Website vs. Social Media: Why your business still needs a website?

The big question of the year is social media vs. website: can your social media account replace your website in 2025?

With hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs starting new business accounts on social media, there is no doubt that platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, and X (formerly Twitter) have become essential to small business marketing and growth.

So the new questions we need to be asking are:

• How important are websites for small businesses anyway?
• Will websites become obsolete?; and
• Will social media replace websites?

These are such important marketing questions to consider this year, especially as social media accounts continue to grow in popularity.

Social media is an excellent marketing tool. It helps you reach new audiences, builds a community around your brand, grows relationships, and shares valuable content.

Social media is fun and even addictive. It’s easy to get caught up in your likes and follows and engaging with your audience. Social media accounts provide a platform where your business is seen and heard and you can grow a successful brand for your online business.

Is a social media account all that your business needs, or is there value in a website that your social media accounts cannot provide?

The general consensus seems to be that websites aren’t going anywhere.

While social media accounts are certainly powerful tools for your small business, there is value in a website that social media just can’t provide.

So taking that all into consideration, let’s discuss some of the most important reasons why your business still needs a website and how websites will set you up to build a successful online platform.

So what makes a website so valuable that it cannot be replaced by your social media account?

1. You don’t own your social media, but you do own your website.

   Think about how much time you’re investing in a platform that doesn’t actually belong to you.

   Your Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, and X accounts are owned by someone else. 

   This means that your social media accounts could be shut down, blocked, or censored at any time, and as a small business owner, there is nothing you can do about it.

   When Instagram and Facebook crash for a day (and let’s be honest, it happens more than we’d like!), it can feel like your whole business is crashing too – unless you have alternative methods of marketing your business…. like a website!

   This is why it is so important to have a good website for your business.

   When you launch a new website for your business, you own that online platform.

   This means you’ll never lose your website content, never worry about it being shut down or blocked, and you can share whatever you like here.

2. Your website is your strongest digital marketing tool.

   Both websites and social media are powerful marketing tools. However, one of the reasons a website is considered your strongest digital marketing tool is because it allows you to utilize the function of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

   Instagram and Facebook are great avenues to share content with new audiences who otherwise may not find you, but they are still limited to an audience who is only engaged on that social platform. This puts a limit on your reach compared to search platforms like Google.

   A website, being your strongest digital marketing tool, allows you to market your business through SEO, copywriting, and branding.

   SEO is the process in which you optimise your website so it can easily be found by your ideal clients through search engines and organic search results.

   SEO helps your business be found by potential clients who would otherwise not know you existed. This is especially useful for online businesses or businesses that don’t have a physical location or a lot of foot traffic.

   The cool thing about SEO for your website is that this is something you grow, nurture, and consistently improve upon. There are so many levels of search engine optimisation and many different ways that you can boost your website’s ranking on Google and other search engines.

   SEO is a process that takes skill and strategy and is something you can consistently improve upon, whereas much of social media marketing success is dependent on popularity, vanity metrics, and the social media algorithm Gods.

3. A website utilises a sales funnel to improve your lead to sales conversion.

   While social media can provide some great content including gorgeous images and thoughtful captions about your business and services- this is really only the first step of your sales funnel.

   Think about it. When you first land on an Instagram feed that inspires interest in a brand, your next thought is usually wanting to learn more about this business and what services they provide…and usually, when you want to get serious and learn more about a business, you go to their website.

   This means that Instagram and Facebook are great avenues to attract potential clients and draw in your audience, but your website is really where you’re going to close your sale.

   So without a website, what’s the next step for your client? DM you for info? Sure they could do that…but is this the professional way that you want to represent yourself and your business? For how long will you be able to keep up with these DMs with no project management system to streamline your responses?

   This is another reason why websites are vital for small businesses. They provide a professional and streamlined platform that potential clients can come to for more information about you and your services. This is where the continue to engage in your sales funnel.

   This sales funnel will strategically lead your clients through the pages of your website that they need to see in order to make a sale. Then, at the end of the funnel, your website can provide a place where these clients can get in touch with you or purchase from you- via a contact form, scheduling an appointment, or purchasing a product from you.

   While social media is great for capturing leads, Instagram, Facebook and their like just don’t have a system where you can create a customised sales funnel to close sales like how a website can.

4. Websites position you as a professional and separate you from the side-hustlers and hobbyists.

   While social media accounts are great marketing tools, they simply don’t cut it when it comes to positioning yourself as a professional.

   Sure, your social media feed can be beautifully curated and have informative captions that provide great value, but how is someone supposed to quickly search your office hours or learn about your process?

   When someone asks for more information about your business, referring them to your Instagram or Facebook profile doesn’t give them the info they want to know about your services, credentials, pricing, packages, or even how to get in touch with you.

   This is another reason why a website is vital for your small business. A website is a PROFESSIONAL online platform that takes your business a step (or two) above the hobbyists in your industry. A website provides information about your business and services in an organised fashion that is easy for potential clients to navigate. It also provides a way for these clients to easily get in touch with and interact with you.

   A website evokes feelings of trustworthiness and stability.

   This is because websites are an investment in both your time and money. This shows that you’re serious about what you do and you’re not going anywhere soon. Clients can rely on you for these reasons.

   On the other hand, a social media account is free and can be started or stopped at any time…and could be seen as a lack of commitment. It’s important to remember that social media is a tool that should be used to drive traffic to your website…not the other way around. Whether you start or end with social media, a website should always be the end goal.

Now that we know why a website is essential to have in your business (even if you are killing your Instagram game), let’s talk about how to launch your new business website.

Launching a website can sound overwhelming and a little scary, but when you consider the three different ways that you can launch a website, this becomes much easier…so here they are:

1. DIY

   Designing a website using web design platforms like Wix or Squarespace are usually cost-effective and allow you to quickly publish your new website to get started…but…there are a few serious drawbacks and problems with them that you need to consider.

2. Purchase a web design template with pre-made designs

   Purchasing a template witha pre-made design applicable to your business is another way to launch a website. This provides you with a ready-made design that you can then adjust with your own copy, brand colours and images…but…you may have to learn how to use the in-built page builder and understand the nuances of the design, which may consume many hours of your time as part of the learning curve to ‘skill up’.

3. Engage the services of a professional web designer

   This is the best option to ensure that you’ll launch a beautiful and strategically-designed website and by engaging the services of Naked Egg Web Design you will position yourself well professionally, market your business to your target clients and enable you to reach your small business goals and targets, thereby setting yourself up for online success.