Websites for tradespeople: what actually wins the job
A trade website wins work with five things: photos of real jobs (before and after where possible), the exact areas you cover, guide prices or "from" figures, visible credentials and insurance, and a phone number a thumb can hit from any page. It also frees you from paying commission on every lead: directory sites rent you customers, your own site earns them.
How customers actually choose a trade
The pattern is consistent: a recommendation or search produces a shortlist of two or three names, then the customer checks each online before ringing one. What they are checking is risk: does this person do good work, are they real and insured, do they cover my area, will the price be sane. Your website's job is to answer those four anxieties in under a minute, on a phone, often at 9pm. The trade with the clearest answers gets the first call, and the first call gets a large share of the work.
What belongs on a trade website
- Job photos, organised. Real befores and afters, grouped by job type. This is the single strongest content a trade can publish, and only you can produce it.
- Coverage, spelt out. Name the towns. "Covering Wigan, Leigh, St Helens and surrounding areas" ranks and reassures; a radius map alone does neither.
- Price guidance. Day rates, "from" prices or worked examples. It filters tyre-kickers and beats the silence customers read as "expensive".
- Credentials where they can be seen. Gas Safe, NICEIC, CSCS, insurance, years trading, guarantees, high on the page with numbers where applicable.
- Phone-first design. Tappable number everywhere, a three-field form for after-hours, and loading fast on a van's worth of signal.
- Your reviews, embedded. Pull your Google reviews onto the site so the proof and the pitch live together.
The directory commission treadmill
Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Bark and similar directories can fill a quiet diary, and plenty of trades use them well. But the economics are rent: monthly fees or per-lead charges for customers who are simultaneously shopping your competitors on the same page, forever. Your own website flips it: every job it wins is commission-free, and every review and photo you add compounds your own asset rather than theirs. The sensible path for most trades is both at first, then a gradual shift of weight to the owned site as its enquiries grow.
Frequently asked questions
Do tradespeople really need a website?
If all your work comes from word of mouth and you are booked for months, arguably not yet. For everyone else: recommendations get checked online before the call, and searches go to whoever shows up looking credible. A one-page site with photos, coverage and a number already changes results.
Is Checkatrade or a website better for getting work?
Different tools. Directories produce leads quickly but charge forever and line you up beside competitors. A website builds slower and then wins work commission-free. Most successful trades run directories as a tap they can turn down as the website and reviews grow.
What should a tradesperson's website cost?
The market ranges from £500 one-off templates to £3,000 plus agency builds, before hosting and change fees. Managed monthly services run £30 to £100 a month all-in; ours is £50 with the build, hosting, domain and unlimited changes included. Whatever you pay, judge it in jobs won per month.
I have no time to write content. What is the minimum?
Photos and facts. Ten job photos, your services as a list, the towns you cover, your credentials and a number. A decent provider turns that into the words; that is exactly what our ten minute brief does.
The short version
- Customers shortlist then check: answer work quality, legitimacy, coverage and price fast.
- Job photos are your strongest content; only you can produce them.
- Name your towns, show your tickets, give price guidance.
- Directories rent you leads; your own site earns them commission-free.
Rather skip all this?
We build trade sites from a ten minute brief: your photos and facts, our design and words, live in seven days. £50 a month, no setup fee, and the phone number goes where thumbs can find it.
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