Website design for tradesmen: One thumb, one hand,
usually raining.
Somebody is standing in a driveway deciding who to ring. Websites for tradesmen have about eight seconds and one thumb to work with, and everything else is decoration.
Call·Areas·Reviews·Quotes
The job
Most websites for tradesmen are built as if somebody is sitting at a desk reading about you. They are not. They are outside, on a phone, comparing you against two other numbers, and they want to know you cover their town and you answer the phone.
So the whole thing is built around the call. Number at the top, areas stated plainly, proof you have done it before, and a quote form for the ones who will not ring.
Web design for tradesmen: 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, tappable, everywhere
At the top of every page, as a real link rather than an image, so one tap dials it. This is the single biggest difference on a trade site and it is routinely missed.
The areas you actually cover
Named towns rather than "and surrounding areas". It answers the first question and it is what local search reads.
What you do, in your words
A page per job you want more of, not a list of everything you can do. The jobs you want more of are the ones worth a page.
Proof that you did it
Photographs of real work, with what it was and roughly what it cost. Your own photographs beat stock in every way that matters.
Reviews where somebody will see them
Google reviews and Checkatrade if you use it, on the page rather than one click away, because the comparison is happening now.
A quote form that takes ten seconds
What, where, when, and a number to ring back. Every extra field loses somebody who would have been a job.
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 websites for tradesmen are built: 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
30 minutes. The trade, the towns, and which jobs you want more of.
Step 3
+2 days
Written scope
The pages, the areas and the price. Fixed, before anything starts.
Step 4
Build
Phone first
Built and checked on a phone before a desktop, because that is where it will be read.
Step 5
End
Handed over
Logins, a short guide, and how to add a job to the gallery from your phone.
This is for you
Websites for tradesmen: plumbers and electricians: A website for tradesmen is for you
if any of these sound familiar.
- Work coming only from word of mouth
- A site that is hard to use one-handed
- No way to tell which towns you cover
- Photographs sitting on your phone
It is not, if
- You want a site full of stock photographs
- You do not want the phone ringing
- You want to cover the whole country
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 website for tradesmen 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.
Tradesmen website questions: 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 tradesmen need that other sites do not?
A number that dials with one tap, the towns you cover named outright, and proof you have done the job before. Everything else is optional and most websites for tradesmen get those three wrong.
02 What does web design for trades cost?
The same as any build of that size, priced by platform on the website design page. Most trades need a small site done properly rather than a big one, so it is usually at the lower end.
03 Do I need a website if I am on Checkatrade?
They are doing different jobs. Checkatrade is where somebody compares you; your own site is where they check you are real and find out whether you cover their street. Most people do both before ringing.
04 Websites for plumbers?
Yes, and there is a page about exactly that: plumber website design, built around an emergency call rather than a considered one.
05 Websites for electricians?
Yes: electrician website design, where the certifications matter more and the jobs are usually planned rather than urgent.
06 Can you get me higher on Google?
For a trade that mostly means local search, which is its own job: SEO for tradesmen covers it, and the profile and listings side is local SEO.
Usually goes with: Websites for tradesmen
and sEO for tradesmen.
Plumbing is the same job with the urgency turned up, and most of what is here applies to it.
See sEO for tradesmenOr one of the other three
Only working
off word of mouth?
Tell me the trade and the towns. Thirty minutes, no pitch, and you leave knowing what website design for tradesmen would actually change for you.
- Within 12 hoursA reply
- Within 2 working daysA written scope and a price
- OrThe name of someone who fits better