Facebook Is Changing—Why Now More Than Ever You Need a Website

If you’re starting a brand new business, or even if you have an established small business and you’re looking to attract more customers (who isn’t, right?), one of the first things people will tell you is that you need to be on social media. While they aren’t wrong, they may not have given you all the information. Once again, Facebook is changing, and these changes could affect your Business Page.

Face it, social media has changed over the years. I know that sounds crazy to say considering Facebook has only been around for 14 years. Early on, no matter what content you posted on Facebook, your friends and followers would see it. But, as Facebook grew, they started to change their algorithm. I’m sure we’ve all shaken our fist at the sky over their constant attempt to switch your timeline view to show you the Most Relevant rather than Most Recent posts. I know I have.

Facebook’s algorithm is changing again.

Adam Mosseri, Head of Facebook’s News Feed, reported in an article in the Facebook Newsroom that, “…Pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease.” If your business’ primary web presence is a Facebook Business Page, that statement should chill you to the bone!

Facebook already limits the percentage of your friends and followers who see posts from your Business Page. Here’s a perfect example.

WebDevStudios’ Facebook Page has just over 2000 Likes (followers). This recent post was shown to 368 of them which is roughly 18%. If they want it to be shown to more, there’s a handy “Boost Post” button where they can pay to have it shown to more of their followers. I need to drill this point home:

You spend a lot of time, money and energy to get people to view your Facebook Page, then to Like your Facebook Page for the sole purpose of being able to show them your content, and Facebook is hiding that content from 82% of those people.

With the coming changes to their algorithm, those numbers will be worse.

Facebook is not a replacement for a website.

Having a Facebook Business Page makes absolute sense. With more than 2 billion users on the platform, not being on it would be a mistake. But having a Facebook Page as your primary small business website is an even bigger error. Facebook has and will continue to change the way their system works. Their plan to hide even more Business Page content should have you looking for a website immediately!

Facebook should be used as a vehicle to deliver traffic to your own website where you have the ability to provide information, capture leads, and none of your website content is ever hidden from your visitors. With your own website, you are in control of the message and how you interact with your visitors.

We’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of companies who rely solely on a Facebook Business Page as their small business web presence. With the changes that Facebook has made over the past few years and the new changes on the way, not having a dedicated website for your business could be detrimental to its success and sustainability. Now, more than ever, you need a small business website.

Not sure how to get started? Drop us a line and I would be happy to get on a call and chat about your business and how a website can help it grow.