Do I need a website if I have a Facebook page?

What Facebook does well

There's a reason so many trades start on Facebook. It's free, it's quick to set up, and it's where a lot of local people already spend their time.

• Recommendations. Happy customers can recommend you in a couple of taps, and their friends see it.
• Photos of your work. Posting a finished job takes a minute from your phone.
• Local groups. When someone asks "anyone know a good plumber?", your name can come up.
• Messages. People can get in touch without picking up the phone.

If most of your work comes from word of mouth and repeat customers, that might be all you need for now. The problems start when you want work from people who don't already know you.

Where Facebook falls short

People search Google, not Facebook

When someone's boiler packs in or they want a new carpet, they usually type something like "plumber Sheffield" or "carpet fitter near me" into Google. Facebook pages rarely show up near the top for searches like that. What does show up is the Google map, websites, and directories like Checkatrade and Yell.

If you only have a Facebook page, you're mostly invisible to people who are actively looking for your trade.

Not everyone uses Facebook

Some customers don't have an account, and some won't log in just to look you up. Facebook often nudges people who aren't logged in to sign up before they can see much. A website opens for anyone, on any phone, straight away.

You don't own it

Your Facebook page lives on Facebook's terms. If your account gets locked or hacked, or Facebook changes how pages work, you can lose your reviews and photos overnight, with very little you can do about it. A website on your own domain is yours.

The important stuff gets buried

On Facebook, your newest post is the first thing people see. What you actually do, the areas you cover, and how to get a price are scattered through months of posts. A customer comparing three trades on their phone won't scroll that far.

Enquiries end up all over the place

Messenger chats, comments and missed calls are easy to lose track of. A quote form on a website asks the questions you'd ask anyway, like the job, the postcode and a phone number, and sends it all straight to your email in one place.

The best of both

It isn't Facebook or a website. They do different jobs:

• Facebook keeps you in front of local people and collects recommendations.
• Your Google Business Profile gets you on the map. It's free, and every trade should have one.
• Your website is where it all points: what you do, where you work, your best reviews and photos, and an easy way to ask for a price. It's also what Google uses to work out what you do and where.

You don't have to post on your website the way you do on Facebook. A trade website mostly stays the same. Keep posting jobs on Facebook, and let the website link to it.

A real example

Brandon at BDL Carpets & Vinyl in Sheffield had brilliant Facebook recommendations, but nowhere to send people who wanted a price. I built him a website on his own domain with his Facebook recommendations shown as proper reviews, a gallery of real fits, the areas he covers and a quote form that lands in his inbox. It also set up his Google Business Profile properly. His Facebook page carries on as before, and now it has somewhere to send people. Read the BDL case study.

Signs it's time for a website

• You'd like more work from people who don't already know you.
• Customers ask "have you got a website?" and you don't have an answer.
• You've got great reviews on Facebook, but nobody outside Facebook sees them.
• Enquiries get lost between Messenger, texts and missed calls.
• Competitors with worse reviews show up on Google above you.