Google Says a Facebook Page Isn't Your Website. 10 Guides Skip It.

Short answer. To appear on Google, no. Google's rules for a Business Profile ask for "a phone number that connects to your individual business location, or" a website, so a profile can run on a phone number alone. But if Facebook or Instagram is your only page, the same rules say it does not belong in your profile's website box: "Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or "refer" users to landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business, including pages created on social media sites." So what you need is a small page of your own for that box, and your Facebook or Instagram link goes in a different field Google built for it.

We read the ten "do I need a website if I have Facebook" articles we could open on page 1 of Google on 2026-09-19. Most conclude you need one, and one says it depends. None of the ten mentions that rule, and none mentions the field on a Google profile where social links are supposed to go. This post is about those two things, because they decide what goes in the website box on your Google listing, and that box is on Google whether or not you fill it in.

What does Google actually require on a Business Profile?

The requirement is in Google's Guidelines for representing your business on Google, under the heading "Website & phone." Here is what the guideline actually says, in three parts:

• Phone or website. You don't need both. "Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location, or provide a website that represents your individual business location." A salon, an accountant or a plumber with no website can still have a profile.
• Social pages are named in the "don't" list. Two sentences later, it says not to provide URLs that send people to pages "other than those of the actual business, including pages created on social media sites."
• The phone has to be yours. "The phone number must be under the direct control of the business."

Google does not print what happens to a profile whose website box holds a Facebook link, and we could not find a Google page that does. Some agency blogs say it gets the profile suspended. We found no Google source for that, so we are not repeating it. What Google does publish is the rule itself, and a better place for the link.

Where do Facebook and Instagram links go instead?

Google has a field for them. Its help page Manage your social media links lists seven platforms it accepts: "Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube." You can add one link per platform. Two limits on that page matter:

• The field is "currently available in select regions and may not be available on your Business Profile at this time."
• Google says some profiles "may show social media links automatically if they meet certain requirements," without saying what the requirements are.

So the clean setup for an owner whose business lives on social is: phone number in the phone field, Facebook and Instagram in the social field, and the website box either empty or pointing at a page you control.

Field on your Google profile	What goes there	What Google's pages say
Phone	A number that reaches your business	"must be under the direct control of the business"
Website	A page that represents your business, or nothing	No URLs that send people to other pages, "including pages created on social media sites"
Social profiles	One Facebook, one Instagram, and so on	7 platforms, one link each, "select regions" only

Doesn't Facebook or Instagram already show up on Google?

It does, and many page-1 guides argue as if it didn't. When we pulled the results for "do i need a website if i have facebook or instagram," 4 of the first 10 regular results were facebook.com posts. Google plainly indexes public Facebook content.

Instagram is narrower, and its own help page on search indexing says exactly how narrow. Instagram generally asks search engines not to index photos and videos, but allows it for public posts and reels uploaded from January 1, 2020 onward, from accounts where:

• "The account holder is currently over 18."
• "The account is currently public."
• "The account is currently a professional account."

A personal Instagram account's posts are outside that. A public business account's posts can turn up in Google.

So "social media doesn't show up on Google" is the wrong reason to build a website. The better reasons are the website box above and the next section.

What happens if Facebook or Google switches your page off?

Meta's Terms of Service, section 4.2, give Meta two ways to take an account away. One is if Meta decides, "in our discretion," that you clearly, seriously or repeatedly broke its rules. The other is the one an honest owner can hit: Meta "may disable or delete your account if... we detect someone may have used it without your permission and we are unable to confirm your ownership of the account." If that account is the only one that runs your business Page, a hack you cannot prove was a hack can lock you out of it.

Google did its own version to owners who trusted it. It used to build a free website for any Business Profile. In January 2024 it announced those sites would be turned off in March, with visitors redirected to the profile until June 10 and a "page not found" error after that (Search Engine Land, 2024-01-09). Those business.site addresses no longer work, so any owner whose website box still points at one is sending customers to a dead page.

Neither is a reason to quit Facebook or Instagram. They are reasons to keep one page whose address you control, so that the link in your Google profile does not depend on another company's decision.

Your 10-minute check

1. Open your Business Profile and go to Edit profile, then Contact. Read the Website field.
2. If it starts with facebook.com or instagram.com, that is the case Google's rule names. Copy the link somewhere.
3. Next to "Social profiles," select Edit, pick the platform, paste the link, and save. If you see no "Social profiles" option, Google's page says the feature is not available everywhere yet.
4. Clear the Website field, or put in a page you control. Empty is allowed, since the guideline accepts a phone number instead.
5. If the Website field shows a business.site address, it has been a dead link since June 2024. Clear it or replace it.
6. On Instagram, check the three conditions above if you want your posts found in Google: public, professional, 18 or older. Instagram's page says eligible accounts can switch this off in privacy settings, so check that it is still on.
7. Compute one number. Scroll back through the last 7 days of Facebook and Instagram messages. Count the ones asking your hours, your area, a price, or how to book. Call it Q. Each of those is a question a single page with your hours, services, area and a booking button answers before anyone has to ask, and you only see the people who asked, not the ones who moved on.

What is the smallest website that does this job?

One page is enough to fill the website box honestly. It needs what a customer looks for before they call: your business name, what you do, the area you cover, your hours, your phone number, and a way to book or request a time. It should match your Google profile word for word, because when the two disagree the customer has to guess which is right. Everything else can wait.

If you want to see what Google shows people right now, start with what shows up when someone Googles your business name. For what a profile does and does not do without a site, read Google Business Profile vs website. If you don't have a page of your own yet, My Nearby Pro builds a free, mobile-ready one with online booking. It takes one short form and no credit card, and the address you get can go straight into your profile's website box.