You Need a Website Not Just a Facebook Page

This blog entry stems from a frustration of mine this past weekend.  All I wanted was a pizza originally but now all you get is a rant about business owners who think they know what they’re doing.

If you were going to put all your eggs in one basket from a business perspective, don’t rely on Facebook to be the solution.

First and foremost, Facebook (FB) isn’t all that easy to use from a searchability standpoint.  When you take into consideration that a large percentage of FB users are accessing via a mobile device, you can definitely see where search isn’t an easy thing to do.  FB has greatly improved their search capabilities but all in all, since they don’t specialize in it, they don’t do a very good job of it.  Its relevancy leaves a LOT to be desired too.

Strike 1.

Google IS search – especially in Canada.  Nobody ‘Facebooks’ to find info.  They ‘Google’ it.  Sure you may be able to find FB pages within a Google search, but it will be undoubtedly be underneath various niche directories (which house the competition), under various general/location directories (which house the competition), under a Google+ page (which probably is only the default local business listing page and hasn’t been optimized – LBLO) and oh, it will DEFINITELY be under your competitor’s website.

Since Google IS search, you must SEO optimize according to Google’s standards & expectations.  That is what SEO is all about here in Canada.  Better rankings get you more visibility, which gets you more traffic, which should get you more business.  So tell me why again why you would ignore search engines such as Google?

Strike 2.

Don’t get me wrong.  FB is a tremendous way to reach out to current customers or attract additional customers through your current FB following via word of mouth.  All of this is part of a holistic SEO campaign/strategy but FB simply can’t replace the attention to owe to search.  The idea behind SEO is to generate quality traffic that can be converted into leads (revenue potential).  FB simply doesn’t do this effectively enough, to a large enough audience (given the way people search for specific products/services) to warrant eliminating a business’ website.

If you need a website and you’re located in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, Advanced Web Solutions can provide you with a custom website that is built on a SEO-friendly architecture (a key element of SEO) and is mobile ready all within as short of a time as 3 weeks.  If you have any questions about SEO or website development for your local business, please do not hesitate to contact AWS.

FYI… I didn’t get my pizza. We got burgers instead from Candies Burger Suite.  Great burgers but a very lacking website, especially from a mobile perspective… but they got my family’s business.

Homerun!