Billions (yes, billions) of people use social media these days - that's a huge potential customer base. A business presence on these platforms is a must; they are free to use and offer plenty of ways to interact on a personal basis with clients, customers and fans.
Is that enough, though? In short, NO! There are still many reasons why your business should have its own website in addition to pages on Facebook et al.. Here's 4 biggies:
1. Let all that precious branding hang out...
Take a standard Facebook business page - how much of it is aesthetically unique? We're probably looking at the Cover Photo, Profile Picture and perhaps a carefully consistent roll of branded imagery.
What about Typography? Use of colour? Layout? With your very own website, you control how it looks, right down to the line-height and letter-spacing. This allows you to draw more attention to what separates your business from the competition and take pride in your brand in all its glory, rather than being forced to squash it into the limited customisation options you're given in 2019's social platforms.
2. Take advantage of long tail queries:
Without going into too much technical detail, long tail queries' are searches that tend to be more specific. For example, searching "pink formal dress size 10" rather than just "dresses". These queries are entered less often but are easier to rank higher for and often mean the customer is all but ready to buy. Trying to capitalise on these searches is incredibly difficult without a website. Social media pages work well if a customer searches for your business name directly, but otherwise won't help attract new customers.
