Let me be real with you — if your business is running on a Facebook page and nothing else, you're leaving money on the table. I see it all over Fredericton and across New Brunswick. A landscaping company with 2,000 followers but no website. A bakery with gorgeous photos on Instagram but nowhere to send someone who Googles "custom cakes Fredericton." A contractor who gets all their leads from word of mouth and thinks that's enough.
It works until it doesn't. And when it stops working, you won't see it coming — you'll just notice the phone ringing less.
Facebook doesn't belong to you
This is the part nobody wants to hear. Your Facebook page is rented space. Meta owns it. They control who sees your posts, when they see them, and whether your page even shows up in search. Organic reach on Facebook business pages has been declining for years. Right now, your posts are reaching somewhere between 2-5% of your followers. That means if you have 1,000 followers, maybe 30 people see what you post.
And if Facebook decides to change their algorithm tomorrow — which they do regularly — your entire online presence could disappear overnight. It's happened before to bigger businesses than yours.
Google doesn't care about your Facebook page
When someone in Fredericton types "plumber near me" or "best coffee shop downtown," Google isn't pulling up Facebook pages. It's pulling up websites. Specifically, websites with proper SEO, a Google Business Profile connected to a real domain, and content that tells Google what you do and where you do it.
If you don't have a website, you're invisible to the biggest source of local customers there is. And your competitors who do have websites? They're getting those clicks instead.
A website builds credibility a Facebook page can't
Think about the last time you were looking for a service — a mechanic, a photographer, a financial advisor. You Googled them. You found their website. You looked at their work, read about their process, maybe checked their pricing. Then you decided whether to reach out.
Now imagine you Googled them and all you found was a Facebook page with a blurry cover photo and the last post from three months ago. Would you trust them with your money?
That's what your potential customers are experiencing when they search for you.
What a real website does for your business
A proper website gives you a home base you own and control. It works for you around the clock — showing up in Google searches, answering common questions, showcasing your work, and making it easy for people to contact you or book a service.
Here's what changes when you have one: people can find you through Google, not just Facebook. You look professional and established, even if you're a one-person operation. You can track exactly how people find you and what they're interested in. You have a place to send people from your social media, your business cards, your email signature. And you stop depending on one platform that could change the rules at any time.
"But I don't have the budget for a website"
I hear this one a lot. And I get it — money is tight, especially when you're a small business in New Brunswick. But here's the thing: a website isn't an expense, it's an investment. Every month you go without one, you're losing potential customers to competitors who took the leap.
You don't need something fancy. You need something clean, fast, and functional that shows up in Google and tells people who you are, what you do, and how to reach you. That's it. You can always build on it later.
The move
Keep your Facebook page — it's still useful for community engagement and sharing updates. But stop treating it like your entire online presence. Get a real website that you own, that Google can find, and that makes people trust you before they ever pick up the phone.
If you're a local business owner in Fredericton or anywhere in NB and you've been putting this off, now's the time. The longer you wait, the more customers are finding your competitors instead.