Posted 2 December 2022

Having a Facebook Page vs Having a Website

Currently, numerous companies of all sizes, whether freelance operations, professional services, SMEs or large corporations, have a Facebook page and a Google My Business listing, but not necessarily a website. When it comes to promoting your products or services on the internet, as the owner of your company, you’ve no doubt had to choose and invest in one solution as opposed to another. Although a presence on Google is indispensable these days for search engine optimization (SEO) and local referencing, as we’ve established in a previous blog post (which you can consult here), the fact remains that having a website will open up even more possibilities. Are you still unsure of which virtual marketing communication tool is most suitable to meet your needs? In this article, we present the advantages and disadvantages of having a Facebook page, as well as those of having a website, because, unfortunately, neither solution is optimal!

Facebook pages

For a number of years now, Facebook has offered business owners a pleasant, practical space where they can promote their brand and their products or services, thus increasing their visibility on the internet.

Advantages

It’s free, it’s easy to use, and the page design is very user-friendly. However, you’ll have to spend some money if you decide to promote your business through Facebook’s paid advertisements.
Your page doesn’t require any security maintenance, templates, plug-ins or other apps.
Facebook pages propose practical tools for displaying your business hours, your address, your telephone number, your restaurant menu and a wealth of other useful information for your current and prospective clients.
Facebook is a social networking service offering you a page you can use to increase your visibility. You can invite your Facebook friends to Like your page, as this has a snowball effect as they invite their friends and their friends invite their friends, and so on and so forth. In this way, you increase the visibility of your company by creating a veritable community around your products or services.
You can highlight the human aspect behind the name of your company, making yourself more approachable and accessible to your customers by communicating with them directly through your posts (texts, photos, videos, etc.). As a result, you create a genuine interaction with your prospects, for example, by inviting them to participate in drawings or asking them to review your products.

Disadvantages

Your audience is limited to Facebook users and, more specifically, your followers and those who have Liked your page. This represents only a fraction of all internet users. As a result, you deprive yourself of a large pool of prospective clients.
There’s no organic referencing, as your Facebook page doesn’t show up in search engines, such as Google.
There isn’t much visibility on this social network unless you pay for advertising. According to Facebook, an internet user could potentially view as many as 1,500 posts per day, but because of the algorithms the website uses, this figure falls to approximately 300. This ends up making your posts much less visible.
You can’t personalize your page, as you can’t choose the design. All you can do is upload your logo and photos.
While Facebook is the most widely used social networking service in the world, it doesn’t provide the necessary level of trust for you to close your sales without completing the transaction on a website, especially if your company is in the B2C or B2G sector.
There’s a lot of competition on this platform. In fact, the number of pages and, by extension, the number of competing businesses, never stops growing.
It demands a lot of time, as you must remain active on an ongoing basis and exhibit imagination and inspiration in your posts.

Websites

A website represents a comprehensive solution with a whole world of possibilities!

Advantages

A high-quality up-to-date website is an indication of your company’s legitimacy, inspiring confidence and reassuring your prospective customers. As a result, it increases your credibility, demonstrates your reliability and improves your online reputation.
By leveraging SEO techniques, you can ensure that search engines, such as Google, will index your website. Consequently, your pages can appear in the search results for relevant keywords.
You can customize your website with your visual identity and present your company to internet users in whatever way you choose.

Disadvantages

Having a website isn’t free. You must set aside a budget for developing and maintaining it.
It requires updates by your internet-marketing agency.

Final thoughts

Are you having trouble deciding between these two means of communication? Why not opt for both? Would you like more information? Contact the members of the team of SEO and internet marketing experts at BJMédia. They’re here to assist and advise you in order to create a high-quality communication strategy, customized to meet your needs, regardless of the type or size of your business. They can also create a listing in the Reseau411.ca business directory. Don’t hesitate to check out the full range of services BJMédia offers.