Do I need a website as a tradesman, or is a Google profile enough?
A Google Business Profile alone can work in a low-competition area, and plenty of trades run on one. The risk is that it is an account you don't own and can lose overnight. A website is the part of your presence nobody else controls, and it is what ranks in ordinary search results.
When a profile alone is genuinely enough
It is worth being honest that not every trade needs a website immediately. If all of the following are true, a well-run profile may be sufficient for now.
- You're full, and turning work away rather than looking for it
- Your area has little competition in your trade
- Your work is predominantly repeat and referral
- Your job values are low enough that customers don't research before calling
The case against relying on a profile alone
- You don't own it. A suspension removes you from Maps entirely, and it happens for reasons as small as an address setting or a name change. Businesses running solely on a profile have no fallback that week.
- It doesn't compete in ordinary organic results. Someone searching a considered term, 'flat roof replacement cost' or 'how much is a rewire', is served web pages, and a profile cannot appear there.
- It cannot carry detail. Higher-value work is researched before anyone rings. A profile has no room to explain scope, process, guarantees or evidence.
- You cannot show proof at length. Photographs of finished jobs with context are what convert considered work, and a profile gallery isn't that.
What a trade website has to do to be worth building
Most trade websites underperform not because they look bad, but because they were built as a brochure about the company rather than an answer to the customer's question.
| Requirement | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| A page per service you want work for | It is what people actually search; one 'Services' list page cannot rank for six different jobs |
| Fast on a phone | Most trade searches are mobile, often urgent |
| Obvious phone number, tappable, on every page | The commonest conversion failure is making people hunt for it |
| Real photographs of your own jobs | Stock imagery reads as untrustworthy to customers comparing three quotes |
| Honest coverage information | Reduces wasted enquiries from outside your area |
| Proof beside the claim it supports | A guarantee mentioned next to the evidence is worth more than a testimonials page |
What most people get wrong
The usual mistake is treating a website as a digital brochure, a homepage about the company's history, a gallery, a contact form. That site can be perfectly attractive and still produce nothing, because it doesn't answer any question anybody typed into Google.
The second is building the site and stopping. A website is a starting position, not an outcome. It ranks when it is structured around real searches and given time; it doesn't rank because it exists.
The third is spending on a rebuild when the existing site wasn't the problem. If the current site is sound and simply lacks service pages, adding them is faster and cheaper than starting again. A rebuild should follow evidence, not aesthetics.
Where these figures come from
"website for tradesmen" runs at 390 monthly UK searches at a £9.09 cost per click with medium competition (0.46), a substantial commercial market in its own right. Measured via Google Ads keyword data, 2 August 2026.
Related questions
Can I just use a Facebook page?
Same problem as relying on a profile, with less search visibility. It's a rented account you don't control, and it doesn't compete in ordinary search results.
How many pages does a trade website need?
Fewer than most people are sold. A page per service you want work for, a coverage page, proof, and clear contact routes. Six good pages beat thirty thin ones.
Should I rebuild or improve what I have?
Improve, unless the site has a structural problem, it cannot be crawled, it is slow beyond repair, or it cannot take new pages. Rebuilding a fundamentally sound site is expensive and often changes nothing.
No website, or one that is not working?
Tell us what you have. If the site you own can be improved we'll say so, and if starting again is the better option we'll explain why before quoting anything.