Let’s be clear: don’t close your Facebook page. Social networks are one of the best ways to get known, and they are free. The problem isn’t using them. The problem is having nothing else.
You don’t own your page
You may have written every post, but the platform belongs to someone else. Western Australia’s public small business agency pointed this out in August 2025, after businesses reported pages being shut down: the platform and permissions are still owned by Meta. Its advice is not to put all your eggs in one basket, and to build your presence on your own website.
The story of a hairdresser in Auckland, New Zealand, shows what this means in practice. Her page, which was all about hair, was suspended overnight. The result, she says: two and a half weeks without a new client, and no way to contact the ones she had. Her account came back a day after journalists asked Meta about it. Meta says it has seen no significant increase in incorrect enforcement, and points out that people can appeal.
This doesn’t happen to everyone. But on the day it does, a business with its own website and domain name keeps receiving its customers.
Social networks don’t reach everyone
In Cameroon, DataReportal counts 12.6 million internet users at the end of 2025, but 5.9 million social media identities in October 2025.
The two figures aren’t directly comparable, because an identity isn’t necessarily a unique person. The gap still suggests one thing: being present only on social networks risks missing part of the people who are online. A website opens for anyone, with no account and no app.
The news feed buries your information
Your prices, your opening hours, your address, your past work: on a page, it all ends up buried under your latest posts. A customer shouldn’t have to scroll through three months of photos to find out whether you deliver to their neighbourhood.
On a website, every piece of information has its place. You update it once, and it stays easy to find.
Your image stays the platform’s image
On Facebook, your page has the same layout as your competitors’ pages, and a suggestion for one of them can appear next to your name.
On your website, you decide what people see first and what they remember. You also get an address of your own, easy to pass on, and a professional e-mail such as contact@yourbusiness.com. For a customer or partner who is hesitating, that detail counts.
Three tools, three roles
So the right question isn’t “Facebook or a website?” but “which one does what?”:
- social networks get you discovered: they show your business day to day;
- the website convinces: it answers questions, provides proof and can sell;
- WhatsApp closes: the direct conversation finalises the order.
Every post points to the website, and the website shows a WhatsApp button. The three reinforce each other instead of competing.
What if a page is enough for now?
It may well be. If you are testing an idea, selling to a circle of people you know, or starting with no budget, a well-kept page is a good start.
A website becomes necessary when you want to convince strangers, deal with companies or institutions, or when the same questions take up too much of your time. On that day, you will be glad you already reserved your domain name. And that is something you can do today.