Website vs link in bio: is a Linktree really enough for your business?

You set up your Linktree, added links to your socials, your shop, maybe your newsletter. It works, it’s easy, and people have actually clicked on it. So why would you need a website too? The question “website vs link in bio” comes up more than you’d think — and the answer isn’t “because Linktree is terrible.” The real answer has to do with where you actually live online.

Your link in bio does its job (but it’s working for someone else)

Linktree, Later, Beacons — these tools exist because Instagram, while allowing multiple links, only shows one at the top of your bio. To see the rest, users have to tap “more” and open the full list — an extra step that most people simply don’t take. These tools gather everything into one clean page, which is more immediate. They’re useful, simple, and I get why you use them.

The issue isn’t the tool itself. The issue is that when your bio points to linktr.ee/yourname, you’re living in someone else’s house.

Think about what that actually means:

• The domain isn’t yours — it’s theirs
• The design follows their rules, not your brand
• Your visitor data stays in their system
• If they change their pricing, their policies, or simply shut down — you lose everything

You’ve built your main point of entry on rented land.

What really happens when someone clicks your link in bio

Picture a potential client who discovers you on Instagram. She likes what you do, taps the link, and lands on a page with a list of anonymous links.

What does she see? A list. Not who you are, not what you do, not why she should choose you over anyone else. No story, no personality, nothing that convinces her to stay or reach out.

You did the work to get her there. Then you left her standing in front of an unmarked buzzer.

A website doesn’t replace your link in bio — it completes it

I want to be honest about how this works for me, because I think it’s the most useful way to explain it.

I have a links page too. I use it exactly like one of these tools — it brings together links to my socials, my services, and everything I want people to find easily when they come from my profiles.

The difference is that page lives on my own domain. It’s mysite.com/links, not linktr.ee/myname.

It sounds like a small detail. It isn’t. Because it means:

• Anyone who lands there is already on my domain — if they want to know more, they just scroll or click
• The design is consistent with my brand, not an external tool’s
• I can see exactly where people come from, how long they stay, what they click
• If the tool changes its terms tomorrow or shuts down, I don’t even notice

The convenience of a links page. The control of owning your space online. You don’t have to choose.

The one thing a website does that these tools never can

There’s something no links page can give you: visibility on Google.

When someone searches “web designer for small businesses” or “how to improve my online presence,” Linktree doesn’t show up. Your site, if it’s done well, does. Having your own platform means existing on Google independently from social media — and that’s traffic that comes to you without you doing anything.

It keeps working even when you’re not posting, not publishing, not doing anything. It keeps existing, getting found, answering your potential clients’ questions — even at three in the morning while you sleep.

A third-party tool, on its own, can’t do that.

“But I’m just starting out and I don’t have budget for a website”

I get it. And I’m not telling you to launch with a hundred pages.

A single well-built page — who you are, what you do, how to reach you — is worth infinitely more than an elaborate Linktree. Because it’s yours. Because Google can find it. Because you can grow it over time without starting from scratch.

The sooner you start building your presence on land you own, the better. It doesn’t have to be perfect right away.

So, website vs link in bio: which one do you actually need?

As a temporary or complementary tool: sure, it works.

As your only point of online presence for your business: no.

Your link in bio is the buzzer. Your website is the home. You can have both — actually, it makes sense to have both. But a buzzer alone isn’t somewhere you can live.

If Instagram disappeared tomorrow, would your clients still be able to find you?