Which is more valuable a Facebook Page or a Self Hosted Blog
This post looks at which is more valuable, a Facebook Page or a Sef Hosted Blog
I was inspired to write this, having listened to a radio show this morning
At the end of the article, the guest was asked where customers could find him
His response was, after a pause, that he had a Facebook page.
Now the reaction I was expecting was a website, which then got me thinking
Which is more valuable a Facebook Page or a Self Hosted Blog
So below you will learn the 6 reasons why a self-hosted blog is far more valuable
1. You control the media and the content which goes on your blog
Once you have the domain name, it is yours unless you decide to not pay for it anymore
With Facebook, they give you limited access and control of what you are allowed to post
Facebook encourages you to have a page for business,
However if they don’t like what you write or the way you conduct yourself
They will shut you down… Jus Ask Outgoing President Trump!
But this is only so they can push you towards their advertising packages.
Your self Hosted blog can have adverts on it, if you choose it too, through the Google Adsense Programme
2.You can Attract, the exact Group of People you want to
This is done, initially through the content you write
If people like what you write and want more of it, they subscribe to your newsletter.
Your Facebook page allows for the same, however, the organic reach for your page is restricted
With Google, your organic reach is not limited, so your blog has more chance of being found
Equally, if you have sharing buttons on your website, then your content gets shared
Though Facebook allows you to share content you are severely restricted as to how you can
3. You Get Paid to Show Adverts
This alone is probably a big enough reason to have your own self hosted blog
Because if you have an Adsense Account, then Google will pay you to show ads
Compare that to Facebook, who will charge you to place Ads
And to get accesss to the same kind or organic reach you get with Google, Bing & Yahoo
You will have to spend thousands of Dollars, in the hope you get a ROI
4. High Ranking on Search Engines
With your own blog, then you have the ability to rank as high as you want.
The more Search Engine Optimised your blog is the better chance you have of ranking
Don’t forget, that your blog doesn’t just rank for the main title
It also ranks for lots of other keywords as well
You can find out more about those here
With Facebook Pages you don’t, because that is determined by Facebooks Algorithm
This is the Algorithm you have no control over at all.
So even if your self hosted blog, does rank beneath your Facebook Page
With your blog you still own the content.
5.Not Everyone is on Facebook
Despite its popularity and the fact that it has 2Billion Active Users
Half of which are Business Owners…
Not everyone has a Facebook Account
Those that do, don’t read your content, they just scroll through timelines
But with your blog, they read your content, as long as it’s compelling and well written
6. You can Add a Pop Up to Your Blog
With your Self Hosted blog you can add a pop-up form to your blog
You can also add a subscription widget offering a free git just for reading your content
With Your Facebook Page you can’t do that.
So this is a summary of why a self-hosted blog is more valuable than a Facebook Page
It is not saying that you shouldn’t post to your Facebook Page. You Should
But you should bear in mind that Facebook, Like all other Social Media Channels
Should be used as a bonus, rather than the main, for the reason mentioned in 5 Above
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I agree, your own blog on your own website is much better. Facebook has restricted business users more and more. 8 years or so ago it was excellent for small businesses. Interacting with other users really improved your reach. Then bit by bit it was eroded because the owner wanted everyone to pay for adverts. Except even the adverts didn’t stretch as far as the amount of followers/likers your page had. The more you paid the more people you got to reach.
I keep a presence there of 3 business pages and send stuff through them but it isn’t worth investing much time on there.
At the minute groups seem to do well but that will change too.
Thanks for commenting Linda and I’m in agreemment with FB groups
Hi Dave. Very interesting article. I’m just starting my adventure with digital marketing, and such advices are precious for me. For now I focused on developing my blog and based on your post it seems a good choice. Yet I feel Facebook or in general social media are important in this business as well. Even if not as a primary place of activity they are still increasing site traffic.
Cogito, thanks for commenting. Building your own blog has many advantages to it. not least of which is the content is always live, unless you decided to not renew the domain its on
Hi Dave Haynes,
Thanks so much for sharing a good article to read to know more about which is more valuable, a Facebook Page or a Self Hosting Blog. After reading your article it’s clear that a blog will help anyone who is looking to start working from home with an online business a blog is where we all should be working on, as you own the blog and a Facebook page will never be yours, and many things can happen as you work on it, I’ve seen a few times, people working hard on their Facebook page and then someone get mad at them or just wanting to make things harder and from one day to the next one your Facebook page is gone!
This will not happen with your own blog, you are the owner and you are in comand of it. Another thing is to have a Facebook page to promote your content on Social Media, but never build up your own business on someone else land.
Thanks for commenting Alejandra
I fully agreed with you; the blog post is more valuable than the Facebook page. Your content has clearly mentioned all the benefits the blog post can give to us.
The blog post is our valued asset; our contents bring readers to our website. We have to familiar with the google search rule to avoid getting errors from Google Search Console or bad page speed to drop our blog post value.
Facebook has some value for us to get our niche information from the community we have to participate in. It is helpful to develop our local business. You are right that Facebook gives many restrictions to the blogger, and they are interested in the paid advertisement only.
I am still learning how to bring up my traffic. That is all I can share with you. Looking like your website is still new, but your content is full of useful and accurate information about a blog post’s benefits. Thank you for your excellent sharing of your content.
Stephen
Thanks for commenting and Facebook, certainly is adding more restrictions for and to business owners. See if it goes down or has an outage, you have no control over it
Hi Dave, thanks for the useful post. It seems like having a self hosted blog has much more benefits than a Facebook page. I do believe having a self hosted blog is a much better option. Having control over what you post and everything in between is vital if you want to grow your own business!
Sariyah, thanks for commenting and having control is absolutely vital, for credibility
Thank you for a well detailed and informative article Dave. I have actually been debating with myself on whether I should create a Facebook Page as well as a blog. I currently have a blog. You have fully detailed the benefits of a blog over a Facebook Page. After reading your article it is clearly evident that my online business will benefit from a blog and any Facebook Page is merely supplementary. Thank you for the advice.
Les thanks for commenting and glad it gave you some clarity
I’d say the value is more in how they interact with each other, like how Facebook can help drive traffic to your website. Without the help of social media, like Facebook, it’d be harder to get noticed. I started using Facebook ads myself and most of my audience is coming from my Facebook posts and ads.
Thanks Branden, you make a point about Facebook, but when it comes to organic traffic, then mine is coing from Search Engines, Quora and YouTube, though not in that order
This is one topic that I do think about a lot, I’m unsure on what ways are best to get by website and blog out. I’m never sure where to start but this is very helpful, it lays it all out showing the pros and cons. It will certainly help a lot of people, I look forward to reading more in the future.
Thanks for commenting Ben and glad it helped