Do you need a website if you already have Facebook and a Google profile?

Plenty of good contractors run their whole business off a Google profile, a Facebook page and word of mouth. The phone rings. So why pay for a website?

Sometimes you shouldn't. But most shops that skip one lose calls they never hear about: the homeowner who checked you out, couldn't find what they needed, and called the next shop on the list.

This article covers what each tool really does, what neither Google nor Facebook can do for you, and how to tell if a website is worth it for your shop.

What your Google profile does well (and where it stops)

Your Google Business Profile is the most valuable free tool you have. It puts you on the map, shows your reviews and puts a call button in front of people searching nearby. If you only do one thing online, do this one.

But it has limits:

• It's short. A description, some photos, a services list. There's no room to explain how you work, what a job costs, or why someone should pick you over the shop with more reviews.
• It's not yours. Google sets the rules and changes them. If your profile gets suspended, sometimes over a simple edit, your calls stop until it's back.
• Google's free website is gone. Google used to let you build a basic site from your profile. It shut those sites down in March 2024 and stopped redirecting them in June 2024. If your profile still points to one, the link is dead.

How Google ranks you matters too. Google says local results depend on three things: relevance (how well you match the search), distance, and prominence (how well known you are). For prominence it names reviews and links from other websites. A real website gives other sites, like directories, suppliers and local news, something to link to.

What your Facebook page does well (and where it stops)

Facebook is good for staying in touch: before-and-after photos, a quick post when you're booked for the season, messages from people who already know you.

Where it falls short:

• Homeowners with a leak don't search Facebook. They search Google: "plumber Laval", "heat pump installation Terrebonne". Your Facebook page rarely shows up for those searches.
• People hit a login wall. Facebook often asks visitors to log in before they can scroll. Someone checking you out from a Google search may give up right there.
• Your posts get buried. You're competing with the whole news feed. A great post from three months ago is almost impossible to find.

Side by side

None of these replaces the others. The profile gets you found, Facebook keeps you top of mind, and the website is where the person who's still deciding makes up their mind.

What only a website can do

1. Answer the questions people won't call to ask

Do you do commercial jobs? Do you go to Saint-Eustache? Do you install the brand they want? Most people won't call to ask. They just pick the shop whose site answers it.

2. Get found for each service

One page for water heaters, one for drain cleaning, one for heat pumps. Each page can show up for its own search. A profile is one listing; a site can be a dozen doors in.

3. Catch leads after hours

At 10 p.m. nobody calls a plumber about a slow drain. They fill out a form. Without a form, that job waits until morning, and by morning they may have found someone else.

4. Make you look like the real thing

A clean site with your logo, your trucks, your own job photos and your licence number tells people you're established. This matters most for big jobs, where homeowners compare two or three shops before they call.

5. Belong to you

Your domain, your content, your leads. If Facebook changes its feed or Google changes a rule, your site is still there.

When you can skip a website

Here's the honest version. You may not need one, at least for now, if:

• You're booked solid for months and you're turning work down.
• Almost all your work comes from a few general contractors or property managers who already know you.
• You're not planning to grow, hire or raise your prices.

If that's you, put your effort into your Google profile and your reviews instead. If you want more jobs, bigger jobs, or less dependence on one source of work, a website is usually where to start.

The five pages a contractor site needs

You don't need 40 pages. A site that brings calls needs five things done well:

• Home: what you do, where, and a phone button you can tap at the top of every screen.
• Services: one section or page per real service, in the words your customers use.
• Service area: the towns you actually go to. No copy-paste pages for cities you don't serve; Google sees through them.
• Reviews and photos: your real Google reviews and your own job photos, never stock pictures pretending to be your work.
• Contact and quote form: a short form (name, phone, what's wrong, town) that lands on your phone in seconds.

Two more things matter just as much as the pages. Speed: most of your visitors are on a phone, often outdoors, so the site should load in about two seconds. French first in Quebec: Quebec's language law expects your commercial website to be available in French, and your customers search in French anyway.

Common questions

Sources: Google, "Tips to improve your local ranking on Google" (support.google.com/business/answer/7091). Search Engine Journal, "Websites created with Google Business Profiles to shut down in March" (searchenginejournal.com).