Website vs Facebook Page for Tradies: The Honest Comparison (2026)
"I just use Facebook" works right up until the customer Googles you. The honest side-by-side, where Facebook genuinely wins, where it quietly costs you jobs, and the combo that beats both alone.
Picture your next customer. Their hot water died an hour ago. Do they scroll Facebook hoping a plumber wanders past, or do they type “hot water repair cairns” into Google? Exactly. Facebook keeps you visible to people who already know you; it is nearly useless for being found by people who do not. That single difference decides where a trade business should invest first.
The honest side-by-side
| Facebook page | Your own website | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | From $1,499 custom (full cost guide) |
| Found on Google | Rarely ranks for “your trade cairns” | Built for exactly that |
| Reaches | People who already follow you, when the algorithm allows | Strangers actively searching for your trade |
| Ownership | Rented, rules change, pages get locked | Yours outright (with us: site, domain, content) |
| Presentation | Same template as every other page | Custom, premium, yours |
| Lead capture | Comments and DMs you have to chase | Click-to-call + forms that land in your inbox |
| Long-term value | Posts vanish down the feed in days | Pages rank for years and compound |
Where Facebook genuinely wins
Credit where due. Facebook is excellent at staying front of mind: recent-work photos, community groups, word-of-mouth referrals (“anyone know a good sparkie?” threads), and quick two-way contact with existing customers. None of that is worth giving up. The mistake is treating it as your whole online presence rather than one channel.
The risk nobody prices in: rented land
You do not own your Facebook page. Reach on business pages has fallen for a decade, the algorithm decides who sees each post, and locked or hacked pages with no recourse are common enough that every tradie knows someone it happened to. Your website and domain cannot be taken away, throttled or buried by someone else’s algorithm change. That difference matters more every year.
What the search numbers say
People in Cairns are typing “web design cairns”, “mechanic cairns”, “bathroom renovations cairns” into Google every day, that last one alone gets around 390 searches a month, and our client MYBUILD Group sits in the top 3 for it with 100+ leads a month to show for it. Those searches exist whether you have a website or not. The only question is whose site they land on.
The setup that actually wins
- A fast custom website as the home base: found on Google, converts strangers, owned by you. (What a tradie site needs.)
- Google Business Profile wired to it for the map pack. (The setup guide.)
- Facebook and Instagram for staying visible, fed by your job photos. If you cannot be bothered posting, fair enough, that is literally what Trade Social is for: send us the job, we make the posts.
The website converts the strangers, Facebook keeps the locals warm, and each makes the other stronger. Every case study we publish gets shared socially, and every social post points somewhere that can actually rank and convert.
Still running on Facebook alone? Book a discovery call and we will show you what searches you are currently invisible for, with real numbers for your trade.