Facebook Page Replaces Business’s Website


For some years now, but massively increasing in the last two years [2020-2021], our external links to the sites of the various operators suddenly become invalid. We normally only link to sites that we assume will be around for a few years. So far we have assumed that a website with the name of the place as domain was set up by the operator himself and therefore existed as long as the object itself. So usually it was a sign that a show cave or show mine had been closed if the domain suddenly no longer existed. But that has now changed, more and more are moving their website to Facebook. So, just to be clear, a Facebook page is not simply created to be used as a forum for comments and to post event information. The Facebook page replaces the previous website and the latter is then taken offline.

To make it clear right at the beginning: we think this is a very bad decision. Furthermore, we are not prepared to go through the Facebook page with unlimited lists of mindless comments. And because we consider these pages extremely hostile to visitors, we do not link to them, even if they are the official website. For those who do not understand, we would like to explain the reasons against a Facebook page. The disadvantages affect both the visitors and the operators, but obviously they do not realise this.

You can't provide all the information people are looking for

You can include basic information, such as business hours, on Facebook. But you might also want to provide your visitors with a price list, show them a menu from the cafe, showcase your event space or tell your backstory. With your own website, you can provide all the information visitors are looking for. On Facebook? Only as a post or a comment, and that quickly moves to the bottom and is no longer found.

It's tempting to put images over text

Because there is no way to post a nice text, the content shifts to what goes well: images and videos. The downside to this is that search engines don't see the text content of images. Also, translation sites cannot translate the text in images. So you have successfully stopped search engines from searching and automatically translating pages. Congratulations!

However, you have also made our work massively more difficult. We'll start searching the postings of the last two years. Or were lost because we don't speak Croatian, Polish, Malay and Swahili. If we do have text information somewhere else, we take it, at the risk of someone transcribing incorrectly. If not, our page will simply not be updated.

Facebook does not save time in maintenance, on the contrary

Facebook is a platform that thrives on constantly new posts. There is nothing worse than going to a company's Facebook page, to see that the last post is from 2015. Creating witty content and visually appealing posts can quickly become time-consuming.

They rely solely on Facebook mechanisms

When you post something in Facebook this post is added to your followers' feed on the main page. So you think that all your followers will see what you write. This is a fallacy. Facebook limits the distribution rate of pages, only 2% of your page's followers will get a post in their feed. They have to, otherwise many people would have hundreds of posts per day. But if those recipients then ignore the post because their feed is overflowing with cat videos and gossip about the new boy at school, you will be downgraded further. So you are automatically downgraded and there is nothing you can do about it. And you can't fight cat videos. Within no time you are playing to an empty theatre.

Or you place advertisements, which costs more money than your own website would have cost. Just as an example: showcaves.com has 8000 pages and 1 GB of images and the hosting with its own domain and certificate for https costs just 5€ per month.

SEO doesn't work for Facebook pages

Facebook pages are found by Google, but you are limited by the amount of information you can include on your page. With your own website, you can create content and use keywords that your visitors are searching for, increasing the chances that you will appear high up in search queries. Using a domain with your actual name is rewarded by all search engines. The more regional the domain is the better. Then Google knows exactly where your business is located, making it more likely that you will show up in the results for that region. Most importantly, Google may find a posting, then when your potential visitor goes to the page they won't find it because it has moved way down in the meantime.

You have no influence on the design or functionality of the page

It may feel like your own page, but ultimately Facebook owns the platform. Facebook can remove features, redesign the look of your page or change their algorithms at any time, which will affect how you engage with your visitors. You never have full control.

You are restricted in the type of content

Facebook posts are usually slogans of some kind, the longer they get the less they are read. However, if you want to go with something longer or more creative, you are limited in what you can present. On your own website, you can decide what - and how - you present your content.

A Facebook page looks unprofessional

The appearance of a Facebook page is simply not the same as that of a website, even if you only have a single page. A well-prepared website and your own URL lend a certain credibility that a Facebook page simply cannot match. Moreover, anyone can create a Facebook page with any name, so visitors never know if the page is real. I would never buy tickets through a Facebook page, you never know if they are real.