Website design for plumbers: Built for somebody
standing in water.
Your customer is holding a phone in one hand and a towel in the other. Everything on this page follows from that.
Phone first·Areas·Profile·Reviews
The job
Website design for plumbers has one job most of the time: let somebody who has a problem right now ring you in under ten seconds. Everything that gets in the way of that, a slideshow, a cookie wall, a number in the footer, costs you the call.
The other half is being found at all, which for a trade is less about the website and more about your Google Business Profile and the places your details appear. That is where the work goes.
What a plumbing website includes: The whole list, nothing extra.
Every one of these is in the price. If a job needs something that is not here, it is in the written scope before you say yes, not on the invoice after.
The number, first
Tappable, at the top, on every page, and visible without scrolling on a phone. Sounds obvious. It is missing from most plumbers’ websites.
The areas you actually cover
Where you go, written as pages worth reading where there is something to say, and as a plain list where there is not. Not the same paragraph with forty town names swapped in, which Google calls a doorway page and removes.
Your Google profile working
The map is where these jobs come from. The profile claimed, categories right, hours right, and your details consistent everywhere they appear.
Reviews that get asked for
A way of asking after a job that people actually answer, and replies that sound like you. No incentives: that breaks Google guidelines and can cost you the profile.
Fast on a bad connection
Measured on a phone on mobile data, not on a desktop on fibre. A plumbing website that takes eight seconds to open in a van has already lost the job.
What you do and do not do
Gas Safe number, what you are registered for, emergency hours, and the jobs you would rather not be rung about. Saying no on the website saves the call.
Sitemap and page structure
What pages exist, how they relate, and what each one is for. This is where SEO is won or lost, before a line of code.
Design, if there is none
I will design it: a site that looks considered and does the job. If the brand underneath it needs doing too, that is its own piece of work and it has its own page.
Build
From your design or mine, on a platform that suits the team who will keep it running rather than the one I enjoy most.
Real content in
Your words and pictures loaded and laid out, not lorem ipsum with a note to fill it later. If an existing site is being replaced, moving it across is its own job: see website migration.
Accessibility and performance
Keyboard, focus order, contrast and labels checked, not assumed. Core Web Vitals measured on real pages, then fixed.
Launch and handover
A checklist worked through line by line, then documentation and a walkthrough with whoever picks it up.
Sounds like you if
“We have been quoted before and never seen what we were paying for.”
One page
A single scrolling page, £600. A launch, a test, or a business that needs to exist online by Friday.
Five pages
Home, about, services, one more, contact, £1,200. The standard small business site.
On WordPress
The same five pages on WordPress, £1,600. More to build, and more you can change yourself afterwards.
A shop
An online shop starts at £2,000: five content pages, up to twenty-five products, payments, shipping, tax and the policies.
Changes afterwards
£75 an hour, billed after they are done, or a monthly plan if there are enough of them to be worth fixing the price.
What is never extra
The sitemap, the redirects, the accessibility pass and the handover. They are part of the build, not a line added at the end.
Hosting and the certificate
A WordPress site on a managed host on my account, with the security certificate kept renewed, for £50 a month. The domain stays registered in your name.
Updated every month
WordPress, the theme and the plugins brought up to date, then the pages that matter checked by hand.
A backup every day
A fresh backup every day, and another before any update runs, so any change can be undone.
Changes when you need them
A reply within twelve working hours saying what it needs and how long it will take, before any of it is started. £75 an hour, or on a plan.
The note on the 1st
What was updated, what was changed and how many hours were used, next to the invoice.
Leaving, and what you take
A month's notice after the first three months, then a full backup and help moving it, free. The domain is already yours.
Sounds like you if
“The last person built it and then we never heard from them again.”
How a plumbing website runs: From hello to handover.
Step 1
12 hours max
I reply
Working hours, unless I am on holiday and have said so.
Step 2
Day 0
Scope call
20 minutes, and it can be from the van. What plumbing you take on, where you go, and how work reaches you now.
Step 3
+2 days
Written scope
What gets built, what it costs, when it lands. One page, plain English.
Step 4
Weeks 1 to 2
Site, then profile
The plumbing website built and on a real address you can look at, then Google sorted, details fixed everywhere they are wrong, and reviews set up.
Step 5
End
Handover
How to change your hours and add a photo, in writing, in five minutes.
This is for you
A plumbing website is for you
if any of these sound familiar.
- One plumber, or a small team
- Word of mouth works, search does not
- You are not in the map and do not know why
- Built in 2014, nobody can get into it
It is not, if
- You want a page for every town
- You want reviews written for you
- You want booking for emergency call-outs
Not sure which side you are on? Say so on the call. If I am not the right person, you get the name of someone who is.
What a plumbing website costs
Every price on the page,
before you call.
You should not have to sit through a call to find out whether you can afford me.
Questions about a plumbing website: Questions I get every time.
The honest answers. If yours is not here, it is the first thing we cover.
Ask me yours01 What does website design for plumbers actually need?
A tappable number at the top of every page, a clear statement of where you go and what you do, proof you are registered, and a Google Business Profile that works. For most plumbers the profile brings more work than the website does, and the website is what convinces somebody once the profile has found them.
02 Do I need a page for every town I cover?
No, and it can do harm. Near-identical pages made for each location are what Google calls doorway pages, and its own documentation says they can be removed from results. A page earns its place when there is something true and specific to say about working there.
03 How do I get in the map results?
The Google Business Profile, mostly: claimed, verified, categorised properly, with consistent details everywhere and real reviews. It matters more than the plumber website design itself, it is a job in its own right, and it has its own page and its own fixed price.
04 How much does it cost?
The same as any small site on the same platform, and the prices are published by platform on the websites pages so you can check before ringing. A plumber usually needs a small site, which is the cheapest end of it.
05 Can I update it myself?
Yes: hours, photos of jobs, and the areas you cover. Web design for plumbers is worth nothing if changing your opening hours needs a phone call to me. The handover is short on purpose, because a site you cannot update goes stale and then gets replaced.
06 What about after it is live?
Nothing, if you want. Looking after it is optional: hosting with the updates and a backup every day is from £50 a month, and having the small changes done for you, the ones you would otherwise ring somebody about, is from £300 a month.
07 How do we pay?
One of two ways, and the written scope says which. A build is a deposit, paid by card when you agree the scope, which starts the work, then the balance when it is finished, or monthly by Direct Debit where the price allows. Other work is paid as each stage is accepted. No VAT is charged.
Usually goes with: Websites for plumbers
and local SEO.
For a trade the website is the second half. The first half is being in the map at all, and that is the profile, the listings and the reviews, which is a one-off job rather than a monthly bill.
See local SEOOr one of the other three
Losing calls to
the next plumber?
Tell me what you take on and where you go. Twenty minutes, from the van if that is easier, and you leave knowing whether I am worth the money.
- Within 12 hoursA reply
- Within 2 working daysA written scope and a price
- OrThe name of someone who fits better