Do tradesmen need a website? The honest answer is: not all of them. We build websites for a living, so you might expect us to say everyone needs one. They do not, and a website you do not need is money you would be better spending on tools.
What is true is that the number of trades who can genuinely do without one is smaller than most people think, and it shrinks the moment you want to grow, change the kind of work you do, or stop relying on one source of jobs. Here is how to tell which side you are on.
Who genuinely does not need a website
You can reasonably skip a website, for now, if most of these are true:
- Nearly all your work comes from one or two main contractors or builders, and that relationship is solid.
- You are booked solid weeks or months ahead and turning work away.
- You are happy with the type of jobs you get and the prices you charge.
- You are winding down rather than building up.
- You do subcontract labour where the end customer never chooses you directly.
Your word-of-mouth customers still google you
“All my work comes from word of mouth” is the most common reason trades give for not having a website, and it misses how word of mouth works now. A neighbour recommends you. The customer does not just ring the number; they type your name into Google first, to check you are real, see some of your work and read what others have said.
What they find at that moment decides whether the recommendation turns into a call. If they find a tidy website with photos of recent jobs, your registrations and a clear phone number, the recommendation is confirmed. If they find nothing, or an old directory listing with a number that no longer works, some of them will quietly ask someone else for a name.
You never see those lost jobs. That is the problem: a missing website does not cost you in ways you notice, so it is easy to believe it costs you nothing.
The same applies to customers who got your number off the van or a card through the door. A name and a phone number are a start, but most people want a bit more reassurance before they let a stranger into their home, and the first place they look for it is a search.
Who does need one, and why
A website starts earning its keep as soon as you want any of the following. Each of these is about choice: a website is how you get jobs you picked rather than jobs that happened to come along.
| Your situation | Why a website helps |
|---|---|
| You want new customers, not just repeat ones | People searching “electrician near me” can only choose you if there is something to find |
| You want more of a specific kind of job | A page about, say, bathroom refits attracts bathroom refits; a Facebook page mostly attracts whatever comes |
| You want to charge properly | Photos, registrations and a clear process make you look like the safe choice, not the cheap one |
| You are new and nobody knows you yet | A website does the reassuring your reputation will do later |
| You want fewer time-wasting calls | Prices, areas covered and a quote form filter out the jobs you do not want |
| You rely on one contractor | A website is a second source of work if that relationship ends |
Is a Facebook page or Checkatrade profile enough?
Social media pages and directory profiles are useful, and plenty of trades get work through them. The catch is that you do not control them. The platform decides what customers see next to you (often your competitors), can change its rules or prices, and a Facebook page is awkward to browse for someone who does not use Facebook.
Your own website is the one place online that is entirely yours: your domain, your photos, your words, no competitors in the sidebar. The sensible setup for most trades is both, with your profiles pointing back to your site. We go into this in more detail in our piece on whether you need a website if you have social media.
What a trade website actually needs to do
The fear with websites is that they turn into a project. They should not. A trade website has three jobs: prove you are real and competent, tell people what you do and where, and make it easy to ring you. That fits comfortably into a handful of pages.
- Your trade and the towns you cover, visible without scrolling.
- A tap-to-call phone number on every page.
- Real photos of recent jobs (your own, not stock).
- Registrations, scheme membership and insurance where they apply.
- Real reviews, ideally pulled from or linked to your Google profile.
- A short quote form for people who would rather not call.
If you decide you do not need one yet
If you have read this far and still think you are fine without a website, that is a reasonable call for some trades. But do the cheap things that protect you when someone does look you up, because somebody will.
Treat these as the minimum online presence for any trade business, website or not. They cost little or nothing and take an afternoon between them.
- Claim and complete your Google Business Profile: services, areas, hours, phone number and a handful of real job photos.
- Ask your happiest recent customers to leave a Google review. A few genuine reviews do more than any advert.
- Check what comes up when you search your own business name, and fix or remove old listings with wrong numbers.
- Register a domain name for your business now, even if you do nothing with it yet, so nobody else takes it.
- Use a proper business email address rather than a free one, so quotes and invoices look established.
- Set a date, six or twelve months out, to ask the question again. Businesses change, and so does the answer.
The cost of not having one
The fair way to think about it is not “can I afford a website?” but “how many jobs does it need to bring in to pay for itself?” For most trades the answer is very few, because a single decent job is often worth more than a year of hosting.
There is also a cost that does not show up in the accounts. Without a website, you take the work that finds you. With one, you get more say over which jobs you do, where you do them and what you charge, and that is usually worth more than the jobs themselves.
If you would rather not build it yourself, we build trade websites for £299 to set up and £99/month, live in 3 working days. But the more important decision is simply to have something good in place, whoever makes it, before the next customer searches your name.