Your business absolutely needs a website
If a potential customer heard about your partner’s business through a mate, what’s the first thing they’d do? They’d Google it. They’d look for a website. And if there isn’t one — or if there is one but it looks like it hasn’t been touched since 2019 — they’re moving on to the next result.
A website is not optional in 2026. I don’t care what industry you’re in. I am constantly shocked by how many trade businesses are still operating without one and relying purely on Facebook or word of mouth.
And look — word of mouth is wonderful. Facebook has its place. But neither of them are yours.
Facebook can change its algorithm tomorrow, and your reach disappears overnight. Word of mouth dries up when work gets quiet. Your website? That’s yours. You own it, you control it, and it works for you while you sleep.
Facebook Is Not a Website
I want to be really clear about this because I hear it a lot — “we’ve got a Facebook page so we’re fine.”
You’re not fine.
Facebook is a rental property. You’re building your business on someone else’s land and they can change the rules whenever they feel like it. Reach gets throttled. Algorithms change. Pages get reported or restricted. And none of your Facebook content shows up when someone Googles your service in your area.
Your website is your own home. You build it, you own it, you control every single word on it. And unlike Facebook, it talks directly to Google and AI and gets you found by people who are actively searching for what you offer right now.
Both have a place. But your website comes first. Always.
The More You Put In, The More It Puts Out
Here’s the thing about websites that most people don’t realise — they’re not a set-and-forget situation. A website is a living thing. The more you add to it and update it, the harder it works for you.
That looks like:
- Blog posts — aim for at least one a month. Answer the questions your customers are Googling. What does it cost to build a deck in Christchurch? What’s the difference between treated pine and hardwood? These posts sit on your website forever and bring in traffic every single day.
- Seasonal updates — update your homepage or service pages as the seasons change. Push heat pump installation in autumn. Push outdoor decking and landscaping in spring. Google notices when your site is regularly updated and rewards it.
- New services or equipment — if your partner gets a new machine or starts offering a new service, get it on the website immediately. A new page, a new blog post, a new photo gallery. Every addition is another reason for Google to send people your way.
- Project photos — every completed job is content. A quick before and after, a few photos of the finished product, a sentence or two about what was involved. Add it to your website. Add it regularly.
- Google reviews — every time a new review comes in, add it to your website. Copy it onto your testimonials page or your relevant service page. Social proof on your own website is incredibly powerful and Google loves fresh content.
The websites that generate leads consistently are the ones that are always growing. Treat it like a garden — keep planting, keep watering, keep adding to it and it will keep producing.
The $5k Website That Wasn’t Working
Let me tell you about a builder in Nelson.
He came to me frustrated. He’d spent $5,000 on a website and it wasn’t showing up on Google. He wasn’t getting any leads from it. He thought it was a complete waste of money and wanted me to build him a brand new one from scratch — for next to nothing, because he’d already spent so much.
I took a look at his site annnnd the website itself was fine. Clean, simple, professional looking. The web designer had done their job. But he had four pages. A homepage. An about page. A services list. And a contact page.
Do you think he was the only builder in Nelson?
Not even close. And with four pages of generic content and no location-specific keywords, no individual service pages, no blog posts — Google had absolutely nothing to work with. Of course it wasn’t showing up.
This is so common it’s almost a standard experience. A web designer will build you a beautiful five-page website, hand it over and consider the job done. And technically, they’re right — they built what you paid for. But a five-page website is just the foundation. It’s the empty section before the house goes up.
I sent him away to think about his next steps — either invest in ads to get traffic while he builds out his site, or get to work adding content. But the website didn’t need replacing. It needed feeding.
And that builder’s wife or daughter — if they’d had a resource like this newsletter — could have stepped in and taken that website from invisible to unstoppable.
That’s part of why Marketing WAGs exists.
So How Many Pages Do You Actually Need?
Mmmm lowkey I don’t have a concrete answer to that question. I’d say at least 20 to start making real inroads. I know that sounds like a lot. But think about it this way…
Say your partner is a builder who does fencing and decks as a big part of his work. Instead of one services page that lists everything, here’s what you could build:
– Fencing Christchurch (main fencing page)
– Paling fences Christchurch
– Rough sawn fencing Christchurch
– Board and batten fencing Canterbury
– Post and rail fencing Canterbury
– Fencing Rolleston
– Fencing Rangiora
– Deck builder Christchurch (main decks page)
– Timber decks Christchurch
– Composite decking Canterbury
– Deck builder Rolleston
That’s already 12 pages just from two services. Each one internally linked to the others. Each one with a keyword rich headline, a service area mention, a starting from price and a click to call CTA.
That’s 12 doors into your business that didn’t exist before. And Google has 12 specific answers to give people searching for those exact things.
The Lead Magnet Idea That Most Tradies Haven’t Thought Of
Here’s one I love and almost nobody in the trades is doing.
Take that fencing example. You’ve built your fencing pages, you’ve got your price per metre on there. Now take it one step further — create a simple downloadable fencing price list. A clean one-pager in PDF format with your standard pricing, your different fence types and what affects the price.
Put it on your website as a free download. But to get it, they have to enter their name and email address.
They download it. You now have a warm lead — someone who is actively researching fencing prices and is close to making a decision. A couple of days later you follow up. “Hey, just checking you got our price list — happy to answer any questions or come out for a free measure and quote.”
That is a lead you generated yourself, for free, with no middleman taking a cut. And it works while you sleep.
This works for so many trades. A maintenance checklist for homeowners if you’re a plumber. A renovation planning guide if you’re a builder. A before and after care guide if you’re a painter. Think about what information your ideal customer would find genuinely useful before they book — and give it to them in exchange for their contact details.
Where to Start If You Don’t Have a Website Yet
Pick your platform, get your domain name and just start. You don’t need it to be perfect. You need it to exist and then you need to keep adding to it.
Start with your core pages — homepage, about, contact and your main services. Then start adding. One new page a week. One blog post a month.
New project photos whenever a job wraps up.
Six months from now you’ll have a website that’s working harder than any lead gen platform ever could. A year from now you’ll wonder how you ever operated without it.
Your website is your hardest working employee. It never sleeps, never calls in sick and never asks for a pay rise.
Feed it well and it will feed your business right back.