Do NZ Tradies Need a Website If They Already Have a Facebook Page?

Most tradies who ask this question already know the answer. But the reasons matter — so let's actually go through it.

The short answer

Yes. And here's why it matters more now than it did five years ago.

What a Facebook page does well

Facebook is genuinely useful for a few things. Staying in touch with existing customers. Sharing photos of your work. Getting recommendations from people who already know you. If you're a busy tradie and word of mouth is keeping you full, Facebook is doing something right. It's free, easy to update, and most of your customers are already on it.

So far so good.

Where Facebook falls short

Here's the problem: Facebook wasn't built to be found by strangers.

When an Auckland homeowner needs a plumber at 8pm on a Thursday, they don't open Facebook and search. They open Google and type "plumber North Shore Auckland" or "emergency plumber near me." Google returns results. Facebook doesn't — at least not in any useful way.

If you don't have a website set up for local search, you simply don't exist in that moment. The job goes to whoever does show up.

What Google sees when it finds your Facebook page

Even if Google does index your Facebook page, here's what a potential customer sees: your business name, maybe a phone number if you've filled it in, and whatever you last posted — which might be six months ago.

Compare that to a tradie with a proper website. Their services, listed clearly. The suburbs they cover. Photos of their work. A contact form or click-to-call button. A page that looks professional on a phone.

Which one gets the call?

The "I'm already fully booked" problem

Some tradies reading this are thinking: I don't need more leads — I've got more work than I can handle.

Fair enough. But consider two things.

First, being fully booked through word of mouth is great until it isn't. A couple of big clients slow down, a quiet season hits, or you want to push into a new area. Word of mouth doesn't let you turn the tap on when you need to. A website does.

Second, a website isn't just about volume of enquiries. It's about quality. Customers who found you on Google, read about your services, and decided to contact you are already pre-sold. They're not shopping around the same way a cold lead is. They've done their research and chosen you.

What about Google Business Profile?

A Google Business Profile — the listing that shows up in Google Maps — is genuinely useful and you should have one. But it works much better when it points to a real website.

Think of it this way: your Google Business Profile gets people interested. Your website closes the deal. Without a website to send people to, your listing is working at half strength.

The trust factor

A professional website makes you look more established — and homeowners make snap judgements about this whether they like it or not.

A tradie with a clean, professional website looks like someone who takes their business seriously. A tradie with only a Facebook page — especially one that hasn't been posted to in a few months — can look part-time or hard to get hold of.

You might do better work than every other plumber in your suburb. But if your online presence doesn't reflect that, the customer has no way of knowing.

When is a Facebook page enough?

If you're exclusively getting work through referrals and you're happy with your current workload, you can probably get away without a website for now. But getting away without it is different from not needing it.

The tradies in the strongest position in five years will be the ones who built their online presence before the competition caught up, before Google's algorithm shifted again, and before the next generation of homeowners — who research everything online — started hiring.

The bottom line

Facebook is a social tool. A website is a business asset.

Your Facebook page is rented space on someone else's platform. Facebook can change the rules, reduce your organic reach, or go the way of MySpace. Your website is yours — your content, your domain, your asset — and it keeps working for you around the clock.

Keep the Facebook page. Add a website. Show up in both places.