They're not competitors. A website is a fixed sign; Facebook is a place where people talk, share and recommend. Both can help, and neither replaces the other.

What each one is good at

	Website	Facebook page
Opens without a login	Yes	Usually pushes a sign-up wall
Shows up in Google search	Yes	Rarely useful for local search
Word of mouth and sharing	No	Yes — this is the real value
Reviews	Only if you add them	Yes, and people trust them
You control the layout	Fully	Barely — it changes without asking
Reaches people who aren't looking for you	No	Yes, through groups and shares

For a local service business, Facebook's real function is the town group. Someone posts "anyone know a good plumber?" and three neighbors name the same guy. That's a distribution channel you can't buy, and it exists with or without a website.

When Facebook alone is enough

• Your customers are mostly on Facebook and mostly older.
• You're genuinely going to post — job photos, availability, a snowstorm update.
• You don't want to deal with a website at all yet.

It's a legitimate starting point. Many trades run for years on a Facebook page and a phone number.

When the website matters more

• Someone is comparing you to two other quotes. A real address reads as a real business.
• You want the details in one place — services, area, hours, pricing — without a login wall or a feed of unrelated posts.
• You're printing the address on a truck or a card. davesplowing.com is shorter and more permanent than a Facebook URL.
• You want to be findable on Google. Facebook pages rarely rank for local trade searches; your own site can.

The failure mode: two dead pages

The worst outcome is a Facebook page with a 2022 cover photo, three unanswered messages and a pinned post about a spring special, plus a website with last year's hours. Two places where a customer learns you're not paying attention.

If you can only maintain one, maintain one. A single accurate page — even a free one — is better than a pair of neglected ones. Delete or unpublish the other, or at minimum stop linking to it.

If you keep both, do these four things

1. Same name, same phone, same hours on both. Inconsistency reads as sloppiness, and it confuses Google.
2. Link the website from the Facebook page, in the "Website" field, not just in a post.
3. Link the Facebook page from the website — but only if you post at least monthly.
4. Answer messages. An unanswered Facebook message is a customer you've already lost; they can see you read it.

What to actually post

Not marketing. Photographs of finished work, a note when you're booked out, a heads-up before a storm, a thank-you to a customer who let you photograph their driveway. Two or three posts a month is plenty.

Skip the graphics with quotes on them, the "like and share to win" posts, and anything a marketing company tells you to schedule. Local customers can smell it.

Other places worth a listing

Facebook isn't the only one. For local trades, also consider:

• Nextdoor — genuinely local, and neighbors recommend trades there constantly.
• Your town's Facebook groups — participate as a person, not as an ad.
• A listing in a local directory that people actually use — check whether it ranks before paying for anything.

None of these require you to be on Instagram, TikTok or anywhere else. Pick the one your customers use and skip the rest. See how to get customers to visit your website for the whole picture.