Is an Instagram account enough instead of a website?
· 2 min read
If social media is working, do you still need a site? Honest answer: they do different jobs, and on one of them you are a tenant.
"Instagram brings me work, why would I need a site?" The businesses asking this often start from a fair point: social media may genuinely be producing customers. But the two do different jobs.
On social media you are a tenant
Your account can be suspended tomorrow, your reach can drop by two thirds after an algorithm change, the account can be stolen. None of that is under your control, and none of it comes with warning. A site on your own domain is property.
Search happens somewhere else
When people have an urgent need they do not search Instagram, they search Google. "Pharmacy open now", "boiler repair", "tax adviser" — those happen in a search engine. A social account rarely appears there, and when it does it carries no prices and no detail.
What social media cannot do
- Present your services and prices in an organised, searchable way
- Take payment online
- Collect booking or quote requests
- Give a corporate client a reference page
- Rank first for your own name on Google
There is also this: when the address you send to a corporate client is an Instagram link, they file you as a small operation. It may be unfair, but it is real.
What a site cannot do
To be fair: a site reaches nobody by itself. Getting in front of new people, day-to-day contact, sharing work as it happens — that is social media's job.
The right setup
Treat them as two jobs, not rivals:
- Social media creates attention and reminds people you exist.
- A Google Business Profile makes you findable at the moment of need.
- The site convinces and closes — quote, booking, payment.
Point your profile link at your site, and your site at your social accounts. You do not need to close Instagram. You need an address you own next to it.