Website or Instagram: what does your business need?

It is not a website or Instagram: each one does a different job. Instagram is for getting known, showing your day to day and talking with people who already follow you; a website is for being found by people searching on Google and for keeping your business information organized and always at hand. If you are just starting out and your customers come through referrals, Instagram may be enough; once people start searching for you or asking you the same things over and over, it makes sense to add a website.

I am not going to repeat why having a website is worth it here; I already wrote that in why your business needs a website. This post is the concrete comparison: what each one gives you and how to tell what you need today.

What does Instagram give you, and what does a website give you?

Side by side, it is clear they do not compete: they solve different things.

The development cost depends on what your business needs: number of sections, content, and features like bookings or a catalog. Details in how much a website costs.

When is Instagram enough?

For some businesses Instagram is enough, at least for a while. It may be enough for you if:

• Your customers come mostly through referrals from other customers, and they message you directly.
• What you sell can be understood with a photo or a video: clothing, cakes, tattoos, home decor.
• You are just starting out and want to test whether your product or service works before investing in anything else.
• You have little fixed information to show: no long menu, no service list, no bookings.
• Your customers are from the neighborhood and already know where you are and when you are open.

When does it start falling short?

The clearest sign is not technical: it is what happens day to day with your customers.

• You spend all day answering the same questions by message: hours, prices, whether you have something, how to get there.
• People search Google for your type of business and area, and other businesses show up in the results.
• You have information that changes and you want it organized in one place, like a menu with prices or a catalog.
• You need customers to do something specific without waiting for your reply, like booking an appointment or sending you a complete order.
• You want to send people to a link that is yours, with your name, and that will look the same a year from now.

How do they work together in practice?

What works best is letting each one do its job and pass people to the other. Instagram creates interest: someone sees a photo, likes it, visits your profile. There, the link in your bio takes them to the website, where they find everything they need to decide: what you offer, how much it costs, where you are and how to contact you. And from the website, a button takes them back to your Instagram so they can follow you.

If you also run Instagram ads, the website lets you measure what happens after the click. In the Professional plan on my services page I include visit analytics and the Meta pixel, the tool that tells Instagram which people reached your website from an ad, so you can tell whether that advertising is paying off.

What does this look like for a restaurant?

In food service the difference really shows. On Instagram you post the dish of the day, the weekend deal, the vibe of the dining room. But when someone is deciding where to eat, they look for the full menu, prices, hours and how to book, and that is awkward to find among posts.

A real example is the website I built for Boca de Lobo, a grill restaurant with locations in Floresta and Caballito, two Buenos Aires neighborhoods. The website has the full menu, the deals and, separately for each location, reservations, WhatsApp, delivery, directions and reviews. And since prices changed often because of inflation, I added an editor that updates more than 250 products at once. If you run a restaurant, on my services page you can see what I can build for you.

And for a medical practice or healthcare professional?

For a practice, Instagram is a good place to explain the treatments you offer, introduce yourself and build trust. But a patient who has already decided to book wants something else: to know where the practice is, which days you see patients, and to book an appointment without waiting for someone to answer a message.

That is where a website solves something a profile cannot: online booking, which patients do on their own, at any hour. In my Business plan, for example, the industry feature for professionals is precisely the booking system. On my services page I explain how it works.

Where should you start if you only have Instagram today?

You do not need a huge site. The simplest option is to start with a single page that answers what people ask you most: what you offer, where you are, your hours and a button to message you on WhatsApp. That is what my Starter plan includes: a single mobile-friendly page with WhatsApp, Google Maps, a contact form and the basics to show up on Google.

A good exercise before you start is to go through last week's messages and write down the questions that come up most. Those answers are, almost word for word, the content of your first website. If you are torn between a single page and a site with several sections, I explain it in landing page vs full website. And once the website is online, the next step is showing up on Google when people in your area search for you.

Frequently asked questions