Blog Post

Ever ask yourself, “why do I need a website when I can use social media to promote my business?”

It’s a great question that we get asked more often than you’d imagine.

Why would you want to build a website that includes numerous charges (domains, hosting, developers, SEO, updates, maintenance, etc) when you could just setup social media accounts/pages for your business all across the internet… for FREE?

Website vs Social Media: Why a Website is More Important Than Social Media for Your Business

Benefits of Social Media Platforms for Small Businesses
Requires No Technical Expertise
Most of the platforms are easy to use, requiring no technical expertise. When creating a profile there are straight forward forms to fill out that ask for all of your vital business information in an organized and easy to follow manner.
Don’t know how to code? No problem. Just type your information in the boxes, upload some images, and you’re done.


Optimized for Search Engines
Due to the number of pages, the high amount of shared content, and the popularity of these sites, your Business Page is search engine optimized out the box so your page shows up high in search rankings when someone’s searching for you business.
See this example of what happens when we search for our business. Our website shows up in the #1 spot but two social media sites show up on the first page, as well. We highlighted facebook in the #2 spot to demonstrate the point.


Facebook page ranking spot #2 on Google search for “JuYushi Technologies”

Marketing Tools & Integrations
Most social media platforms (especially the big ones like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram) also have great marketing capabilities and integrations. You can build your email list, raise money, sell products and a lot more from the tabs on your Facebook page.
Most platforms have similar capabilities and the analytics of each platform continue to improve allowing you to even track what visitors are doing on your pages, what content they like, and how many people your content reaches.

Building a Website for Your Business
Setting up a website for your business is the complete opposite, especially when it comes to cost. It’s typically much more expensive to build a website than it is to setup free social media page

Domain & Website Hosting
To get started, you have to pay for your domain and website hosting each year. The domain is the “address” where you’ll build your website (ex: yourbusiness.com) and the website hosting is the server space (i.e. the “land”) where you’ll build your website.

Development & Technical Expertise
Since most small business owners don’t double as website developers, most will have to hire someone to build and update the website for them. Even these new drag and drop website builders require some technical expertise to end up with a site you can be happy abo

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If you want the website to rank for certain keywords, and even for your business name, it requires an understanding of basic on-page SEO or you’ll have to pay someone to do that for you as well.

And that’s just the beginning.

Be in 100% Control of Your Online Presence

So, from the perspective of a small business, why in the world would you want to invest all of those resources (time, energy, and money) into a website when you can get most of the benefits from social media platforms FOR FREE?

The answer is… 100% control.

Control Freak
If you have a local business, would you feel more comfortable setting up shop in someone else’s store, without lease, or have a dedicated rental space with a signed long-term lease? Owning the land would be the best option, of course, but a well-drafted lease works just as well most times.

With the first option, you’re at the mercy of the store owner.

If they don’t want your business in their store anymore, they can say goodbye and you’re now out of business until you find a new location. If they decide not to open up one morning, your business can’t reach it’s customers and your revenue will be affected.

However, if you have a signed lease then you have much more control over your situation since there’s a much smaller chance of someone kicking you out of your own store. Since you control your own location, you can pick the best place to open shop for your business. A storefront that gets more foot traffic will be more expensive than one with less, much like investing in good SEO.

Longterm, you’re in control of your own store and business. The changes in someone else’s business won’t affect whether you stay in business or how much it will cost to stay in business.

Owning your own website is very similar to the analogy above.


Don’t Be at the Mercy of Someone Else’s Business
If you setup shop completely on social platforms, your business is at the mercy of those platforms and the changes they make. If they’re bought out and shut down, you can no longer reach your customers.

Many business pages on Facebook were recently hurt when Facebook updated it’s algorithm, decreasing the reach of business pages. There was nothing the business’s could do except complain and accept the new rules.

At any time, YouTube could start charging you to store your videos on their servers (doubtful, but possible). Twitter could decide to become a premium platform where business’s have to “pay to play”. If you don’t pay then you don’t communicate with your customers.

You have no control.


Make Your Website the “Hub”
If you have own website and it’s the hub of your business then you have 100% control of your situation.

If the hosting company increases your rent, you find a new host. If a social media platform increases the cost to communicate with your customers then you go to another platform. If you use social media as a supplement to your business (to drive traffic to your website), then you can capture your customers and communicate with them any time, on your own terms.

At the end of the day, it’s much smarter to invest in something you own than to build on land that doesn’t belong to you. Some day the rules could change and it could have a major impact on your business if you aren’t in control of your business. This is why we highly recommend investing in building a website that you own and using social media – and it’s many benefits – to reach new audiences and grow your business, but not to put all your eggs there.