Most owners I ring already have a Facebook page. It gets a few likes, it takes the odd message, and it costs nothing. So the Facebook page or website question comes up on nearly every call, and it deserves a straight answer.
Here it is. Facebook is great for regulars. A website is for the people who have never heard of you yet.
What a Facebook page does well
Facebook is good at keeping in touch with people who already know you. Regulars see your posts. Friends share your offers. Messages come in and you reply from your phone while the kettle boils.
For a lot of small businesses that is how the first few years go, and it works. It is also free, which matters when every pound counts.
Where a Facebook page lets you down
Three things go wrong once you rely on Facebook alone.
- New people can't find you. Someone typing "barber near me" or "dog groomer in Crosby" gets a page of Google results. Your Facebook page is rarely one of them, and when it is, it sits behind a login prompt.
- Not everyone uses Facebook. Plenty of people deleted it years ago. Plenty more never had it. To them, a business with no website looks like it might not exist any more.
- Google and AI tools struggle to read it. A Facebook page is built for Facebook. A website is built to be read by anything, including the search engines and the AI assistants people now ask for recommendations.
That last point matters more every year. More than a third of UK consumers (36.7%) used AI to find a local business in the past month, according to a Yext study of 600 UK consumers in June 2026. Those tools read websites. They do not scroll your Facebook feed.
Facebook page or website? Honestly, you want both
This is not a case of one or the other. Keep the Facebook page. It is where your regulars are, and it is a good place to post what's new.
Then add a website that does the jobs Facebook can't. It tells a stranger what you do, where you are, when you're open and how to book, in about ten seconds, on their phone. It links to your Google listing so your reviews and your website work together. And it gives you a proper chance of being found by the people who are looking right now.
The two feed each other. Your Facebook posts can point at the website. Your website can show the Facebook page and your Instagram, so people who like that sort of thing can follow along.
What the website needs to do
Not much, done well. For most local businesses that means:
- what you do and who it's for, in plain words
- your prices or your menu
- your opening hours and how to find you
- your real photos, not stock ones
- one big button to book, order or call
That is five pages at most. You can see exactly what I include on the pricing page, and there are no monthly fees.
The easy way to find out
You don't have to take my word for any of this. I build your website first, for free, using the photos, prices and reviews you've already got on Facebook and Google. You get a link on your phone within a week.
If you love it, it's a one-off £595 and it's yours. If you don't, delete the message and you owe me nothing. Here's how it works, or tell me about your business and I'll get started.
