If you’re a small business owner, you might be wondering if having a website is really necessary. After all, Facebook Pages are free to create, and they offer an easy way to connect with your customers and promote your business. So why bother with a website?
Well, there are actually quite a few good reasons to have a website for your business, even if you also have a Facebook Page. We will tell you why so you can keep from missing out.
Key Takeaways
1.You Retain Control with Your Own Website: With a website, you have complete control of the content and design. With a Facebook page you are limited to their terms and their desires for your business.
2. People can find you on Facebook, but they might not take you seriously or trust you if you don’t have a website. It does take more effort to make a complete website, but with a well crafted website consumers will have more confidence in your brand.
3. Google is still the #1 place to discover new businesses, websites help you leverage that much better. 84% of all searches online still happen on Google. So if you don’t have a website you severely limit the opportunities for potential customers to find and interact with your business.
4. A website gives you a place to showcase your products or services in with much more creativity. You have full creative control with your website which allows you to use a variety of tools and methods not available to Facebook.
5. Unlike a Facebook page, your website can serve as the online command center for your business. You get better analytics with a website and every social media platform integrates with a website. This allows you to leverage them all according to their strengths.
You Retain Control with Your Own Website
It may have crossed your mind to just create a Facebook page and call it a day for your online presence. After all, it’s free and easy to set up! And while this may be a good temporary start a facebook business page can never replace your own website. And having only a facebook web presence makes your small business more vulnerable to losses.
Facebook only provides you with standard design options which limits your options for customization, but more importantly your content could be restricted or removed at any time due to FB’s own terms and desires. Having your own website eliminates this problem since you have full control of your content. One of the biggest frustrations for business owners on Facebook is having your business suffer because of another company’s policy.
Facebook is going to focus on what is good for their business, not yours. The unfortunate truth is that your business goals may not exactly align with Facebook’s goals, particularly when they are under scrutiny. But owning your own website allows you to do exactly what is right for your own business. The big question to ask yourself is do you trust Facebook to take care of your business for you and have your best interest in mind?
Facebook also has a host of issues that make it critical for your business to have your own avenue for online exposure. When the Facebook web site has outages or goes down that means your web presence follows unless you have your own website. And this is an occurance that is not unheard of.
One of the other drawbacks when it comes to control is that you are limited to Facebook’s support if you only have a Facebook web presence. Many small business owners are discouraged because they don’t know how to build or maintain a professional website. This can lead them to what looks like an easy answer. But if things do not go well on Facebook, getting the support you need is not easy at all. As you build your business you need to know that you are going to get all the support you need to be successful. One of the best ways to get custom tailored support is to hire a digital marketing agency, which is not a difficult task, and it ensures you get the support you need.
A website as more credibility than a Facebook page
E-A-T or expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness – is everything when it comes to your online presence. Sure, people can find your facebook page on their platform, but it’s not always trustworthy to rely on a company without any proof. To build this proof it’s important to go beyond just a Facebook Business Page and create a website that truly reflects your brand. Despite the added effort it may take, this investment can pay off massively. Your business is less likely to be taken seariously if your E-A-T is lacking or doesn’t appear authentic.
Having a website trips the E-A-T meter for both consumers and Google and helps move people from internet acquaintance to customer status. A website is particularly helpful with authoritativeness and trust, particularly because of the effort it takes to build a good one. This shows your business is willing to put in the work necessary to serve your customers’ needs. And customers respect a company that is willing to put in the effort to do the hard work.
Websites are key because they provide complete information about a business in one place. Online marketing is highly driven by a companies ability to thoroughly answer users questions and solving their problems. When you compare the completeness of a facebook page to website you find a website is a massive part on online marketing that can’t be missed. It may take some effort and thought to craft the right website that accurately represents your brand, but the payoff is worth the investment. And as mentioned earlier there are many companies, like ours, that can do so within your budget.
Google is still the #1 place to discover new businesses
Google is still the most reliable place to search for new businesses and websites. As of November of 2022, 84% of all searches online were conducted on Google. So having a website can be the key difference in whether or not you get your business noticed. If potential customers aren’t able to find you through Google, they may resort to Facebook as an alternative, but this generally comes as a distant second or third option with more limited discoverability. Because of this limited discoverability and Facebook’s limited reach people don’t tend to look to Facebook to provide them with the information they need – hence why facebook results don’t rank as high as google search.
If you don’t have a website, there’s a significant group of people that will never come across your business, which limits the opportunities for them to purchase your products or services. Google is essential for online marketing because it is the largest and most reliable search engine used by billions of people around the world. So you will want to be in the places most trusted and deemed reliable. Consumers use Google to search for businesses, services and products.
Google search functions are more robust than Facebook search and this will be very important for you to get a leg up on the competition. Firstly, Google has a much larger and comprehensive index of websites that it indexes compared to Facebook. As such, when one is looking for something specific, they are much more likely to turn to Google instead of Facebook.
Having a website impacts your ranking in Google, and that can be the difference between whether or not someone finds you. With the right SEO, people may find your business easily no matter the size of your company. The value of a website is more than just discoverability; value is also found in information so they can make an informed decision, and processes handled by your website that make your job easier.
You can be far more creative with a website
With Facebook you are limited to their format. This mean you can’t place pictures or video where you want them, and you are even limited to the types of content you can display. This can be a huge let down when it comes to letting creativity lead your business forward.
With your own website you can make sure it goes on your own independent platform which gives you a lot more flexibility than what Faebook allows. If you want to add a custom function to help customers fill out order information you can do that on your website, but you can’t on facebook.
Are you selling a physical product? Well both facebook and google provide avenues for that. Facebook is the most limiting in terms of your options to set up an online shop, google provides you with more functions help people find your shop and it’s products, but the ultimate option is having your own store. There have better control of the forms of payments you accept, you have control over which fees you pay for, and on your website you can custom tailor the shopping experience to your customers preference instead of Facebook’s preference.
Something more on the technical side that you may not have heard of is schema markup. Schema markup is a form of microdata which is used to help search engines better understand the content of web pages. It is designed to provide a more detailed level of information about a webpage and its related content, enabling search engines to deliver more precise and relevant results. This type of structured data can be used on any type of website but you have no option for that on Facebook. So you will lose out on a very important tool for optimizing your online results.
A website can serve as a command center for your online presence
A website can be a powerful tool for an small business, as it serves as the online command center for their business. It gives better analytics than a Facebook page. With your own website you have the ability to integrate it with google analytics or use a variety of other tools to discover how people interact with your brand and make the experience better for them. This is a great way to get to know your customer base and make sure you keep them coming back for more.
Your own website can easily integrate with other social media platforms where facebook lacks. This lets you get the most out of each platform to maximize the potential of your brand. For example, you can offer promotional deals on Facebook, have discussions and engage with customers on Twitter, regular blog updates on your site, while using Instagram or Snapchat to showcase behind-the-scenes events and products launches. A website allows all these tools to work in harmony and accomplish more through synergy.
When you have your own website you are able to pick the strength from other social media platforms and reduce the ways you are limited on line. You have the ability to create a powerful online presence for your small business. With your own website and SEO, you can grow your brand, increase customer trust, and make sure you get the most out of your online presence. Each social media platform also have their own audiences which may not be the same on other platforms. So by leveraging them all through your website you are able to get the most exposure.
Making the decision to build your own website
Building your own website doesn’t have to be intimidating or difficult. We understand that a Facebook Business Page is appealing because it is free and simple. But free isn’t always the best option and having a professional page built can be simple as well.
When you invest in a website, make sure you find the right people to build it. At 5020 Growth Solutions we work diligently to create marketing and web design packages that fit into a variety of budgets. But even if you do not choose us for your online marketing needs there are lots of great options out there that wont cut corners.
