Do I need a website if I have Instagram?
Honest answer: sometimes not. I have talked people out of hiring me over this exact question. If you are a lash tech booked three weeks deep off referrals and you are not trying to get bigger, a website is a nice-to-have and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
But that describes fewer businesses than it feels like it does. Here is how to work out which one you are.
What Instagram is genuinely great at
It is the best portfolio tool ever made for visual trades, and it is free. If you do nails, hair, tattoos, cakes, barbering, detailing, photography — anything where the proof is a picture — Instagram shows your work better than any website section ever will, because it is built for exactly that and your customers are already scrolling it.
It is also unbeatable at keeping people who already know you warm. Stories do a job a website simply cannot do. None of what follows is an argument for using Instagram less.
The four things it cannot do
1. Be there when someone searches
When somebody in Fishtown needs a barber on a Tuesday, they do not open Instagram and search. They type "barber near me" into their phone and look at the map. That result comes from a Google Business Profile and a web page with your real address, hours and details on it. No amount of Instagram activity puts you in that list. This is the big one, and it is the reason most people end up emailing me.
2. Convince a certain kind of customer
If you sell to other businesses, to older customers, to anyone writing a cheque over a few hundred dollars — a lot of them will look for a website and quietly treat its absence as a signal. It is not a fair judgement and I do not defend it, but I have watched it cost people work. This matters much more for an auto shop quoting a fleet account than for a nail tech.
3. Answer the boring questions at 11pm
Are you open Sundays. Do you take walk-ins. Where do I park. How much is a fade. Is there a deposit. Right now you are answering those in DMs, one at a time, forever. A page with your hours, prices and policies answers them while you sleep, and the DMs you do get are from people who already decided to book.
4. Belong to you
Accounts get hacked. Accounts get flagged by automated systems for nothing. Accounts get locked and there is no phone number to call — and if your whole business lives there, your storefront, your portfolio and your only way of being contacted all go dark at the same moment. I am not trying to scare you; it is just worth knowing that a domain you own is the one piece of this nobody can switch off.
You probably don't need one yet if…
- You are fully booked and not trying to grow.
- Every customer comes from referral, and you are happy with that.
- You are testing whether the business works at all — do not commission a site for something that might not exist in six months.
- You work inside someone else's shop and they handle the marketing.
If that is you, put your hours and location in your bio, claim your free Google Business Profile — that alone does most of the "found on the map" work — and get back to it.
You probably do need one if…
- You have openings in the calendar you would like filled.
- You are answering the same five questions in DMs every single day.
- You want deposits before appointments instead of chasing no-shows.
- Your customers include anyone who is not on Instagram — which is more people than the platform lets you believe.
- You are competing against shops that do show up on the map when someone searches your neighbourhood.
The smallest thing that works
If you decide you want one, you do not need much. One page that says what you do, where you are, when you are open, how to book you, and shows a handful of real photos of real work. Correct business details in a format Google can read, so you turn up in local results. A form or booking link that emails you directly.
That is a complete website, not a stripped-down one, and it is where the $499 starting price lands. Keep posting to Instagram exactly as you do now — the site just means the people who were never going to find you there can.
Common questions
Can Instagram be my only online presence?
For some businesses, yes — particularly if you are booked out through word of mouth, your customers are all on Instagram already, and you are not trying to grow. The problem is not Instagram's quality; it is that Instagram is not where people look when they search for a service in their neighbourhood.
Why doesn't my Instagram show up on Google?
Individual posts and profiles are indexed inconsistently, and almost never for the searches that matter to a local business, like a service plus a neighbourhood name. Google Search and Google Maps pull from web pages and from your Google Business Profile — neither of which Instagram gives you.
What is the smallest website that actually helps?
One page: what you do, where you are, your hours, a way to contact or book you, a handful of real photos, and correct business details Google can read. That is a complete, useful site — not a compromise. Builds start at $499.
What happens to my business if my Instagram account is locked?
If Instagram is your only presence, you lose your storefront, your portfolio and your entire customer contact method at once, with no appeals process you control. A website does not prevent that, but it means the lights stay on while you sort it out.
Should I delete my Instagram if I get a website?
No, and please don't. Instagram is better than any website at showing what you make and keeping existing customers warm. The two do different jobs. The site is where people who do not follow you yet find you and book.
Not sure which one you are?
Send me what you have got. I will tell you straight whether a site would actually move anything for your business or whether your money is better spent elsewhere right now. Email or text — never a call.
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