Do I need a website, or is social media enough?

The case for "social is enough" is real and worth stating fairly: for restaurants, barbers, artists, and local services, customers genuinely discover and judge businesses on Instagram and TikTok; the algorithm distributes your content to people who never searched for you, and a well-run profile costs nothing but time. Many thriving small businesses run for years on a profile and a phone number, and for pure discovery, no website matches a platform’s reach.

The asymmetry appears at the worst moments. Accounts get suspended by algorithm, hacked, or impersonated, with appeal processes designed for nobody; reach drops when the platform changes priorities (ask anyone who built on Facebook pages a decade ago); and the follower list is the platform’s asset, not yours: you cannot email it, export it, or take it elsewhere. A website plus your own email list is the only audience infrastructure no company can confiscate. Search behavior also differs: people researching a considered purchase ("roof repair quote", "wedding photographer prices") search Google, where a website (and Google Business Profile) answers and a TikTok does not.

The efficient setup for 2026 costs almost nothing: social profiles where your customers already scroll, doing the discovery work; a simple website as the permanent, professional anchor: even a Carrd one-pager at $19 a year with your story, services, contact, and email signup; and every profile linking back to it. The website does not need to be impressive; it needs to be yours. Upgrade it to a full builder when the business asks for more pages, a store, or bookings: by then the question will have answered itself.