Most tradesperson websites either have too little on them or too much of the wrong stuff. A wall of text nobody reads, stock photos that could be anyone's, a phone number buried at the bottom of the page.
The good news is that getting it right isn't complicated. There are seven things your site needs. Get all seven right and you'll convert more visitors into enquiries than most of your competition.
1. A Clear Headline That Says What You Do and Where
The very first line a visitor reads should tell them immediately whether they're in the right place. Not your company name. Not "Welcome to our website." Something like:
"Electrician in Brighton — Domestic and Commercial Work"
"Emergency Plumber Covering Manchester and Salford"
"Gas Safe Boiler Installer — Serving Exeter and Devon"
If someone lands on your homepage and can't tell within five seconds what you do and where you do it, they'll leave. Search engines also use your headline to understand what your business is, so getting this right matters for rankings as much as it does for visitors.
2. Your Phone Number — Visible on Every Page, Clickable on Mobile
Your phone number should be in the top right corner of every page, in a size that's easy to read. On mobile, it should be a tap-to-call link so a visitor can call you without having to copy and paste anything.
This sounds obvious, but it's one of the most commonly missed things on tradesperson websites. People are often browsing on their phone while standing in front of a problem they need fixing. Make it as easy as possible for them to call you the moment they decide to.
A floating click-to-call button at the bottom of the screen on mobile is worth considering too. Friction kills conversions, and making someone hunt for a phone number is friction.
3. Photos of Real Work — Not Stock Images
Stock photos look like stock photos. Visitors know. The moment they see a smiling man in a hard hat who clearly doesn't work for you, the sense of authenticity drops and so does trust.
Real photos of your actual work do the opposite. They prove you do what you say you do. A before-and-after of a bathroom refurbishment, the inside of a properly organised consumer unit, a freshly laid patio — these things give visitors genuine evidence of competence.
You don't need professional photography. Decent photos taken on a modern phone, in good light, are more than adequate. The key is that they show your real work, not generic imagery anyone could have bought.
4. Individual Service Pages — One Per Service
A homepage that lists all your services in a bullet point or two isn't enough. Every service you offer should have its own page. Boiler installation. Boiler servicing. Power flush. Emergency call-out. These should each be separate pages with their own content.
Why it matters: Google ranks individual pages, not whole websites. If someone searches "boiler service [your town]", you want a page dedicated to boiler servicing — one with enough content for Google to understand exactly what the page is about. A paragraph mention on your homepage won't cut it.
It also means when visitors arrive from a specific search, they land on a page that answers exactly what they were looking for, rather than a general overview that makes them dig around.
5. Location Pages — One Per Town You Serve
The same logic applies to locations. If you cover Brighton, Hove, Worthing, and Eastbourne, you need a page for each of those. Not a single page with a list of towns. Individual pages, each targeting "[your service] in [that town]".
This is how you show up in local search for all of the areas you work in, not just the one where your business is registered. A plumber in Brighton who also covers Hove should be ranking for searches in Hove — but that only happens if there's a Hove-specific page for Google to index.
Location pages don't need to be identical. Include local references — a nearby landmark, a specific housing estate type you see a lot of, whatever makes it feel relevant to that area.
6. Real Testimonials With Names
"Brilliant service, would recommend." — A Happy Customer
That's not a testimonial. It tells a prospective customer nothing.
Compare it to: "Called in the morning about a leak under the kitchen sink. Someone was with us by 2pm, sorted it within an hour, and cleaned up after themselves. Fair price too. Will definitely use again." — Sarah M., Brighton
That's a testimonial. Specific, credible, with enough detail that a stranger can picture it. When you ask customers for a testimonial, ask them to tell you what the problem was, what was done, and how it went. Most people will give you exactly that if you ask directly.
Put testimonials on your homepage, your service pages, and your contact page. They matter most when someone is right on the edge of getting in touch and needs a final nudge.
7. A Simple Contact Form
Some people don't want to call. They want to describe their job in writing and wait for someone to get back to them. A contact form gives them that option.
Keep it short: name, phone number, email, and a message field. Don't add a dozen dropdown menus or mandatory fields that make it feel like a government form. The more friction, the more people abandon it.
Your form should go to an email address you actually check daily. Set up a notification so you know when a new enquiry arrives. And respond quickly — for local trades, most people are contacting several businesses at once, and the first to respond wins the job more often than not.
These seven things aren't a guarantee of overnight bookings. But they are the foundation. Get all seven in place and you have a website that's doing its actual job — converting the people who land on it into people who get in touch.
At DCS, these essentials are built into every website I create for trades businesses. If you want to see what that looks like for your specific business, get in touch.