Do you still need a website if you have LinkedIn or Instagram?

What each place is good for, and what it can’t do

LinkedIn, Instagram, your Google listing and a website each do a different job. The mistake is expecting one of them to do all four.

Seven reasons a website still matters

1. You own it

On a platform you are a tenant. Layouts change, reach changes, and accounts can be restricted or disabled, and an appeal is never guaranteed to succeed. A website at your own web address stays yours, and if you ever change the tool behind it, your address and your links move with you.

Platforms also change what is public. In July 2025, Instagram began letting search engines show public photos, videos and Reels from professional accounts belonging to adults. It was switched on by default, with a privacy setting to turn it off. Whether that helps or not, it was the platform’s decision, not yours.

2. A profile is a feed; a website is an answer

A client who hears your name wants quick answers: Are you qualified? Do you work in my area? What does it cost? How do I book? On Instagram those answers are scattered through months of posts. On LinkedIn they are in fields that were designed for job history. A website puts all of them in one place, in the order a client asks.

3. It works for people who don’t have an account

Not every client uses LinkedIn, and many don’t want to sign in to an app to find a phone number. A web page opens for anyone, on any phone, from a search result, a message or a business card, with no login and no prompt to join anything.

4. Search engines and AI assistants can read it

When someone asks Google or an AI assistant for a professional in their city, the answer is built from pages that can be read and understood. Google says that to be shown as a supporting link in its AI Overviews and AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to show in search with a snippet. A page you write for the question, with your name, profession and city in the title and your facts in plain text, is the easiest thing to read and quote. Our guide to the best way to build a professional website covers what to put on it.

Your LinkedIn profile can show up in search too, but only as far as you allow. LinkedIn lets you choose, section by section, what your public profile shows to search engines (under Settings & Privacy, Visibility, Edit your public profile), and changes can take several weeks to appear in or drop out of results. So it is worth checking, but it is not a substitute for a page you control.

5. It decides the sale at the moment of doubt

Referrals and posts create interest; then people search for you before they call. What they find in those two minutes decides whether they get in touch. A clear page with your photo, credentials, area, prices and a booking button settles the doubt. A feed that shows last month’s holiday does not.

6. It is easier to keep within your profession’s rules

If you are a doctor, lawyer, financial adviser or another regulated professional, advertising and testimonial rules generally apply wherever you publish, social media included. One page that you can review and correct is far easier to keep compliant than hundreds of posts, and when a rule changes you fix it once. Check your regulator’s guidance for what applies to you.

7. It becomes the hub everything points to

Every platform has a place for a link: Instagram lets you add up to five links to your bio, LinkedIn has a website field and a Featured section, and your Google listing has a Website button. When all of them point to one page, you update your prices, hours or phone number in one place, and your profiles stop contradicting each other.

When you don’t need one

• You are employed and not looking for clients. A complete LinkedIn profile is enough, and you may not want a personal site at all.
• You are testing an idea. Use a profile to find out whether anyone wants what you offer. But register your name as a web address now, so it is there when you need it, and move to a simple page as soon as people start asking.
• Your whole business lives inside one platform, for example you sell only through a marketplace. Even then, a page to link from your profile is worth having, but it can be minimal.

If you take clients, patients or commissions from people who don’t already know you, you need one.

Make your profiles and website work together

LinkedIn

• Put your role and city in the headline, in the same words as your website title.
• Make the first lines of About say what you do, for whom and where. They are what shows before “see more”.
• Add your website to your contact info and to the Featured section.
• Check Edit your public profile and switch on the sections you want search engines to show.
• Use a short custom profile address with your name.

Instagram

• Switch to a professional account so you can add contact buttons and a category.
• Put your profession and city in the bio, matching your website, and put your website first among your links, because the first link is the one shown straight away.
• Use Highlights for the questions clients ask: services, prices, how to book, where you are.
• Pin your best posts, and repeat your phone number or booking link in the captions that matter.
• Look at the setting that controls whether your public posts can appear in search engine results, and choose on purpose.

Google listing

Add your website in the Website field, and keep the name, address and phone number identical to your page. Our guide on getting on Google Maps goes through it.

A 20-minute set-up

1. Decide the one line you want everywhere: “Your name, profession in city”.
2. Write your three main services and one contact method.
3. Choose one clear photo of yourself.
4. Build a one-page site with those, or use a tool that starts from a photo of your business card.
5. Add the website link to LinkedIn, Instagram and your Google listing.
6. Change the headline or bio on each so they all use the same line.
7. Open the page on your phone and tap every button.

Common mistakes

• Using a link-in-bio list as your only website. A list of links points to places; it doesn’t answer a client’s questions or give search engines a page to read.
• Leaving the website field empty or pointing it to a page that no longer exists.
• Using a different name, job title or phone number on each platform.
• Putting prices and hours only in captions, where they age and get lost.
• Copying your Instagram feed onto a website. A website should do what the feed doesn’t: say clearly who you are and how to book.
• Waiting until the website is perfect. A short, accurate page now is better than a perfect one next year.

Where BeVisible fits

BeVisible is built for exactly this: a single page for an independent professional that your LinkedIn, Instagram and Google listing can all point to. You can start from a photo of a business card or type a few details, and publish free for 7 days with no card needed. After that one yearly plan keeps a website online, and one plan covers one website. Start with a photo or type your details.