Website or Facebook page: what a renovation business actually needs

Plenty of kitchen and bathroom renovators run their business from a Facebook page or an Instagram account. It costs nothing, the photos look good and past customers can find you. So is a website worth paying for? The short answer: social pages are good at showing work as it happens, and poor at answering the questions a buyer has before they pick up the phone. For most renovation businesses the answer is both, each doing a different job.

This guide sets out what each does well, what the Australian Bureau of Statistics says about how businesses use social media, where licence and ownership questions come in, and how to run both without posting everything twice.

What Facebook and Instagram do well for renovators

Social pages are strongest for work in progress and for staying in touch with people who already know you. A time-lapse of a kitchen going in, a quick video of a shower screen being fitted, or a photo of a tiler finishing a niche all make good posts. They show real work, on real sites, this week.

Social pages also help with:

• Word of mouth. Past customers share posts, and their friends see a name they already trust.
• Quick messages. Some people will send a message on a platform they already use rather than fill in a form.
• Showing personality. A post about the crew or the workshop tells people who will be in their house.
• Local groups. Neighbourhood groups are often where people ask for a renovator recommendation.

None of that needs a website. If your social page is active and your customers find you there, keep it going.

What a social page can’t do

A social page is a feed, and a feed is organised by date, not by what a buyer needs to know. Someone planning a small ensuite wants to see small ensuites, understand how long the job takes and check your licence. On a feed they scroll past last week’s deck, a staff birthday and a supplier promotion to find it, if they find it at all.

Here is what a buyer usually looks for before calling a renovator, and where each is easier to find:

Search is the other gap. When someone searches for bathroom renovations in their area, Google shows websites and Business Profiles. A page written about your bathroom renovation service, with finished projects and a clear service area, gives Google something specific to match. A feed of short captions gives it very little.

The enquiry itself also differs. A message saying “how much for a bathroom?” starts a back-and-forth. A form that asks which room, whether the layout is moving, the suburb and the timing gives you enough to decide whether the job is worth a site visit. Our guide to what a renovator website needs goes through those form questions in more detail.

How do Australian businesses use social media?

Social media is now a normal part of how Australian businesses present themselves online, but it sits alongside other channels rather than replacing them. The ABS Characteristics of Australian Business survey found 51% ³ of businesses used social media for their online presence in 2024-25, up from 47% in 2021-22. In the same survey, 32% ³ of businesses received orders online, similar to 30% in 2021-22.

Two cautions about these numbers. First, they cover businesses across all industries, so they don’t tell you what renovators in particular do. Second, the survey asked about social media use for online presence, not whether social media replaced a website. What they do show is that roughly half of businesses use social media this way, so having a page on its own does not set you apart. What you put on your website, and how clearly it answers buyers, can.

Licences, ownership and control

Licence rules about advertising can apply to your social pages as well as your website. In Queensland, QBCC licensees’ advertising must include their licensed name and licence number ² , and the QBCC lists both websites and social media pages such as company Facebook pages as advertising. In NSW, you must hold a contractor licence to carry out, advertise or contract for ¹ residential building or trade work above the state’s threshold. Check the rules in each state you work in, and put the details in your social profile and on every page of your website.

Ownership is the second issue. A social page lives on a platform you don’t control. The platform decides how posts are shown, what your page looks like and what happens if the account is locked or hacked. Years of project photos can become hard to reach overnight.

A website on your own domain, registered in your business name, is different. On our plan the domain stays yours and so does the content you supply: words, photos, logo and prices. If you leave, you get a copy of your content and help pointing the domain wherever you choose. The pricing page sets out the terms in full.

How to run both without double handling

Give each channel one job, and link them. Social is for progress and personality. The website is for finished work, how you run a job and enquiries. That split means you rarely post the same thing twice.

1. During the job, post progress to social: demolition, waterproofing, cabinetry going in. Keep the original photo files.
2. At handover, take a proper set of finished photos in good light.
3. Within a week, send the best finished photos and a few lines about the job to your website as a new project page.
4. Then post once more to social with one finished photo and a link to the project page on your site.

Over a year, the website builds into a library of finished rooms sorted by type, and social keeps people watching the next one take shape. Our guide to project galleries covers what to photograph and what to write for each project page.

On our plan, adding a finished project counts as a content edit, and up to 5 edits are included each month. You send the photos and notes, and we build the page. The page for small builders doing renovations shows how that works for a business that has relied on referrals and social media.

Is a Facebook page ever enough?

Sometimes, yes. If you are fully booked through referrals, only take on jobs from builders you already know, or are winding the business down, a well-kept social page may be all you need. Paying for a website you never update does little for you.

A website starts to earn its keep when one or more of these is true:

• You want more of a particular kind of job, such as full kitchens rather than small repairs.
• Referrals look you up and find only a feed with no licence details or project pages.
• You are moving into a new area, where nobody knows your name yet.
• You spend time on enquiries that were never a fit, because nothing explained what you do.
• You want something you own, independent of any platform’s rules.

Cost is part of the decision. Our plan is A$249 a month plus A$499 one-off setup, with a 12-month minimum term (GST may apply). Our guide to what a website costs a renovation business compares that with building a site yourself or paying an agency.

What to do next

1. Look at your social page as a buyer would. Can you find a finished ensuite in under a minute?
2. Add your licence details to your social profiles in every state you work in.
3. Download the original photo files of your best finished jobs and store them in one folder, named by job.
4. Write a few lines about each of those jobs: room, suburb or region, scope and anything unusual.
5. Decide which job type you want more of. That is the first page your website needs.

Keep your social pages. Use them for what they are good at, and let a website do the explaining. To see how a renovator site lays out finished rooms, licence details and enquiries, look through the sample designs and what’s included, or book a call to talk it through.