Most tradespeople we talk to have a Checkatrade listing, a Facebook page and a website someone’s nephew built in 2017. The work comes in by word of mouth, so why bother? Because word of mouth now ends with a search. The neighbour gives your name; the homeowner types it into Google; what they find in the next ten seconds decides whether they ring you or the firm underneath you. Here is what a trade website has to do, in the order it matters.
1. A page for every job you want more of
Not a “services” page with a list. A page each for extensions, driveways, boiler installations, rewires, bathrooms — whatever you want the phone to ring for — with photographs of that job and a rough idea of cost. Google ranks pages, not lists, and a homeowner searching for “loft conversion Kettering” wants to land on your loft conversions, not your home page.
2. Your towns, written down
“Northamptonshire and surrounding areas” is not a place anyone searches for. Name the towns and villages you actually cover, on the service pages and in your Google Business Profile. If you compete across a region, a page per service per town is how the bigger firms win — and it is cheaper than you think.
3. The number, everywhere, and a form that reaches you
Phone number in the header of every page, tap-to-call on mobile, and a quote form of three or four fields that lands in your inbox and on your phone. The customer is usually standing in the room they want doing, on a phone, in the evening. Make it one tap.
4. Your jobs, not stock photos
A gallery of finished work, added to from your phone on the drive home. Before-and-after pairs if you have them. A homeowner wants to see a job like theirs, done by you; a stock photo of a smiling man with a spirit level tells them you have not got one.
5. Reviews where the decision is made
Google reviews pulled onto the site next to the quote button. Checkatrade or Trustpilot badges if you use them. Then the habit that beats any advertising: text every customer the review link the day the job finishes.
6. Trust signals on the home page
Years trading, Gas Safe, NICEIC, FMB, CHAS, public liability, guarantees. The badges and the numbers, visible without scrolling, not buried in an “about us” paragraph.
7. Fast, on a phone
A trade site gets looked at on two bars of signal. If the number is not on the screen before the first photo loads, you have lost them to the next result.
8. Yours, and looked after
Own the domain and the site — not a lead-generation company, not the nephew. Have someone updating, backing up and securing it, and able to add a new service or a new town by email. Our care plans start at £25 a month.
What it costs
A trade site with service pages, gallery, reviews and local SEO is usually our Business tier at £1,200; firms competing regionally with service-by-town pages are the Premium tier at £2,000. Fixed in writing, three stages, you own it. Have a look at the trade and construction sites we have built, or send us your current site for a free review.
Not sure where your website stands? Send us the address and you will have a plain-English review within two working days — speed, search visibility, trust and whether it makes enquiring easy. No sales pitch.
