Do you need a website if you already sell on Instagram?
Plenty of Toronto businesses run entirely on DMs and do fine. The question is not whether Instagram works — it clearly does — but what happens on the days it doesn't.
The case for staying on Instagram only
Let's be fair to the argument first, because it is a real one.
Instagram gives you an audience without paying for traffic. It shows your work visually, which matters for anything from nails to renovations. DMs are faster than any contact form, and people are already in the app. If your business runs on referrals in a tight community, a profile plus a phone number can carry you for years.
So nobody should build a website because someone told them businesses have websites. Build one when it does something the profile cannot.
What Instagram cannot do for you
It cannot be found by people searching
This is the big one. Right now, someone in Etobicoke is typing "wedding makeup near me" into Google. That search returns a map with three businesses and a page of websites. Your Instagram is in neither place.
Those people are not browsing. They have decided to buy and they are choosing who from. Instagram brings you people who happened to scroll past you. Search brings you people who went looking. The second group is smaller and converts far better.
It cannot answer the boring questions
How much? Do you come to me? Do you have parking? Are you open Sunday? Do you speak Spanish? Are you insured?
On Instagram you answer these one DM at a time, forever. On a website you answer once. Every question you answer publicly is a message you don't have to type and a customer who doesn't drift away while waiting for a reply.
It does not belong to you
Accounts get hacked, reported, and locked. It happens to normal businesses with no wrongdoing, and support is a form and a wait. If your entire customer list lives inside an app you do not control, that is a single point of failure for your income.
A website with your own domain and an email list is the version of your business that cannot be taken away by a stranger's report.
It doesn't make you look established
For small purchases, a nice grid is enough. For anything above a few hundred dollars — a renovation, a legal service, a custom build — people check. A real site with a real address and real prices removes the doubt. No site at all creates it.
The 12-point website checklist
The same list we run before we launch any site in Toronto. Send it to yourself and check your own site in ten minutes.
Get the checklistThe honest test: should you build one yet?
Answer these five questions.
- Do people ever say they couldn't find you online?
- Do you answer the same questions in DMs every week?
- Do you sell anything worth more than about $300?
- Would you lose income if your account disappeared for a month?
- Do customers search for what you do, rather than only discover it?
One or two yeses and you can wait. Three or more and a website is now the cheapest thing you can fix.
What the site actually has to contain
Not much. Most owners overestimate this and end up building nothing.
- A home page that says what you do, where you do it, and what to do next. The city has to appear in real text, not inside an image.
- A page per main service, so Google has something to match against a specific search.
- Prices or ranges. Even "from $X" filters out the people who were never going to buy and reassures the ones who were.
- Proof. Photos of your own work, and reviews.
- Contact everywhere. Tap-to-call, WhatsApp, and a short form. In Toronto, WhatsApp often outperforms the form.
Five pages. That is the whole thing. If your site is fast, honest and easy to contact from, it will outperform a beautiful one that is slow and vague.
Feed the two together
The combination is where it clicks.
Put the site link in your bio and mention it in stories occasionally. When a DM asks about price, send the pricing page instead of typing. When someone finds you in Google, let them see your Instagram feed on the site so the personality carries over.
Instagram keeps you visible to people who already follow you. The site collects the people who don't, and it works while you sleep.
What this costs, roughly
A five-page local site should not be a project. Our own sites start at $300 to build and $50 a month, which covers hosting, the domain and unlimited text changes, and go live in about five business days. If you want the full breakdown of what drives price in this city, we wrote it out here.
The point is not the number. It is that the decision is small enough that it should not be sitting on your list for another year.
If you want to know what a page needs before it converts anyone, start with the website checklist.
Frequently asked questions
Can I rank on Google with just an Instagram profile?
Barely. Your profile can appear when someone searches your exact business name, but it almost never appears for searches like 'eyebrow threading North York'. Those results are websites and Google Maps profiles. Without one of those, you are invisible to anyone who does not already know your handle.
Is a Linktree page enough instead of a website?
It is better than nothing for organising links, but it is a list, not a business. It does not rank in Google, it does not explain your service or pricing, and it does not belong to you. Use it if you want, but do not confuse it with a site.
What if I have no time to keep a website updated?
A good local site is not a magazine. Five pages that stay true for a year do the job: what you do, who it is for, prices or ranges, proof, and how to contact you. We include text edits with our sites so you send a message instead of learning software.
Will a website replace my Instagram?
No, and it should not. Instagram is where people discover you and see your personality. The website is where the undecided ones go to check that you are real, compare, and book. They work as a pair.
