Do I need a website if I have great Google reviews or a Facebook page?

Reviews send people to your website

Almost everyone reads reviews before picking a local business: 97% of people, in BrightLocal's 2026 survey.¹ After reading good ones, 54% go on to check the business's website. In 2019 it was 32%.¹ Your reviews get people interested. Your website is where many of them go next.

A website helps you get picked

When people chose a local business, 20% said a professional-looking website was one of their top three reasons. And 18% of people who didn't contact a business said they couldn't find a website.²

Many shops still don't have one. Only 40% of small businesses in a 2025 survey said they have their own website,³ so a good one helps you stand out.

Google looks at your website too

Google says its local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity." For prominence, how well-known a business is, it looks at "how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have."⁴ Google also fills in business profiles from public information, including "information from a business' official website."⁵

You can add your website to your Google Business Profile, so people can tap straight to it from Google.⁶

People look in more than one place

Most people (75%) use more than one place when they look for a local business.⁷ Google is still the top place to read reviews, but its share fell from 83% in 2025 to 71% in 2026. AI tools like ChatGPT grew fast: 45% of people now use them for local recommendations, up from 6% a year before.¹ BrightLocal's advice: with more people asking AI tools, keep your website up to date.¹

Is a Facebook page enough?

Keep your page, but it isn't the same as a website. A Facebook page lives on Facebook, under Meta's rules: Meta can remove posts, or suspend accounts, that break its terms.⁸ A website is yours, on your own web address, and Google reads it when it fills in your Business Profile.⁵

Facebook still matters. With Google, it's one of the two top places people get recommendations for local businesses.¹ Social media was part of 30% of people's last search for a local business.⁷ But AI tools lean on websites: in one test of 800 local searches, business websites were 58% of the sources ChatGPT showed.⁹

So use both, and link them: your website on your Facebook page, and your Facebook page on your website.

What your website adds to your reviews

• Your Google rating and recent reviews, shown live.
• What you do and what it costs.
• Today's hours and how to find you.
• Photos of your real work.
• One button to call, text, book or order.