That’s true, but on the otther hand, nobody GenZ or onwards checks for websites anymore. Most people will look up a business on instagram first, so I don’t blame them, especially small businesses, when they operate on social media primarily.
What? Myself and most of my friends are Gen Z and nobody I know does this. Google Maps is always the first place I look, and 70% of the time I click through to the business's actual site.
That's great then. I'm a musician so not a business per se, but I need to promote my music and act as a business in that regard. My anecdotal experience - Even though I have a linktree as my "website", most people who look me up when I post my music search my social media profiles instead. From the business pov, it makes sense because getting a follow on social media means long term visibility and engagement, instead of viewing a website one time and forgetting about it; unless you have a newsletter people can sign up for (if they even bother). So I agree that websites should still be a thing, on the other hand I also understand how small businesses choose to operate on social media.
I took the phrase "small business" to mean places with an actual storefront (restaurants, small shops, studios, and so on) who use FB or IG in lieu of having their own site. For those places it makes particularly little sense because social media isn't most people's first port of call when they're looking for somewhere to eat dinner or go thrifting.