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Website or Facebook page: what does a small business really need?

A Facebook or Instagram page is useful for staying in touch with people who already know you. A website is how you get found by people who don’t know you yet: on Google, on Maps and in AI assistants’ answers. Most businesses need both, plus an up-to-date Google profile.

By Jules Rouilly · Updated on

What a Facebook or Instagram page does well

  • It is free and takes ten minutes to set up.
  • It shows life at your business: the dish of the day, a new delivery, the team, the job in progress.
  • It lets you answer messages and get a reaction from an existing community.

What it doesn’t do

  • It doesn’t get you found. Someone searching Google for “caterer Etterbeek” lands on websites and Google profiles, rarely on a Facebook post.
  • It doesn’t belong to you. An account can be suspended, an algorithm can decide your posts no longer get shown. You are building on someone else’s land.
  • It buries the essentials. Your hours, menu and prices get lost between posts. A customer in a hurry gives up.
  • It reassures less. For many customers, a business without a website looks less established, especially for a bigger spend (a caterer, a tradesperson, a hotel).
  • AI assistants rarely read it. Ask ChatGPT or Perplexity “which restaurant in Woluwe” and they mostly rely on open web pages, listings and reviews.

What a website adds

A website puts everything customers look for in one place: what you do, your prices, your hours, where you are, how to reach you. Google, Bing and AI assistants can read it, in several languages. And it is yours: your domain name, your content, your rules.

The trio that works

  1. 01

    A Google Business Profile

    Free. It puts you on Google Maps, with your hours and reviews.

  2. 02

    A website

    The detail the profile cannot hold, and the page your profile and social accounts point to.

  3. 03

    One or two social networks

    Instagram, TikTok or Facebook depending on your customers, to keep in touch.

When can you do without a website?

Honestly: if your order book is full thanks to word of mouth and you are not looking for new customers, a well-kept Google profile can be enough for a while. As soon as you want strangers to find you, in several languages, or you sell something that requires trust, the website becomes the foundation.

What about the budget?

A brochure website at Cliko costs €750 to €1,200, once, with no compulsory subscription (see pricing). If you have no time for social media, we can handle that too: social media management.

Frequently asked questions

Isn’t a professional Instagram account enough for Google?

Google can index some profiles, but it almost never shows them instead of a website or a Google profile for a local search.

Linktree or a website?

A link page is a stopgap, but it holds neither your menu, nor your hours, nor your services. It does not replace a website.