Facebook is great. It’s popular, convenient and very easy to use, even for people who are not tech savvy. However, I’ve noticed many Australian small businesses of late placing all their best content on Facebook while ignoring their own website. Although they might believe their social media efforts are successful, and boasting an ever increasing number of ‘likes’ and engagement, there are long term risks associated with this strategy.

There is no doubting that Facebook has become a powerful lead generator for many local businesses but what happens if they decide to change their format? What then happens to all your content and followers that you have worked so hard to establish? What happens if another social media giant comes along and steals Facebook’s popularity? All you need to do is look at the internet’s brief history to see large platforms become irrelevant.

By placing content such as news, tips, stories and service information solely on Facebook you miss out on an opportunity to have each and every update indexed in Google. It means, a potential customer can search Google (or any other search engine) for the exact subject matter on your Facebook page but your business will not be visible in the search results. Let’s say for instance that you are a micro business specialising in gift baskets and hampers and you want to promote a new range of chocolates from the Adelaide Hills. On your Facebook page you might simply post a photo and a short description about the new types of chocolate gift baskets. However, only your Facebook followers and whoever it’s shared with will ever see your post.

The solution is to place the majority of content on your own website and use your business’ Facebook page to link back to relevant pages on your site. For instance you might do a Facebook post saying, “Yummy new chocolates have arrived” with a link to the specific blog post on your site which provides more detail.

Example of link: http://giftbasketsandhampers.com.au/new-chocolates-hampers-from-adelaide-hills/

This method assures each update is indexed by the search engines and naturally attracts visitors to your site who are searching for related terms. As a result, if I’m a prospect using Google to search for similar keywords such as ‘chocolate adelaide hills’ or ‘hampers adelaide hills’ or ‘adelaide hills gift baskets’, there is a great chance I’m going to see that specific blog post ranking highly and click through to http://giftbasketsandhampers.com.au/new-chocolates-hampers-from-adelaide-hills/

Essentially, you are attracting a new stream of visitors who will enter your site via the search engines, with hardly any extra effort. Additionally, in comparison to Facebook posts, which often fail to gain much attention after a week, search engines will continue to display a page on your website for years to come. As you continue to add more and more blog posts you will be indexed by search engines for a wider variety keywords and phrases that are closely related to your products and industry. There are no limits! Think of it like a compounding asset that will consistently provide new visitors for your website.

Applying this strategy doesn’t mean your existing Facebook followers miss out. All they have to do is click the link from Facebook which takes them directly to the relevant page on your website. There, visitors can also find out more about your products/services and they are less chance of being distracted by their Facebook news feed and forgetting you existed.

Your website is where you want people to be. You own it and have complete control. Use Facebook and other social media platforms as a way to spread messages from your own site, not as a place to host your content. In the future, when inevitable changes occur to the social media landscape, you can simply stop using a platform that is no longer relevant and switch to new platform that best suits your target market. Businesses that continue to overlook their own website are at the mercy of third party platforms and could be left with nothing to show when changes occur.