The honest answer
Plenty of good tradies get by without a website. Word of mouth is powerful, and if your calendar is full months ahead, a website isn't your most urgent job.
But even a referral usually gets looked up. Someone hears your name from a neighbour, searches for it, and decides in a minute whether to call you or the next result. A clear, current website makes that decision easy. No website, or a Facebook page last updated in 2022, makes it harder.
When you might not need one (yet)
- You're fully booked through repeat customers and referrals, and happy that way.
- You work only as a subcontractor for builders who already know you.
- You're just starting and money is tight: set up a free Google Business Profile first, then add a website when you can.
What a website does that a profile can't
- It's yours. Directory and social media rules change; your website and domain stay under your control.
- It shows the work you want more of. Lead with the jobs you'd like to be doing, not just whatever comes in.
- It answers questions before the call: services, areas, licence, how quotes work. Fewer tyre-kickers, better enquiries.
- It looks established. A business email and a proper website support higher-value quotes.
- It helps you show up on Google for "[your trade] [your suburb]", alongside your Google Business Profile.
What a good tradie website includes
- Your phone number at the top, tappable on phones, and a simple quote or enquiry form.
- Services, each with a short, plain description.
- Service areas: the suburbs and regions you cover.
- Photos of your real work: before and after shots work well.
- Licence or registration number, insurance and memberships, where they apply to your trade.
- Reviews from real customers, used with their permission. Never invent them: fake reviews can breach Australian Consumer Law.
- Your ABN and business name, so customers know who they're dealing with.
That's often five or six pages: home, services, areas, recent work, about and contact. You don't need more to start. See websites for tradies for how RBO Build handles this.
What it costs
| Option | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Free |
| Do it yourself with an AI website builder | Roughly A$20 to A$60 a month, hosting included |
| Have it built for you | From a few hundred dollars for a simple website to several thousand for a custom one, plus hosting |
| .com.au domain | About A$20 to A$25 a year |
Prices as at 2 October 2026. One extra job a year usually covers a simple website several times over.
No time to do it yourself?
That's the most common reason tradies don't have a website, and it's a fair one. You can describe your business to an AI builder from your phone in a few minutes, or hand the whole job over. With RBO Build it's A$19 a month to do it yourself, or we'll build it for you and you check it before it goes live.