A tradesperson does not need a website as a shop window. They need the phone to ring, and they need the callers to be local people wanting exactly the work they do, with the budget for it.
Most articles about company websites are written for companies with a marketing department. This one is for the sole trader and the small workshop, where the website is handled by one person between jobs and gets decided on price.
Short answer
- For a local service, a Google business profile brings in more customers than a website. The website decides whether, having found you, they actually call.
- Four to six pages is enough. More is wasted work that nobody will maintain.
- Three things people look for first: what you do, how far you travel and roughly what it costs.
- The phone is still the main channel. The number belongs at the top, tappable on mobile, and never as an image.
- Ten photos of your own work beat fifty stock photos. In the trades that goes double.
First, what a website will not solve
It is fair to start there, even though we sell websites. Somebody looking for a tradesperson usually looks in a map or on a phone and taps one of the first profiles. On map results Google names three factors: relevance, distance and prominence, and states plainly that better ranking cannot be bought or requested.
In practice that means a competitor with worse work will get ahead of you on a local query if your profile is not filled in. Setting one up is free and takes an hour.
That does not remove the need for a website. It does two things a profile cannot: it shows your work at length and answers the questions that decide whether somebody phones. The profile brings the person; the website decides whether they call you or the next one on the list.
The first screen: trade, area, phone
On a phone the first screen holds a headline, two sentences and one button. For a trade, those three things have to fit inside them.
- What you do, in the customer's words. “Bathroom refits and repairs” is an answer. “Comprehensive building services” is not, because nobody searches for it.
- How far you travel. One sentence: “Zlín, Otrokovice and up to 30 km around.” A missing service area is the most common reason people do not call: they will not spend effort finding out whether you would even come.
- The phone number as a button. Tappable on mobile, at the top, not just in the footer. And never as an image, because you cannot dial an image.
| Page or element | Necessary? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Home with the trade, the area and the phone | Yes | Most people never click further; they decide here |
| What I do, job type by job type | Yes | People search for a specific job, not for an industry |
| Photos of finished work | Yes | In the trades, the only proof a customer can read |
| Indicative prices or ranges | Recommended | Saves calls from people out of budget and saves you explaining |
| Service area, listing villages if useful | Yes | Answers the question that stops people phoning |
| Contact with company ID and address | Yes | Legally required and a signal that this is a real business |
| Reviews or ratings | Recommended | For a local service, the strongest proof there is |
| Blog | No | Not worth it in the trades. Put the time into photos of finished work |
Photos: the cheapest thing that decides it
In the trades a photo of finished work carries more than any text. It need not come from a photographer, but it does need three things.
- It has to be yours. A stock photo is recognisable and here it reads worse than none: the reader concludes you would rather not show your own work.
- It has to be before and after. An “after” on its own is a nice picture. The pair shows what you solved, and that is the whole argument.
- It has to be in daylight and held straight. Most phone photos are usable if taken by a window or outdoors with the phone held level. A dark flash photo mainly shows the mess around the edges.
A habit worth acquiring: photograph every finished job even when you do not need the picture. A year later you have fifty photos and nobody has to reconstruct them.
A site headed “Quality and reliability”, one stock photo, the phone number only in the footer and no word about where the firm travels. The customer in the next village calls whoever states on their site that they come out there.
A site headed “Turnkey bathroom refits, Zlín area”, ten before and after photos, a line saying “a typical 4 m² bathroom runs 120 to 180 thousand depending on tiling” and the phone as a button. The people who call know what they are getting into.
What a site like that costs
The figures come from our public price list and exclude VAT. In the trades it makes sense to start with the smallest scope and add once it is clear what customers ask about.
| What | How much | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Google business profile | free | An hour of work. The best value for money a local service can get |
| One page website | from 15,000 CZK | When you offer one thing and cover one area |
| Four to six page website | from 30,000 CZK | When each job type gets its own page, which pays off in search |
| Photography by us | on request | Worth it when you have no photos of your own and do not want to deal with it |
| Running costs per year | a few thousand | Domain, hosting and updates. Do not leave it out of the budget |
The honest part: when you do not need a website
This is the one article on the blog where “do not buy a website” is the right answer more often than elsewhere.
- When you are booked a year ahead. A website brings enquiries you will turn down. That looks good on paper and damages your reputation in practice.
- When every job comes by word of mouth and that is enough. A Google profile with photos of your work delivers ninety percent of the effect for nothing.
- When you are winding down in two years. A website pays back over years, not months.
- When there is nobody to answer. An unanswered phone and an ignored form do more damage than no website at all.
And when it is worth it: when you want to change the mix of work you get. This is the main reason a tradesperson buys a website and hardly anybody names it. A website can bring in different jobs from the ones you are used to: bigger, a different speciality, a different region. Word of mouth brings more of the same; a website can bring something else.
How we handle it
- A small scope is a normal job for us, not an unwanted one. The one page site from 15,000 CZK is in the price list and gets built as carefully as a large one.
- We ask first whether a website will earn its keep. If the call suggests a Google profile and some photos are all you need, we say so and do not take the job.
- We treat the phone as the primary button. In the trades conversion is measured in calls, not in submitted forms, and the site gets built accordingly.
- We can supply photos, but we would rather teach you to photograph finished jobs yourself. Ten of your photos a year beat one photo shoot every five years.
And the honest other side: a website will not find you work on its own. Without a filled in Google profile, without photos and without answering the phone, it does not work even with the best site in the world. The website is the cheapest part of that chain and also the part that does nothing without the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Does a tradesperson need a website at all?
If you are booked a year ahead and work comes by word of mouth, probably not. It is worth setting up the free Google business profile and filling it with photos of your work. A website makes sense when you want to change the mix of jobs: it brings in different work from what word of mouth delivers, meaning bigger jobs, a different speciality or a different region.
How many pages should a tradesperson's website have?
Four to six. Home, the individual job types, photos of finished work, the service area and contact. A blog does not pay off in the trades; that time is better spent photographing finished jobs. More pages mean more maintenance, which at a one person business nobody does.
Should prices go on the site?
At least indicatively. The argument that every job is different is true, and you can still give a price per square metre, an hourly rate or a worked example of a finished job including what it covered. Publish nothing and you spend hours on the phone with people whose budget is an order of magnitude out.
Which matters more, the website or the Google profile?
For a local service, the profile. Google names relevance, distance and prominence as the factors in map results and states plainly that better ranking cannot be bought. The profile brings the person, the website decides whether they call you. So the cheapest sequence is the profile first and the website straight after.
Do the photos have to be professional?
No. In the trades phone photos are fine as long as they are yours, they come as before and after pairs, they are taken in daylight and the phone is held level. Your own average photo reads better than a perfect stock image, because a stock image tells the reader you would rather not show your own work.
How do I measure whether the site works?
In the trades conversion is counted in phone calls, not submitted forms. The simplest method is to ask every caller where they got the number and write it in a notebook for a week. More precise measurement can be installed, but for a small business the notebook is usually enough to decide.
Summary
- For a local service the Google profile brings more people. The website decides whether they call you.
- The first screen needs the trade, the service area and the phone number as a tappable button.
- A missing service area is the most common reason people do not phone.
- An indicative price saves hours on the phone with people out of budget.
- Your own before and after photos are the strongest proof. Stock images actively hurt here.
- Four to six pages is enough and a blog does not pay off.
- If you are booked out and work comes by referral, the website can wait. If you want different work, it cannot.
Not sure a website will pay off
Tell us what you do, how far you travel and where your work comes from today. We will say whether to start with a website or just a Google profile and photos. If the answer is that you do not need a site yet, we will say that.
Sources
- Google on local ranking: relevance, distance and prominence, and that ranking cannot be paid for
- Our own price list; prices exclude VAT and are current as at the date of publication
The bathroom and similar price examples are illustrative and show the shape of a useful price statement, not another company's rates.