Facebook is free. Why would I pay for a website?

Because Facebook costs you evenings instead of money, and it's owned by Facebook. It decides who sees your posts, who has to log in, and what your page looks like. The money buys a page that's yours, shows your prices and work the way you want, and takes a quote with a photo while you're working.

Can I just put my Facebook link in my Google listing?

You can, and it's better than nothing. The catch is that people not logged in to Facebook hit a wall, and the ones who get through see your most recent post rather than your prices and services. It's a doorway into your living room instead of a shop window.

Will a website bring me work?

Honestly: at first it catches the people who already have your name and would otherwise have slipped away. New strangers come later, as your Google profile and reviews build and the site gets found for particular jobs. Anyone who promises more than that on day one is guessing.

I'm busy enough. Is there any point?

Maybe not today. The time you'll want one is a quiet February, or when the customer who sends you half your work retires. A one-page site built now costs £40 a month, done for you, and sits there ready with your reviews on it. You see it before you pay, so there's nothing to lose by looking.

Does a one-page site count as a proper website?

Yes. It's on your own web address, it shows in Google, and it answers the questions people have. Most tradespeople's ten-page sites are one page of useful information and nine pages nobody reads.

Do I need a website if I have Facebook and a Google Business Profile?

When you can wait

Let's start with the honest part, because most people selling websites skip it. There are trades for whom a website can wait a while, and you might be one of them.

Your diary is full, mostly from word of mouth, and you're turning work away.
You're happy answering Facebook or WhatsApp messages, and you do it quickly.
Your Google Business Profile is claimed, filled in, has photos and recent reviews, and the phone number is the one you answer.
You're not planning to grow, take on a second van, or move into a different kind of work.

The one test: search your own name on someone else's phone

Borrow a phone, or open a private browsing window, and search your business name the way a customer would. Not your trade, your name. Then look at what comes up.

Your Google listing with a website link that goes to a page of yours: you're fine.
Your Google listing with the website link going to Facebook: the person taps, hits a 'log in to see more' wall if they're not on Facebook, or sees your last post from March. That's the leak.
Your Google listing with no website at all: people see a phone number and nothing else. Some ring. The ones comparing you with the next listing tap the one with a site.
Somebody else's business, a directory page, or nothing: this is the worst case and the most common for trades with a common name. People give up, or ring the directory's number.

That one search is the whole question. If a stranger with your name in their hand lands on something that's yours, you can stop reading. If they don't, a website isn't about getting found; it's about not losing the people who already found you.

What each one does, side by side

	Facebook page	Google Business Profile	A page of your own
Who sees it	People already on Facebook, mostly ones who follow you	Anyone searching your trade nearby, or your name	Anyone who taps through from Google, a text, a van, a mate
Who controls it	Facebook: the layout, what's shown, who needs to log in	Google: it can suspend or change it	You: the words, the photos, the form, the price list
Your work	Posts, in date order, scrolled past	Up to a few photos, in a grid	Your best jobs, laid out, with before and after
Getting a quote	Messenger, one message at a time, in your evenings	A phone call	A form with a photo, written down, in your email
Prices and services	Buried in posts or 'message for prices'	A list, no detail	Each service, what it includes, from what price
Cost	Your evenings: posting, answering messages, keeping it alive	An afternoon to set up, then a monthly habit (done with you on every plan of ours)	From £40 a month, done for you, changes included
Your effort	High and never-ending: posting, replying, keeping it alive	Medium: an afternoon to set up, then a monthly habit (we do it with you on every plan)	Very low with us: one short form, a thumbs-up
If you stop paying	n/a	n/a	With a good deal, your address and files come with you

When you do need one

The name search lands on nothing of yours, or on a Facebook wall. You're losing people you'd already won.
You're being compared. The businesses above and below you in the map pack have sites, and the person deciding taps through to theirs and gets a phone number from you.
Quotes arrive by Messenger. 'How much for…' with no photo, no address, no idea of the size, answered one at a time at 9pm. A form with the right questions does that for you.
You want a different kind of work. If you'd rather do EV chargers than fuse boards, or colour than cuts, a page about that work is how people searching for it find you. A Facebook post about it is gone in a week.
You've started paying a lead site. If you're paying for strangers, the cheapest thing you can do is stop the half-won ones leaking back to the list, which is what a page of your own does.

What a one-page site needs, and nothing more

If the answer is yes, the next mistake is buying too much. A local trade doesn't need ten pages, a blog or a logo redesign. It needs one page that answers the four questions a customer has in the thirty seconds they'll give you.

What you do, and where. The trade, the services, the towns you cover, in the first screen.
Why you. Your Gas Safe, NICEIC or insurance line, your reviews pulled from Google, a few real photos of jobs or the chair.
How to get you. A phone number that dials with one tap, and a short form with a photo button for people who'd rather not ring.
The boring truth. Hours, the area, a real name. Pages with none of these feel like a scam, because the scams have none of these.

Everything else, including a page per service and the reviews on the page, is for when you want to be found for particular jobs rather than just not lost. That's the difference between our £40 and £80 plans, and most trades are right to start at £40.

What we'd do in your boots

Full diary, happy on Facebook: the Google profile checklist, the name test once a year, and our £40 plan the day you'd like the next person who Googles you to land on something that's yours.
Name search lands on Facebook or nothing: a one-page site on your own web address, with the Google listing's website box pointed at it. Our £40 plan is exactly this, with the Google profile set up alongside it.
Quoting by Messenger, or on a lead site: the £80 plan, because the quote form with photos and the page per service are the parts doing the work.
Either way: keep the Facebook page. Post the jobs there as you do now, and link the page to your site so the two feed each other.