Most tradies are paying $100–300 a month for a website that generates exactly zero of their leads.
The agency sold you on "online presence." What they built you is a digital brochure that sits on page four of Google while your competitor's free listing takes the first call.
The Real Number on Where Leads Come From
In practice, 70–80% of local trade job inquiries start with a Google search and end with a click on the map pack — not a website.
Someone's toilet is overflowing at 8 pm. They're not reading your About page. They're tapping the first plumber with reviews and a phone number.
Your website is not the decision point. Your Google Business Profile is.
If your GBP has 40+ reviews, your hours, your service area, and photos of real jobs, you are already beating most of your competition. Full stop.
What a Tradie Website Actually Needs to Do
One thing: catch the people who click through from your GBP or a referral and want to confirm you're legit.
That's it.
For that job, you need exactly one page with: your name and trade, the suburbs you cover, a phone number above the fold, 3–5 sentences about what you do, a handful of photos, and your Google reviews embedded or screenshot.
That's a 90-minute build on Carrd, Dorik, or even a free Wix template.
Cost: $0 to $19 a month.
The $200/mo site with the blog nobody reads, the booking widget that doesn't sync with your schedule, and the SEO "dashboard" you've never logged into — that's not an investment. That's a recurring fee for feeling professional.
Where the Money Actually Belongs
If you're pulling in under $30k a month in revenue, the website budget conversation is a distraction.
Put that $200 back into Google Ads set to your actual service area, or into following up on the leads you're already missing because nobody answered the phone.
In practice, a missed call from a new customer is a $300–800 job gone to whoever picked up. Most solo operators miss 30–40% of inbound calls. That's the leak worth fixing — not your homepage font.
A slick site doesn't make the phone ring if you're not ranking. And you don't rank from a pretty site. You rank from reviews, proximity, and a complete GBP.
The One Exception
If you're doing $80k+ a month and you want to rank for broader search terms through content, or you're running a proper paid campaign that needs dedicated landing pages — yes, invest in a real site.
But be honest with yourself about what stage you're at.
Most people reading this are solo or running a crew of two or three. The bottleneck is not the website. The bottleneck is response time and reputation.
Fix the GBP. Build the one-pager. Spend the savings on ads or answering the phone — or use a service like VettedCalls to make sure every call that comes in actually gets handled.
The website can wait. The leads can't.
This week's move
Pull up your Google Business Profile today, check that your phone number, hours, and service area are current, and reply to the last unanswered review sitting there — takes ten minutes and moves the needle more than any website redesign.
Forward this
If another tradie you know is still losing leads to voicemail, send them VettedCalls.