Absolutely yes! Without a doubt; Yes! Your business needs a professional website. Regardless of how great your Facebook and Instagram pages are, your business needs a website. It is the foundation of your online presence. It is where your customers can access all the information they need about your business. Not having a website sows a seed of doubt in your potential customers minds; are you really a professional or are you an over optimistic amateur or worse a conman who is going to take your money never to be seen again!

Facebook and Instagram provide business owners a free platform to interact with prospects and customers, but it isn’t enough. Whilst there isn’t anything wrong with promoting your business on social media, and you absolutely should be doing so. There are also situations where your social media pages are all you need, but, if you are a professional and serious about your business then a website is a essential, not an option. 

 

Firstly, not everyone is on Facebook or Instagram! Both appeal to specific groups and ages. Depending on the demographic of your target market you may be missing out on a large proportion of your potential customers. People view different social media platforms in particular ways. Many people refuse to engage with social media full stop or don’t think about it as a place to go when looking for a product or service.

As Instagram is an image (not content) focused platform we will look at why having just a Facebook page isn’t enough.

Here are five reasons why you still need a website, even if you already have a Facebook page for your business.

Your Facebook page is a predefined template that can’t be changed or modified. The only thing you can do it to personalize it is – add your profile picture, cover photo, apps. This is a significant limitation.

Your website is your window facing out on to the online world. You can showcase your brand the way you want to. You have much more control over the impression you want to give prospects and customers. A business website is more professional and credible. Your Facebook business page is free – but do you really want to give the impression that you can’t afford a professional business website? What assumption will a customer make from that, will you cut corners on the other tools or materials used for your business?

Restricted Functionality

You can’t do much on your Facebook page. It provides you with insufficient features to share your business details. Even the provided About section has quite restricting options. You can’t share the information regarding your services, pricing, team members and more unless you create a separate app for each one of them. It for sure isn’t free. Might as well you build your own website that can be designed to suit your brand.

As mentioned above, it is unlikely that all your target market use Facebook! And, even if they are, for them to get all your notifications, they need to like your page. Furthermore, not necessarily people who liked your page will see your updates.  Your updates and posts will can also very easily get lost in the millions of other posts on appearing on your  potential customers wall.

Additionally, an estimated 42% of users took a 'Facebook break'  last year so your marketing strategy needs to incorporate multiple channels and your website definitely needs to factor in that strategy.

Ask yourself, what do you do when you need a plumber or a mechanic or when you are looking for a new place to go? Do you ‘Google it’ or do you search Facebook. I bet it is the former. That is certainly what the vast majority of us do!

Search engines may index Facebook pages but your website gives you the ability to optimize for a specific set of keywords relevant to your business which makes you easier to find. You can have more content on your website. More content means more keywords which means more appearances in searches.

People trust companies with both a Facebook page and website more than the ones with just a Facebook page. If you just have a Facebook page then you may lose out to another company who has both. It comes back to credibility again. If your prospective customer has many companies to choose from then, not having a website becomes an easy way to shorten the list. You don’t need a state of the art website but you do need a website that is user-friendly and search engine optimized.

Hopefully now you are convinced, if you weren't before, that a website is essential if you want to project a professional image and and enable your prospective customers to find you.  But what about the expense?  You may not have thousands of pounds to spare to have a website built for you or have the time and expertise to build your own.  If this is the case then get in touch as we can provide you with a state of the art website for a modest all inclusive monthly fee.