Does a tradesman need a website?

Plenty of trades do fine without a website. Some do very well. So if you’re asking whether you need one, the honest answer is: it depends what you want the next few years to look like.

Here’s how to decide.

When a Google listing can be enough

Your Google Business Profile, the map listing with your stars and your number, is where a lot of trade work starts. For some trades, in some towns, it does nearly all the work on its own.

That’s most true when:

• The job is urgent. Someone with a burst pipe or a broken-down car rings the first firm on the map that looks decent. They don’t browse.
• You’re already at the top of the map in the town you work in, with plenty of good reviews.
• You only want work close to home.

What we have seen

Swindon Surface Cleaning was 1st of 20 on Google’s list for “driveway cleaning” in Swindon on 19 September 2026.

When a firm is at the top of the map in its own town like that, the listing does a lot of the work, and the website is there to back it up.

When you really do need one

For bigger jobs

The more a job costs, the more a customer reads before they ring. Someone planning an extension or a big tree job compares two or three firms properly: their work, their reviews, how they come across. A website is where that comparison happens.

What we have seen

For A.P. Berrystone (a family firm: Adrian Berrystone is Tyler’s dad), a Swindon builder since 1989, 17 of his last 24 enquiries before 11 September 2026 came through his website forms: most of his enquiries now arrive through the website. Read his case study.

For the towns where the map favours someone closer

Google’s map is heavily based on distance from the person searching. In the next town over, the firms based there will usually show above you on the map, however good you are.

The normal search results under the map aren’t tied to distance in the same way. A page on your website about the work you do in that town can be found there, even when the map can’t.

What we have seen

Luke and Dan’s, a tree firm in Royal Wootton Bassett, were 1st of 17 for “tree surgeon” in their own town on 19 September 2026. In Swindon, six miles away, Swindon-based firms ranked above them on the map when we checked in August 2026. Read their case study.

For a firm in that position, the website is how to reach the customers the map won’t show them to.

For enquiries while you’re working

Not everyone wants to ring. Some people would rather fill in a form at 10pm with photos of the job. Without a website, that customer goes to someone who has one.

In the 60 days to 1 October 2026, 22 of the 71 people who contacted Luke and Dan’s did it through their website form.

For backing up your Google listing

Relevance, one of the three things Google ranks local results on, is “how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for”. Your own website, saying clearly what you do and where, gives Google something solid to match you with. And prominence, another of the three, includes “how many websites link to your business”: a real website is something other sites can link to.

Why not just a Facebook page, or a lead site?

Both have their uses, but neither is yours.

• A Facebook page is good for showing finished jobs to people who already follow you. It’s not where most people search for a trade, and Facebook decides what you can do with it.
• A lead-site profile (Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Bark) puts you in front of their visitors, but you pay monthly or per lead, jobs can be sent to several trades, and if you stop paying, it goes. We’ve looked at the costs from their own terms in is Checkatrade worth it for tradesmen.

Your own website, on your own domain, is the one place online you fully control.

What a trade website has to do

A trade website isn’t a brochure. It has one job: turn someone who found you into someone who rings, texts or fills in the form. That means:

1. Your trade and your town on the first screen, in plain words, with your phone number one tap away on a phone.
2. Real photos of your work. Not stock photos. Customers can tell, and it’s your work they’re buying.
3. Your reviews on the page, ideally real Google reviews.
4. A page for each main service, named the way customers search: “Stump grinding”, “House clearances”, “Driveway cleaning”.
5. A page for each main town you cover, saying what you do there.
6. A short form for people who’d rather not ring, asking only what you need.
7. Fast on a phone. Most people find a trade on their phone, often with poor signal.

What we have seen

Benny’s Barbershop had 141 five-star Google reviews and about 260 clicks a month from his listing to his website. The website those people landed on had 52 words, no prices and none of his reviews, and took 8.9 seconds to show its main content on a slow phone test. The new one shows it in 3.5. Read the case study.

That’s the trap: a website that’s technically there but lets down the people who reach it. A bad website can cost you work the listing earned.

So, do you need one?

You probably do if any of these are true:

• You want bigger, better-paid jobs.
• You want work in towns beyond the one you’re based in.
• Customers in your trade compare firms before ringing.
• You get enquiries outside working hours.
• You’re not already at the top of the map where you work.

If none of them apply, a well-run Google listing may be enough for now. When you do get one, make sure it does the job above, and check how much a website should cost for a trade before you pay for one.

How we do it, and why it works

When we take on a trade, the website is built as part of getting them found, not as a separate job. It’s built around their real work and their real reviews, with a page for every service and town they want, and their number one tap away on every screen. It backs up their Google listing, which we work on every week, and every enquiry it brings gets a reply in their name.

You pay nothing until you’ve won £500 of work through us, and the website and domain are yours to keep once you’ve been with us 90 days or paid a first invoice. The case studies on our work page show the sites we’ve built and what they’ve brought in, each with dates. To see where you stand, the free check shows who Google lists for your trade in your town and where you sit.