Do I need a website if I'm on Facebook?

If you run a local service business, a Facebook Page can feel like enough. People you know can find you, you can post a photo after a job, and you did not have to buy a domain. The question still comes up, usually after someone says they tried to look you up and could not find a site.

A Facebook Page is useful. It is not the same thing as a website you own.

What a Facebook Page actually is

Facebook’s own help says Pages are for businesses, brands, organisations and public figures to share updates and connect with people. You create one from a personal Facebook account, add a name and category, then add details such as contact information and hours. The Page lives on Facebook’s website, at a facebook.com address.

That last part matters. Your Page is a profile on someone else’s platform. Facebook decides the layout, what appears around your posts, and how much a visitor sees if they are not signed in.

Facebook’s set-up guide for a business Page even asks you to add a website, along with address, hours and services. The Page is built on the idea that there is somewhere else to send people.

What a Facebook Page does well

For a plumber, hairdresser, clinic or gardener, a Page is a reasonable place to:

1. Share recent work with people who already follow you.
2. Reply to comments from customers who use Facebook.
3. Point existing customers to a phone number or a booking message.

If your work comes from people who already know you, and they are happy to message you there, the Page is doing a job.

Where it falls short for new customers

New customers often do not start on Facebook. They type a trade and a town into Google, or they open Maps. Facebook does not control those results.

Google’s notes on crawling describe how Googlebot finds web pages on the open web so they can appear in Search. A Page on facebook.com is Facebook’s page, not a site that is clearly yours. Google may still show a Facebook result. That is not the same as a page you control, with your own address, that you can print on a van or send in a text.

A few practical problems show up again and again:

1. The address is a Facebook URL. It is harder to say out loud, harder to print, and easy to mistype.
2. People who do not have a Facebook account, or who will not log in, may see a limited view.
3. If the account is restricted, disabled, or the Page name changes, your public presence can vanish with it. You do not hold the keys in the same way you do with a domain you control.
4. The Page is a feed. Services, areas covered, and how to get a quote can sit under older posts.

None of that means you should delete the Page. It means the Page is a channel, not a home.

Google already expects a website you can share

If you have a Google Business Profile, Google’s help on editing your profile lets you add a website URL so customers can leave Search or Maps and read more on your site. You enter the full address, including https, and you should not block Googlebot.

You can add and verify a Business Profile at no charge. The profile and the website do different jobs. The profile is how you appear on Maps. The website is the page you own, where you can spell out the work you do, the towns you cover, and how to contact you, without a social feed getting in the way.

Google’s SEO starter guide is written for people who have a website. It talks about helping search engines understand your content so that people can find it. There is no promise of first place, and no shortcut. There is a clear assumption: you have pages on a site that Google can crawl.

A Facebook Page does not replace that.

What a simple website is for

For a local service business, a first website does not need a shop, a members’ area, or a long blog. It needs to answer the questions a stranger has before they ring:

1. What do you do?
2. Where do you do it?
3. How do I contact you?
4. Are you a real business I can look up?

A home page, a services page, and a contact page are enough to start. Add a link to your Google Business Profile so people can read reviews. Keep the phone number visible on a mobile screen. Write the towns and villages you actually cover, not a vague line about working everywhere.

That is also what we put on a free one-page website. You keep that page, hosted on ripplekeep.com. Website is £95 a year if you want up to 5 pages on your own domain.

Facebook and a website can sit together

You do not have to choose. A useful setup looks like this:

1. A short website you control, with services, area, and a phone number.
2. A Google Business Profile that points at that website, and collects reviews.
3. A Facebook Page that points at the same website and the same phone number.

When the facts match, people trust what they find. When the Page says one number, the Profile says another, and there is no site, they hesitate.

Reviews still matter, and they live on Google, not on your Facebook wall. A free health check is a 30-minute look at your Google rating, how recently reviews arrive, how you reply, and who appears nearby. That is separate from the website. If you already get work from Facebook, Google reviews are often the gap. Send a message if you would rather write than book a time.

A straight answer

If the only people who hire you already know you, and they are happy to find you on Facebook, you can keep going with a Page for a while.

If you want strangers in your town to find you on Google, to tap a number that still works in a year’s time, and to land on a page that is clearly yours, you need a website. The Page can stay. It should not be the only place you exist online.