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

Plenty of good businesses in Kerry run on a Facebook page, and for a while it works. It’s free, your customers are on it, and posting a photo of today’s work takes a minute. So why pay for a website?

Because a Facebook page is a stall in someone else’s market. It’s useful, often busy, and you don’t make the rules. Here’s an honest look at what Facebook does well, where it lets you down, and how to get the best of both.

What a Facebook page does well

• It’s free, and quick to update from your phone.
• Your regular customers already follow you there.
• Photos, events, offers and news are easy to share.
• People can message you, recommend you and tag their friends.

None of that goes away when you have a website. The question is whether Facebook should be all you have.

Where a Facebook page lets you down

You don’t own it

The platform decides how your page looks, who sees your posts and what you’re allowed to do. If you lose access to your account, or it gets locked, you can lose the page, the photos and years of recommendations with it.

Not everyone sees it

Not all of your customers use Facebook, and many visitors planning a trip to Kerry from abroad won’t think to look there. Even your own followers see only some of what you post.

Google searches happen somewhere else

When people need a plumber, a café or a guesthouse, many of them start on Google: “plumber Tralee”, “lunch Dingle”, “B&B near Killarney”. A Facebook page can turn up when someone searches for your business by name. For searches like those, you need pages written to answer them, and a Google Business Profile.

The important details get buried

Your prices are in a post from last spring. Your hours are in a comment. Your services are in a photo caption. Customers scroll, give up and contact someone whose information was easier to find.

It can look less established

When someone is choosing between two businesses they don’t know, a clear, professional website is often what tips the balance. Seeing only a Facebook page, some people will wonder how established you are.

What a website does that Facebook can’t

• It can be found for what you do, with a page for each service, written the way customers search.
• It’s yours: your domain, your content and your rules, for as long as you want it.
• It answers questions before people ask them: prices, areas, hours, how a job works.
• It turns visits into enquiries, with a clear button to get a quote, book or send a message.
• It lets you use a professional email address, such as info@yourbusiness.ie, instead of a free webmail account.
• It shows you what’s working: which pages people read and which searches bring them to you.

Use both: a simple set-up that works

1. Your website is home base: who you are, what you do, where, and how to get in touch.
2. Your Google Business Profile puts you on the map, and links to your website.
3. Your Facebook page is for conversation and news, and links back to your website for the details.

Keep your name, contact details and opening hours the same in all three places. When you post on Facebook about a new service or offer, link to the page on your website that explains it.

“I don’t have the time or the budget”

You don’t need a big website. A first website usually needs a home page that says what you do and where, a page for each main service, photos of your real work and an obvious way to get in touch. Our web design page explains what a first website includes.

And you don’t have to write it all yourself: we can help with the words too. Tell us about your business and you’ll get honest advice and a clear written quote, with no obligation.

Not sure what to ask before hiring anyone? Start with how to choose a web designer in Kerry.