What Facebook is genuinely good at
Showing finished jobs to people who already know you, which is what generates referrals.
Being free, and being where a lot of local recommendation threads happen.
Messenger, which many customers prefer to a phone call.
What it cannot do
Rank for "emergency plumber [your town]". Facebook pages very rarely appear for the searches that produce urgent, high-value work.
Be found without an account. A meaningful share of older homeowners — often the ones with the money and the older boiler — will not see a Facebook-only business at all.
Belong to you. The page can be restricted, hacked or suspended, and you have no way to get the followers back. A domain you own cannot be taken away by a platform decision.
Answer the specific question. Someone deciding between two roofers wants to see prices, areas covered and the jobs you have done, laid out. A feed is the wrong shape for that.
The honest test
Ask the last ten customers how they found you. If eight say word of mouth, your problem is not a website — it is that you are at capacity and should be raising prices.
If several say "I found you on Google" and you do not have a website, you are getting that work despite yourself, and a site plus a Google Business Profile will multiply it.
If you are quiet in January and busy in June, a website earns its keep in the quiet months, which is exactly when word of mouth dries up.
Common questions
Can I just use a Google Business Profile instead?
You should have one regardless — it is free and for local trades it often produces more enquiries than the website does. But a profile with no website behind it converts worse: people click through to check you are real before they ring.
What if I do not have time to keep a website updated?
Then build one that does not need updating. A trade site describing what you do, where you work and how to reach you stays accurate for years. Adding recent jobs helps, but a site nobody has touched in a year still outperforms no site at all.
Last updated 24 September 2026