Do Tradespeople Need a Website or Is Facebook Enough?

It's a question I hear all the time. You've got a Facebook page, you've got a few hundred followers, people can message you through it — so why would you bother with a website? Isn't that just spending money you don't need to?

The short answer is no, Facebook isn't enough on its own. Here's why.

What Facebook does well for tradespeople

Facebook genuinely has its strengths, and it's not going anywhere. For tradespeople, the main advantages are:

• It's free to set up — a Facebook business page costs nothing
• You can post photos easily — before and after shots, completed jobs, materials
• Local community groups — people still ask in local Facebook groups for tradesperson recommendations
• Messaging — customers can contact you directly through Messenger

These are real advantages and they're worth using. The problem isn't that Facebook is bad — it's that Facebook alone has some serious limitations that can cost you real work.

The big problem: Google can't find you on Facebook

This is the most important thing to understand. When someone in your town types "plumber in Mansfield" or "electrician near me" into Google, Facebook pages almost never appear in the results. Google has its own ecosystem — Google Search, Google Maps, Google Business Profile — and Facebook is a closed platform that doesn't play nicely with it.

That means every single person who searches for your trade on Google — and there are hundreds of them every month in your local area — can't find you. They find someone else.

Facebook vs a website — a proper comparison

The credibility gap

Here's something that's easy to overlook. When a customer finds you through a recommendation and Googles your name, what do they find? If the only result is a Facebook page, some customers — particularly for bigger jobs — will wonder whether you're a legitimate business. A professional website immediately answers that question.

For high-value work like extensions, full bathroom installs, or rewires, customers want to feel confident they're hiring someone established. A proper website does that job in a way a Facebook page doesn't quite manage.

What about Instagram?

Instagram has the same fundamental problem as Facebook — it's a closed platform that Google doesn't index properly. It's great for showing off your work visually, and worth having, but it doesn't replace a website any more than Facebook does.

The right approach

The best setup for most tradespeople is to use everything together:

1. A professional website as your foundation — this is where Google sends people and where you capture leads
2. Google Business Profile — free, and critical for showing up in local map searches
3. Facebook — for posting work photos, engaging with local community groups, and word-of-mouth referrals
4. Instagram — optional, but good for visual trades like landscaping, joinery or decorating

Your website is the hub. Everything else points back to it.

The bottom line

Facebook is a useful tool and it's worth having a page — but it's not a substitute for a website. The people who are actively searching for your trade right now, ready to book, are doing it on Google. If you're not there, you're handing that work to someone who is.

The good news is that getting a proper trade website doesn't have to cost a fortune or take weeks of your time.

Written by Steven Ashby

Steven spent five years in sales in the glazing industry before starting Hyperlinked — a trade website service built specifically for UK tradespeople. Based in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.