Website for tradespeople: what plumbers, electricians and builders actually need
A tradesperson’s website needs your service area, real job photos, reviews and a phone number that works in one tap. Everything else is optional.
Most tradespeople get work through word of mouth, and then lose jobs because the person who was referred looks them up and finds nothing. A good trades website does four things: it proves you are real, shows the work, makes the service area obvious, and lets someone call you in one tap. This guide covers what to include and what to skip.
- ✓Your service area and phone number matter more than the design.
- ✓Photos of your own finished jobs beat any stock image.
- ✓A Google Business Profile is as important as the website itself.
Do tradespeople really need a website?
If you get all your work by referral, the website is not there to find you new leads out of nowhere. It is there to convert the referrals you already get. Someone is given your name, searches it, and decides in about ten seconds whether you look like a professional operation.
That is the job. A quiet, credible site that answers the obvious questions turns a hesitant referral into a phone call.
What should be on a tradesperson’s website?
Keep it short and concrete. The essentials are:
- What you do, in plain words, at the top of the page.
- The towns and areas you cover, written out so they can be searched.
- A phone number that dials when tapped on a mobile.
- Photos of your own completed jobs, ideally before and after.
- Reviews, with the customer’s first name and town.
- Certifications, insurance and registration numbers where relevant.
What can you leave off?
Plenty of trades sites are padded with things nobody reads: long company history pages, stock photos of models in hard hats, generic mission statements, and blog posts written for search engines rather than customers.
Cut all of it. A four-page site that loads fast and answers real questions outperforms a fifteen-page site full of filler.
How do local customers actually find a tradesperson?
Most local searches happen on a phone, with intent, and often urgently. Someone types a trade plus a town, or simply searches nearby, and picks from the map results at the top.
That means your Google Business Profile does much of the heavy lifting. Fill it in completely, add real photos, list your service areas, and ask every satisfied customer for a review. Your website then backs it up with proof and detail.
How much should a trades website cost?
You do not need a big build. A well-made four or five page site is enough for almost every trade, and the money is better spent on good photos of your work than on elaborate design.
Subscription studios cover this well: a custom site with hosting, maintenance and updates included for a predictable monthly fee, instead of a large one-off invoice and a site nobody maintains afterwards.
How BigBrowser helps
BigBrowser builds clean, fast websites for trades businesses, focused on service areas, real job photos and one-tap calls, live in about 10 days from $89 per month with hosting and maintenance included.
Glossary terms
Want a website that converts?
- ✓Custom design, never a template
- ✓Live in about 10 days
- ✓Hosting and support included
Co-Founder of BigBrowser. I write about web design, cost, and growth.