Do you need a website if you already have Instagram?

What a social page is genuinely good at

Instagram and Facebook are excellent for showing personality, posting regular updates, replying to messages, and getting discovered locally through hashtags and location tags. None of that requires any technical setup, which is exactly why so many small businesses start there.

Where it runs out of road

You don't own the account the way you own a website. Algorithm changes can quietly reduce how many people see your posts. Accounts get suspended, hacked, or left in the hands of an employee who's since moved on. And someone comparing you against a competitor by searching Google directly, rather than browsing Instagram, may not surface your page at all unless it happens to be well indexed.

There's also a layout problem: a social profile is fixed to the platform's format. There's nowhere clean to lay out opening hours, a full menu, or a booking flow the way even a simple homepage can.

The Google problem specifically

Most local discovery still happens through Google search, not by browsing inside an app. A business's own website tends to rank more reliably for searches like "[business name] opening hours" or "[business type] near me" than a social profile does, because a website is built to be found by search engines in a way a social app profile isn't.

It also signals legitimacy

A website is a stronger trust signal than a social profile on its own. Anyone can set up an Instagram page in minutes, so a nicely designed profile alone doesn't tell a stranger much about how established or serious a business is. A proper website, with a real domain, clear contact details and accurate hours, reads as a business that's invested in being found and intends to stick around, which matters most to someone who hasn't dealt with you before and is deciding whether to trust you with a booking or a job.

A realistic setup

The strongest approach usually isn't choosing one over the other. Instagram or Facebook handles regular posts and personality. A website is the stable home base with hours, menu, contact details and reviews that doesn't depend on a platform's mood. A Google Business Profile is the map listing, see our guide on website vs Google Business Profile for more on that one specifically. All three link to each other, and each one covers a gap the others leave.