Do I need a website if I am on Yelp, Angi, or Thumbtack?
Short answer
Yes. Lead platforms like Yelp, Angi, Thumbtack, and HomeAdvisor sell you access to homeowners on their terms: shared leads, pay-per-lead fees, and a profile page that looks like everyone else's and carries their name, not yours. They can be worth it for filling a slow week. A website is the one listing you own, with your name on the address, that a referral can find, that shows your license the way you want it shown, and that does not charge you when the phone rings. Most contractors who rely on lead platforms end up wanting both: the platforms for volume when they need it, the site so that every referral and every repeat customer has somewhere to land.
What the platforms are good at
Volume, fast. A new contractor with no reviews and no site can get calls from Thumbtack the first week. Angi and HomeAdvisor send leads by the dozen in busy trades. Yelp puts you in front of people who already use Yelp to find services, which in some cities is a lot of people.
Reviews live there too, and a Yelp profile with fifty reviews is a real asset. Just remember that the asset is on Yelp's domain, subject to Yelp's filter, and shown next to a "sponsored" competitor whenever Yelp decides to sell that spot.
What they cost you over time
Pay-per-lead adds up. A lead shared with four other contractors, at $30 to $100 each, where one of you gets the job, is a real cost per job that most contractors never total. Yelp's ad packages run hundreds a month and the pressure to upgrade never stops.
The bigger cost is that none of it accumulates. Ten years of paying for leads leaves you with the same profile page and the same fee schedule. Ten years of a website with your name on it, your reviews on it, and your service area on it leaves you with something a homeowner can find without a middleman.
How the two fit together
Use the platforms when you need work and can afford the fee per job. Put your website address on every platform profile that allows it, so the customer who finds you there can also find you directly next time. Ask every platform customer for a Google review, not a platform review, so the review lives somewhere you control.
Then watch the ratio. As referrals, repeat customers, and direct searches grow, the platform share shrinks on its own. Contractors who have been at it a while usually describe the platforms as training wheels. Useful, then in the way.
Related questions
Which platform is best for my trade?
It changes by city and by year. Ask two contractors in your trade and your area what is working for them right now. That beats any national ranking.
Can I just use my Yelp page as my website?
You can, and some do. The trade-off is that it is Yelp's page, it shows competitors' ads on it, and a homeowner who searches your company name may land on Yelp's review filter instead of on you. It works until the first time it works against you.
Should I stop paying for leads once I have a site?
Not on day one. A new site does not send calls the week it launches. Keep whatever is feeding you now, add the site and the Google profile, and cut the platforms back as the direct calls come in.
Published 2026-09-02 by Lasting Sites, a Los Angeles shop that builds websites for trade contractors anywhere in the US.
