Do Tradies Need a Website?
The honest answer, including the cases where a website genuinely isn't urgent yet.
Plenty of tradies run busy businesses with no website at all. So the honest answer isn't "yes, everyone, immediately" — it depends on where your work comes from and what you want next.
What actually changes when you have one
- You get found by strangers. Searches like "electrician near me" only reach businesses with something for Google to show.
- You get checked out and pass. Even referred customers search your name. Finding a proper site instead of nothing settles the doubt.
- You can win bigger jobs. Builders, strata managers and commercial clients expect a website before they hand over work.
- You stop repeating yourself. Services, areas, licences and hours all sit in one place you can link to.
When you can wait
If you're subcontracting full-time to one or two builders and don't want retail customers, a website adds little. Same if you're winding down. In both cases a claimed Google Business Profile is still worth the twenty minutes.
Isn't a Facebook page enough?
It helps, but it can't rank for the searches that matter, it buries your phone number, and you don't control it. There's a full comparison in website vs Facebook page for tradies.
What it needs to include
Not much, but the right things: your trade and area up top, a page per service, real photos of your jobs, reviews, and a tappable phone number. What a tradie website should include spells it out.
The cost objection
The old problem was paying thousands upfront and then paying again for every change. That's why I run tradie websites as a build plus a weekly managed fee — hosting, updates and fixes included, no lock-in contract. One extra job usually covers a long stretch of it.
Want to Improve Your Google Visibility?
SEO varies enormously depending on your website, your market and who you're competing against, so there's no fixed package. Tell me what you do and where you work, and I'll tell you honestly what's realistic.
Talk to Mike About SEOCommon questions
- Can I get by with just a Google Business Profile?
- For a while, yes — it's the highest-value free thing you can do. But a profile alone limits which searches you appear in and gives people nowhere to check your work in detail.
- How long does a tradie website take to build?
- With photos and service details ready, a well-run build takes about a week. Most delays come from waiting on content, not the build itself.
Written by Mike — Web Guy Mike
I build and look after websites for Australian tradies and small service businesses. Every site is built by me — no outsourcing, no account managers. More about Mike.