In the digital age, many small businesses lean heavily on social media platforms like Facebook for marketing, customer engagement, and community building. While convenient and seemingly cost-effective, depending exclusively on a Facebook page carries considerable risk, especially when you don’t own a website.
Without control over the platform, your entire online presence can vanish in an instant, along with your customer base and revenue stream.
Leicester Gazette
A real UK example comes from the Leicester Gazette, a local co‑operative news publisher.
In April 2025, Facebook disabled its Facebook group and admin account without stating any clear reason, citing “account integrity” concerns. With around 1,700 members in its group and Facebook being its second‑largest source of referral traffic, the shutdown severely impacted its reach during a critical time as the shutdown fell just before local elections.
The worst thing was that, while they say you can appeal, Facebook offered them no avenue to do that.
The Leicester Gazette’s experience underlines how, in practice, you don’t own your presence on a social media platform and losing it can wipe out years of hard-earned engagement overnight.
As a small business, that means you can lose everything tomorrow, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Voices from the forums: Small Business Owners’ Own Stories
The Leicester Gazette is not an isolated case—many small business owners have taken to Reddit and other forums expressing the same plight:
“Facebook just deleted our business account, which had worked for over 6 years… they called it a scam and deleted our account, without any warning, once and forever.”
“It’s true that FB gives zero f*%$ to any small business owner and there’s no security regarding your contents and clients and followers. Everything you took months and even years to build can be taken away.” Reddit
These posts reflect a harsh reality: without your own website, you have no fallback when a social media platform exercises unilateral control.
Why You Need a Website
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Ownership and Stability: A website is yours. You control content, branding, and the user experience. No one is going to delete it.
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Resilience: Even if your social media presence disappears, your website and your connection to customers remain intact.
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Legitimacy and Trust: A professional website reinforces your credibility and can capture leads directly through sign-ups, emails, or e-commerce without relying on third-party algorithms.
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Future-Proofing: You’re not at the mercy of changing platform policies, algorithms, AI decisions or ever‑present moderation errors.
The Bottom line is that using only a Facebook or Instagram page for your business puts your future in someone else’s hands. As seen with Leicester Gazette and countless frustrated business owners, your livelihood can be taken away without warning or explanation.
Having a dedicated website gives you the control, security, and autonomy you need to protect your business, as well as being in full control of the message you want to give to your customers.
If you need advice or want to discuss how I can help you create a perfect lead-generating website, just message me!
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