them to use. More in how to get your business recommended by AI assistants.
- The Website button on Google Maps needs somewhere to go. Google’s guidelines for representing your business describe that field as a website that represents your business. A page that answers the five questions turns the tap into a visit; here is how to add a website to your Google Business Profile.
You rent the page; you own the address
A social page lives under the platform’s rules. The platform decides how many followers see each post, what the page looks like, and what happens if an account is locked, hacked or flagged by mistake. Those rules change, and a single business has little say in them.
A website address stays put. It goes on the shop door, the van, the receipts and the Maps listing, and it keeps working whatever you decide to do on social media. With your own domain, you can even move the site to a different provider and keep the same address.
What goes on the website and what goes on social
On the website, the things that stay true for months:
- What you do and where, in one line
- Opening hours, holidays included
- Address, directions and a tap-to-call number
- The menu or list of services, with prices where you can
- Booking or ordering links
- Answers to first-visit questions: parking, access, walk-ins, dietary options
- A few real customer reviews
On Facebook and Instagram, the things that are true this week:
- New dishes, products or finished work
- Events, offers and last-minute changes
- Behind the scenes and the people on the team
- Conversations, comments and messages
A useful rule: if a fact would need reposting every week to stay visible, it belongs on the website. The full list of website items is in the small business website checklist.
How to link your website, Facebook and Instagram together
- Put the website address in your Instagram bio and in the website field of your Facebook page, so followers who want the facts are one tap away.
- Link your social profiles from the website, usually near the contact details, so visitors who like what they see can follow you.
- Use both fields on your Google Business Profile. The website goes in the Website field. Google also lets you add social media links to your Business Profile, though its help center notes the option is available only in select regions.
- Keep the facts identical everywhere. Same name, phone and hours on the site, the listing and the social pages. When hours change, change all three on the same day.
- Point posts back to the site when the answer lives there: “full menu on our website”, “book from the link in our bio”.
Trades that lean hardest on Instagram, like bars and bakeries, have their own guides: the bar and pub website guide and the bakery website guide show how the two fit for each.
If you only have time for one thing this week
If your business is on Google Maps, the quickest way to add the website half is to build it from that listing. With blasa, you paste your Maps link on blasa.shop and create your website for free. A few minutes later it is live at yourbusiness.blasa.shop, written from your real reviews, photos, hours and listing data, with nothing to write and no template to pick.
It covers the “true for months” list above: a tap-to-call button, Get directions with an embedded map, a live “Open now” badge, the dishes or services reviews mention most, real review quotes, a FAQ answered from reviews, and Book or Order online buttons when your listing carries those links. Instagram, Facebook or website links that appear on your Google listing are shown in the site’s contact block, so the website and your social pages point to each other from day one. The River Cafe in Dublin is one example: a breakfast café whose site covers its menu favourites, parking and gluten-free options.
The small business website builder page has the overview, and the guide to getting a free website for your small business compares every free option.
When a social page alone can be enough
To be fair to the other side, there are cases where a website adds little, at least for now:
- You sell only to people who already follow you, like a home baker taking orders by message from a known circle.
- You have no fixed place or hours yet, such as a pop-up still trying out locations.
- You are fully booked through word of mouth and not looking for new customers.
Once you have a fixed address and a Google Maps listing, and you want strangers to find you, a website starts doing work a social page isn’t built for. Why your local business needs a website goes into that in more detail.
Questions people actually ask
Do I need a website if I have a Facebook page?
If you want people who don’t follow you yet to find you, yes. A Facebook page is good for news and conversations with regulars, while a website gives Google, Maps and AI assistants an open page with your hours, address, services and booking links. Most local businesses do best with both, linked to each other.
Is Instagram enough for my small business?
Instagram is enough to show your work and talk with followers, and some businesses run mostly on it. It is weaker for strangers searching on Google or Maps, because the facts they need sit in a feed and visitors without an account may be asked to log in. A simple website linked from your bio covers that gap.
Can I put my Instagram link in the Website field on Google Maps?
Many businesses do, but Google’s guidelines describe the Website field as a website that represents your business, and a feed answers a Maps searcher’s questions less directly than a page built for them. In some regions Google also offers separate social media links on the Business Profile. A website in the Website field and Instagram in the social links gives each its own place.
Does a Facebook page show up on Google?
Often, yes, when someone searches your exact business name. For searches like “pizza near me” or “emergency plumber in Leeds”, results are mostly Business Profiles on the map and websites. A page with your trade, town and services in plain text has a better chance of matching those searches.
Which should I set up first, a website or a social page?
Start with your Google Business Profile, because it is what puts you on Google Maps; here is how to add your business to Google Maps. Then a website, so the profile’s Website button has somewhere to go, then the social pages you will actually post on. A site built from your Maps listing connects the first two the same day.