FACEBOOK, GOOGLE OR A WEBSITE · 2026
Do you need a website if you have Facebook and Google? Sometimes not — here's the test.
What a Facebook page and a Google Business Profile already do for a service business, the seven signs you've outgrown them, how it plays out trade by trade, and what each one costs you in time.
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The short version
- The two free pages do a lot. A complete Google Business Profile puts you on Google Maps with a call button and directions; a Facebook page holds your posts, photos and messages. For referral-driven work that can be plenty.
- Not everyone is on Facebook. 70% of US adults say they ever use it (Pew Research Center, surveyed in the first half of 2026) — so roughly three in ten don't use it at all, and a Facebook-only business is invisible to them there.
- The map finds you; a website explains you. Your profile answers "who is near me?". A website with a page per service answers "who does tankless water heaters?" and "what does a deep clean include?" — the searches that come before the call.
- You don't own either free page. Google can suspend a profile, and when one is removed the public can't see it. Google also switched off the free websites it used to build from Business Profiles in 2024.
- The test is seven questions, not a rule. One yes means a website is probably earning its keep; none means you can wait and spend the time on the profile instead.
The short answer
Not always. If your work comes from referrals and people who already know your name, a complete Google Business Profile and a Facebook page can carry a service business for a while. You need a website when customers have to find you for a service rather than by name, book or ask for a quote without phoning, check you out before letting you into their home, or land somewhere after clicking an ad — and when you want one page that no platform can switch off.
Ask ChatGPT this question today and it says much the same: "No, you don't absolutely need a website right now" (asked November 5, 2026). That's fair as far as it goes. What it leaves out is how to tell which side of the line your business is on. What follows is written for someone running a service business — a junk hauler, a detailer, a cleaner, a plumber, a roofer, a daycare — who already has the two free pages and wants to know whether a website would bring in work they're currently missing.
If you've hit one of the signs
See what your website would look like — free
Add what you do, your town and your business name, and Zarla drafts the site from that one line. Look at it next to your Facebook page before you decide anything. Build, edit and preview free; you pay only when you publish.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.
What a Google Business Profile and a Facebook page already do
The Google Business Profile is the one that brings strangers. It's the listing that appears on Google Maps and in the box of local businesses when someone searches "pressure washing near me". Google ranks those listings on three things: how well the profile matches the search, how far you are from the person searching, and how well known the business is — and Google says that last one is partly based on how many websites link to your business (Google Business Profile Help, read November 5, 2026). A profile can also carry a booking button: through a scheduling provider Google works with, or as your own link (Google's bookings page).
The Facebook page is the one that keeps people who already know you. Neighbors share it, past customers message you through it, and it's where a crew's latest jobs get posted. It is strong inside the circle of people who follow you, and weak outside it — a Facebook page rarely comes up when someone searches Google for a service, and 30% of US adults don't use Facebook at all (Pew Research Center, fact sheet dated October 19, 2026).
Between them, the two free pages cover being found on the map, being called, being messaged and showing recent work. If that's where all your jobs come from and your calendar is full, the honest answer is that a website can wait.
THE TEST
Seven signs you've outgrown the free pages
Read each row against how your customers actually reach you. One yes is usually enough to make a website pay for the time it takes.
| The sign | Facebook + Google profile | What a website adds |
|---|---|---|
| Customers search for the service, not your name | The map shows you for broad searches near you ("plumber near me"). | A page for each service and each town you cover lets you show up in the regular results for the specific job — "sewer line repair", "roof leak repair in Mesa". |
| People want to book a time without calling | A booking button on the profile, through a Google scheduling partner or your own link — which still has to point somewhere. | A booking page with your services, how long each takes and the times you're free, in one place you control. |
| Jobs need a quote before anyone agrees a price | Messages and calls back and forth, with photos sent separately. | A quote form that asks the right questions for your trade and takes photos, so you price the job before the first call. |
| Customers check you out before letting you into their home | A few posts and photos, in Facebook's layout, mixed with everything else on the page. | Your services, the areas you cover, your license and insurance details, and photos of finished jobs, in the order a careful customer reads them. |
| You pay for ads | Meta sells lead ads that, in its words, "create intent across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and more"; Google's Smart campaigns can send clicks to your Business Profile instead of a website. | Somewhere to send every other kind of ad, built for the one job the ad is selling. |
| Commercial customers or property managers ask for details | A Facebook link and a Gmail address. | A page they can forward, on a domain you can also use for email at your own business name. |
| You'd lose work if a platform locked you out | Both pages live on someone else's terms. Google can suspend a profile, and a removed one disappears from public view. | An address you own that stays up whatever happens to either account — and it's the link you print on the truck. |
Google's booking and Smart-campaign options as described on Google's own help pages, read November 5, 2026; options vary by country and change over time.
How it plays out, trade by trade
Junk removal. Customers want a price before they'll book a truck, and the price depends on how much there is. A quote form that takes three photos of the pile saves a site visit; a "what we take and what we don't" page saves a dozen calls about mattresses and paint.
Car detailing. Detailers sell packages — interior, exterior, ceramic coating — and owners compare them line by line. A Facebook album shows the shine; a page with each package, what it includes and a time to book is what turns a scroller into a booking.
Cleaning. Recurring work runs on trust and on knowing exactly what "deep clean" covers. A checklist page and a booking page for regular visits do work a Facebook post can't hold for long.
Plumbing, electrical and HVAC. Emergency calls come from the map, and a strong profile wins them. Planned work — a water heater swap, a panel upgrade, a new AC system — is researched first, often for days, and that research happens in the regular search results, where a page for each service is what shows up.
Roofing and big renovation jobs. High-ticket, bought once or twice in a lifetime, and checked carefully. Homeowners want to see finished roofs, the areas you cover and how inspections work before anyone climbs a ladder; insurance-claim and storm work send people searching for answers a profile can't give.
Pressure washing, landscaping and lawn care. Seasonal, local and price-sensitive. The profile and a busy Facebook page can fill a spring calendar on their own — until you want to add a service (gutter cleaning, holiday lighting) or a new town, which is exactly what a new page on a website is for.
Handyman. The job list is long and mixed, from mounting a TV to fixing a fence. A Facebook page can't say which jobs you take; a website can list them, which cuts down the calls for work you don't do.
Daycare. Parents read everything before they visit: hours, ages, meals, the daily routine, how to apply. A Facebook page buries that under posts; a site lets them find it in order, book a tour and ask about a place without calling during nap time.
What each one costs you in time
The Google Business Profile is an evening to fill in properly — every service, your hours, the area you cover, real photos — plus Google's verification, which runs on its own timetable. After that it's a few minutes a week: new photos, an occasional update, answering messages. Of the three, it is the best return on an hour.
The Facebook page costs almost nothing to set up and is only as useful as your last post. It asks for little bits of time, often — which suits owners who already photograph their work and like posting it.
A website is the most time up front and the least week to week. On a do-it-yourself builder, a first version takes from an afternoon to a few weekends, depending on how much you write yourself; AI builders draft one from a description in minutes, which you then check and correct. After that, most service businesses touch their site a few times a year — a new service, a new town, new prices. The money side — builder plans, agencies, domains — has its own page: how much a website costs.
Whichever you choose, keep the profile. A website doesn't replace your Google Business Profile — it gives the profile somewhere to send people. The step-by-step for the profile is in how to get your business on Google.
If you decide you need one
Start small. A home page, a page for each service, the towns you cover, photos of real jobs, how to reach you, and a way to book or ask for a quote. That's enough to answer the seven signs above; anything more can come later.
Pick the tool by how your work comes in. General website builders such as Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy all sell online booking and invoicing alongside their websites, and Wix and Squarespace also send quotes customers accept online. Job-management software such as Jobber and Housecall Pro handles quotes, invoices and online booking (on select plans, in Jobber's case), with a booking page you can link from your profile; if you already run one, the website that comes with Jobber or Housecall Pro may be all you need. (We checked each of these features on the company's own pages in October 2026.) Zarla is another option: describe your business in a sentence and it drafts the site, usually with a page for each service you list, and online booking, quotes and invoices sit in the same dashboard. To compare builders by trade, start from the website builder pages.
Then connect the pieces. Put the website address on your Google Business Profile and your Facebook page, point the profile's booking button at your booking page, and use the same business name, phone number and address everywhere.
Questions owners ask about Facebook, Google and websites
For some, for a while — usually a business whose customers already know it, through referrals, a neighborhood group or repeat work. It stops being enough when you need people who don't follow you to find you, since Facebook pages rarely appear when someone searches Google for a service, and 30% of US adults don't use Facebook (Pew Research Center, 2026).
It can replace one for getting found on Google Maps and getting calls from nearby searches — that's what it's best at. It can't hold a page for each service, a quote form with your questions, or the detail careful customers read before they book. Most service businesses that grow end up with both: the profile to be found, the website to be chosen.
No. Google switched off the websites it used to build from Business Profiles in 2024: from March 1, 2024 they redirected visitors to the Business Profile, and after June 10, 2024 they showed as unavailable, according to Google's email to owners as quoted by Search Engine Roundtable. A profile can still link to a website you have elsewhere.
Not for every kind. Google's Smart campaigns can send clicks to your Business Profile rather than a website, according to Google Ads Help, and Meta sells lead ads that, in its words, "create intent across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and more" — check what each ad type asks you to link before you start. For other ad types, a page built for the one service the ad is selling usually does better than a general page.
Indirectly, and with no guarantee. Google ranks map listings on relevance, distance and how well known a business is, and says that last one is partly based on how many websites link to your business. A website gives other sites — suppliers, local directories, the town's business association — something to link to, and gives your profile a richer page to send people to.
A home page that says what you do and where; a page for each service; the towns you cover; photos of real jobs; your license and insurance details if your trade is licensed; a phone number on every page; and a way to book or ask for a quote without calling.
Not necessarily. Check the basics first: is it published, does it have a page for each service, and has Google found it? Our help article on a site not showing up on Google walks through the checks. If the site itself is the problem — slow, hard to edit, no booking — you can move it rather than start again.
From nothing to build on most builders' free plans, to a monthly fee to publish on your own domain, to thousands for an agency build. Every route is priced side by side in how much a website costs.
Where these facts come from
The platform facts on this page were read on the sources below on November 5, 2026: Pew Research Center for how many US adults use Facebook; Google Business Profile Help for how local ranking, bookings and suspended profiles work; Google Ads Help for where Smart campaigns can send clicks; Meta for Business for lead ads; and Search Engine Roundtable for the dates in Google's 2024 email about Business Profile websites. The ChatGPT answer quoted above was read through DataForSEO on the same day. The website builders' and job software's features were checked on each company's own pages in October 2026. Platforms change their features often; the linked page is the current word.
- Pew Research Center — Social media fact sheet — dated October 19, 2026, read November 5, 2026
- Google Business Profile Help — Tips to improve your local ranking on Google — no date on the page, read November 5, 2026
- Google Business Profile Help — Set up bookings through a provider — no date on the page, read November 5, 2026
- Google Business Profile Help — Fix suspended or disabled profiles — no date on the page, read November 5, 2026
- Google Ads Help — Optimize your landing page for your Smart campaign — no date on the page, read November 5, 2026
- Search Engine Roundtable — Google shutting down Google Business Profiles websites (quotes Google's email to owners) — dated January 9, 2024, read November 5, 2026
- Meta for Business — Lead ads — no date on the page, read November 5, 2026
When the free pages stop being enough
Describe the business in one line and Zarla drafts the website, usually with a page for each service you list, for you to edit in chat. Add online booking and a quote form when you're ready. Free to build and preview; you pay only when you publish.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.