A website or just a Facebook page: what a small firm needs

A barber opens an Instagram account, posts haircuts and gets a few bookings through messages. That works, and nobody should be talked out of it. The question is what happens when the barber wants strangers searching "barber near me" to choose this shop, see the prices and book without a chat.

Who owns what

On a social page you own your photos and your words. You do not own the place. The platform decides how pages look, what is shown to whom and what search engines may see. Instagram's own help page is a clear example. It says Instagram "generally requests that search engines like Google and Microsoft Bing do not index the content of users' photos and videos". It makes an exception for photos and videos from public reels and posts uploaded from 1 January 2020 onwards, from accounts that are public, professional and held by someone over 18 (page opened 4 November 2026). Meta decided that rule, and Meta can change it.

On your own website you decide the address, the pages, the wording, the order and what Google can read. If you leave a hosting company, you take the site with you. If a platform changes its rules or closes an account, you have no such option, so keep your phone numbers and customer contacts somewhere you own too.

What a visitor without an account sees

Facebook's help page "Public information on Facebook" (opened 4 November 2026) says public information "can be seen by anyone, including non-friends, people off Facebook, and media outlets", and that posts and comments on Facebook Pages are public. We did not find a Meta statement on how a logged-out visitor is treated on a phone: whether they see the full page or a prompt to log in. That varies and can change. Test it yourself in two minutes: open your page in a private browser window on your phone, without logging in, and see what a stranger gets.

Findability on Google

Facebook's help page says public information can "show up when someone does a search on Facebook or on another search engine", and Instagram limits indexing of photos to the cases above. So a social page can be found, but you do not control how, and Instagram says the account type and the age of the post matter.

A website follows Google's usual path. Google says it finds pages when it "extracts a link from a known page to a new page", and also when you submit a list of pages, a sitemap (How Google Search works, opened 4 November 2026). The same page says "Google doesn't accept payment to crawl a site more frequently, or rank it higher". Neither a page nor a site buys a ranking. The difference is control: you choose the page titles, the town names and the services that a search can match.

If you are on the map, your Google profile has a field for your website (Edit your business information). A profile that links to a Facebook page works, but one that links to a site with prices and a contact form works better. We cover the pairing in Google profile and website.

What a page struggles with

We can only quote what Meta documents. Instagram describes professional accounts as having a Contact button for "directions, a phone number and an email address", a category label, insights and ads (About professional accounts). That is useful. What it does not describe is a layout you design: a price table at its own address, a quote form that asks five specific questions, a page per service and town, or a booking flow with your rules. Check each against your own page:

1. Can a customer see your price for the most common job in two taps?
2. Does each service have an address of its own that you can print on a van or a leaflet?
3. Can a customer send a request that arrives with all the details you need?
4. Can you change the order and wording of everything on the first screen?
5. Do you know what a stranger sees before logging in?

If you answer no to two or more, the page is not doing the job of a site. Online booking is its own decision: see online booking or phone.

When a social page alone is enough

A decision rule, ours, not a study:

• You sell to regulars and word of mouth, and nobody needs to compare you.
• You have no fixed prices to show and no forms to fill.
• You do not need strangers to find you on a search engine.
• You are happy to start over if the account is lost.

Four yes answers: stay on social and spend the time on good photos. Any no: build a site. A market stall, a hobby baker and a weekend photographer often fit. A heating firm, a dentist or a salon that wants new customers usually does not. What a site brings in general is in what a good website actually brings.

How to use both

Do not choose. Post on Instagram or Facebook where your customers already are, and treat the website as the home. Put the web address in every contact field the platform offers. Put the social links in the website footer. Show the same phone number, hours and address in all three places: the page, the Google profile and the site.

What we can do

Our draft in the builder carries no obligation and you pay only for a site you choose; the packages start at 390 EUR and are listed on Prices.