What makes a good tradesman website?

One that wins you the call, not one that wins design awards. A good trades website makes it dead easy to ring you, catches the jobs you cannot answer in the moment, and shows a stranger you are the real deal with real photos, real reviews and your tickets on show. It loads fast, works on a phone first, and points at one thing: getting in touch. If it does that, it is a good website however plain it looks. If it does not, all the polish in the world will not save it.

What should a tradesman website include?

The short list: a phone number you can tap to call on every screen, a short form for when you cannot pick up, real photos of your own work, your reviews, your insurance and any tickets like Gas Safe or NICEIC, a named person and a face, and the areas you cover. That is the lot that wins work. Everything else is nice to have. If a section does not help someone decide to call you, it is decoration.

How much should a tradesman website cost?

There is no one price, so judge it on what it wins, not the sticker. The full breakdown is in the section above, but the short version: a plain website built to convert beats an expensive showpiece with the basics missing, every time. We build and host one for a hundred pounds a month, and a site that lands a single extra job a month has already paid for itself.

Do I need a website or is Facebook enough?

Facebook is a good place to stay in front of people who already follow you, but it is not enough on its own and it is not yours. Only a small slice of your followers ever see a given post, it cannot be laid out to win the call the way your own site can, and Google will not accept a Facebook link where your website should sit on your listing. Use Facebook to keep in touch. Send people somewhere you actually own to close the job. We weighed it up in full in our guide on whether you need a website.

Why is my website not getting me any calls?

Usually one of three things. The number is hard to find or not tappable on a phone. The site is slow, so people leave before it loads. Or there is no proof on it, so a stranger cannot tell you are any good and rings the next name instead. Run the five-minute self-audit above on your own site. Nine times out of ten the leak is obvious once you look at it like a customer on their phone in a hurry.

Should I put my prices on my website?

For most trades, exact prices do more harm than good, because every job is different and a number with no context just scares people off or brings tyre-kickers. What works better is a guide price or a starting-from figure, plus a clear sense of what a job involves, so people can tell whether you are in their ballpark before they call. Be upfront about how you quote. That builds more trust than a price list you would have to caveat to death.

Which accreditations should I show on my website?

Show the ones that are true for your trade and nothing you cannot back up. For gas work that is Gas Safe, for electrical it is NICEIC or NAPIT, and broader badges like CHAS, TrustMark, the FMB or Which? Trusted Traders add a layer on top. Public liability insurance is worth stating too. These badges are the fastest trust you can buy on a website, because a homeowner recognises them and relaxes. Never display one you are not actually registered with, it is the quickest way to lose the job and your reputation.

Does my website need to work on a phone?

It needs to work on a phone first, not as an afterthought. Nearly everyone who lands on a trades website is on their mobile, often standing in the room with the problem. If your site is fiddly to use with a thumb, the number is too small to tap, or it is laid out for a desktop, you are losing jobs you never even knew you had. Build for the phone and the desktop version looks after itself.

How fast should my website load?

Under three seconds on a phone, and faster is better. Google found that more than half of mobile visitors give up on a site that takes longer than three seconds, and that the chance of someone leaving climbs sharply with every extra second. A slow site loses the job before anyone has read a word of it. Speed is not a technical nicety, it is the difference between a call and a bounce.

Should I use a website builder like Wix or get one built?

A builder like Wix or Squarespace can absolutely produce a decent site if you have the time and the eye to set it up to convert. The catch is that most trades do not, and end up with a nice-looking template that buries the phone number and wins nothing. The question is not the tool, it is whether the finished site does the job. If you would rather not spend your evenings on it, a done-for-you site built to convert takes the decision off your plate.

Do I need to be on Checkatrade if I have my own website?

Not necessarily. A directory like Checkatrade can bring work to a brand-new trade with nothing of its own, but you are renting your spot, the same lead often gets sold to several trades at once, and the reviews are theirs, not yours. Your own website plus your free Google listing means the call comes to you and nobody else, with no per-lead fee. We broke down whether the lead sites are worth it in a separate guide if you want the full picture.

A good tradesman website has one job.

Turn a visitor into a phone call or a booked job. That is it. A good trades website is judged on whether it wins you the work, not on how pretty it looks. The plainest site on earth beats the flashiest one if it makes it easy to ring you and shows a stranger you are the real deal.

Nearly every other page answering this question is a web designer showing off, or a round-up of website builders. We build websites for trades for a living, so here is the honest version: the handful of things that actually win the call, the mistakes that quietly lose you jobs, and a five-minute test you can run on your own site today.

Start here

Getting found and getting chosen are two different jobs.

This is where most advice goes wrong, so let us clear it up first. Your website is not there to get you found on Google. That job belongs to your free Google Business Profile, the word of mouth you already get, and ads if you run them. A website will not rank you on its own, and we are not going to pretend it will.

A website does the next bit, and it is the bit that quietly loses trades the most money. People are already finding you. The question is what happens in the thirty seconds after they land. Do they call, or do they have a quick look, decide they cannot tell if you are any good, and ring the next name on the list? Most trades do not have a shortage of people finding them. They have a leak, and a good website plugs it.

The plain version

Getting found gets you looked at. A good website gets you picked.

So when you judge a tradesman website, judge it on one thing: does it turn the people who land on it into calls? Everything below is what makes the answer yes. If you are still weighing up whether you need one at all, we covered that in do I need a website.

The elements that win work

Seven things a good trades website gets right.

Strip a winning trades website back and it is the same short list every time. None of it is clever. All of it is missing from most sites we look at.

A number you can tap to call

Top of every screen, big enough for a thumb. Most people just want to ring you, so a tap-to-call number does more to win you work than anything else on the page. Make them hunt for it and you have lost them.

A short form for when you cannot answer

You are up a ladder half the day. A three-field form (name, number, job) catches the work that would otherwise ring off to someone else. Keep it short: long forms lose people, and every extra field costs you jobs.

Real photos of your own work

Not stock images of somebody else in a hard hat. Proof you have done this exact job before is what turns a maybe into a yes. Stock photos do the opposite, they quietly tell people you have nothing real to show.

Reviews people can actually see

A 2024 BrightLocal survey found 93% of people read reviews before they choose a business, and Google is where most of them look. Put your best ones on the page, with names, so a stranger can borrow someone else’s trust in you.

Your proof and your tickets

Your public liability cover, the guarantees you stand behind, and the trade badges you hold like Gas Safe or NICEIC. These are the fastest trust you can put on a website, because a homeowner knows the logo and relaxes. More on which ones below.

A name, a face, and your areas

People hire people. A named person, a real photo of you or the team, and the towns you cover beat a faceless logo every time. It tells a nervous customer there is a human on the other end.

The seventh, and it ties them together

One clear thing to do next, above the fold.

A good website does not offer ten choices. It points at one: get in touch. The call button and the form are the point of the page, not buried three scrolls down under a wall of waffle. If a stranger cannot tell within a few seconds how to reach you, none of the rest matters.

The part nobody sees but everybody feels

Fast, and built for a phone first.

You can get every element above right and still lose the job if the site is slow or clumsy on a phone. This is the quiet killer, because you never see the people who left. They were never a missed call or a form, they simply gave up before the page loaded.

The numbers are blunt. Google found that more than half of people abandon a mobile site that takes longer than three seconds to load, and the chance of them leaving climbs sharply with every extra second. A study by Google and Deloitte across thirty million visits found that shaving just a tenth of a second off load time lifted conversions by 8.4%. And people judge a site almost instantly: researchers have measured that a visitor forms a first impression in around fifty milliseconds, before they have read a single word.

Then there is the phone. Nearly everyone who lands on a trades website is on their mobile, often standing in the room with the problem. If your site was laid out for a desktop, the number is small, the form is fiddly, and the whole thing feels like hard work with a thumb. Build for the phone first and the rest looks after itself, which is exactly how you stop losing the calls you already get.

The badges that buy instant trust

Show the proof a homeowner already recognises.

A stranger is about to let you into their home. The accreditations you show are the fastest way to settle their nerves, because they recognise the logo and it does the vouching for you. Show the ones that are true for your trade, and never one you are not registered with. Here are the ones that carry weight.

Accreditation	Who it is for	What it proves
Gas Safe Register	Gas and heating engineers	The legal requirement for any gas work in the UK. Being on it is the baseline that you are competent and allowed to do the job.
NICEIC / NAPIT	Electricians	The main competent-person schemes for electrical work, re-assessed against safety and technical standards. Either one reassures.
FMB	Builders	Federation of Master Builders. The recognised trade body for builders, with independently inspected membership.
CHAS	Any trade, esp. commercial	Proves you meet required health-and-safety standards. Matters most for larger and commercial jobs.
TrustMark	Any trade	Government-endorsed scheme that adds a consistent code of conduct and consumer protection on top of your trade body.
Which? Trusted Traders	Any trade	Which?’s endorsement. Assessed traders show insurance, trade memberships and the qualifications the law requires.

Public liability insurance is worth stating too. It is not a blanket legal requirement for a sole trader with no staff, so on a website it works as a trust signal rather than proof of status, but homeowners look for it all the same. For what you actually need to hold, what it costs, and how to display it properly (not just the word “insured”), see what insurance do tradesmen need.

What goes wrong

Most trades sites fail on the one thing that wins the call.

This is not us guessing. One audit of 350 tradesman websites across South London found the failures are worryingly common, and almost all of them are conversion basics, not clever stuff. Nearly one in seven had a phone number that was missing, buried below the fold, or simply broken. Around 17% of the sites were broken outright, so a customer physically could not get in touch. Most ran a design frozen before 2015, and a handful still used a Gmail or Hotmail address despite owning a domain. The same audit found forms with three fields outperformed longer ones by close to half.

Read that again: the most common faults are the exact things that win or lose the job. Here is the list to check yourself against.

The phone number is hard to find, not tappable on a phone, or missing entirely
Stock photos of other people’s work instead of real photos of yours
The site is slow, so people leave before it loads
Contact is buried behind a lengthy form when a tap-to-call number would do
No proof: no reviews, no accreditations, no named person or face
A design that has not been touched in years, or a Gmail address on a business that owns a domain
Leaning on a Facebook page or a paid directory profile instead of a website you own

The common shortcut

“Can I just use Facebook or Checkatrade instead?”

You can lean on them, and for a brand-new trade with nothing of its own they can bring in work. But they support a good website, they do not replace it. A Facebook page only ever reaches a small slice of your followers, it cannot be laid out to win the call the way your own site can, and it is not yours: the rules can change overnight. A directory like Checkatrade puts you in front of buyers, but you are renting your spot, the same lead usually gets sold to several trades at once, and you pay a fee for every one.

A website you own is the one thing in your marketing that is actually yours, where every call that comes in is yours alone and there is no per-lead fee taking a cut. That is the whole reason we build what we build. If you want the longer argument, we laid it out in the shared-lead trap, and we broke down whether the lead sites are worth it in our Checkatrade guide. To get found for free alongside your site, set up your Google Business Profile properly.

The honest money question

What a good one should cost.

Prices run from nothing, if you put it together yourself, up to a few thousand pounds for a bespoke build. The trap at the cheap end is a template that looks fine and wins nothing, because setting a site up to convert takes an eye most trades have not got the evenings to develop. The trap at the dear end is paying for a showpiece with all the conversion basics missing.

For most sole traders and small firms the sensible middle is a simple, done-for-you website built to convert, on a low monthly fee that covers hosting and the tweaks it needs over time. We do exactly that for a hundred pounds a month. Whatever you decide, judge the spend on the jobs it wins, never the sticker price. A website that wins one extra job a month has more than paid for itself.

Score your own site

The five-minute test, on your phone.

Pull your own website up on your mobile, as if you were a customer with a problem and no patience. Go through these eight. Every yes is a point. Be honest, it only helps if you are.

1Can you tap a phone number to call within three seconds of the page loading, without scrolling?
2Did the page actually load in under three seconds on mobile data, not wifi?
3Is there a short form (three or four fields) for when you cannot answer the phone?
4Are the photos real pictures of your own work, not stock images?
5Are your reviews on the page, with names, where a stranger can see them?
6Are your tickets and insurance shown: Gas Safe, NICEIC, or whatever your trade needs?
7Is there a named person, a face, and the areas you cover?
8Does everything point at one action, getting in touch, rather than pulling in ten directions?

How to read your score

7 to 8: your website is doing its job, keep it fresh. 4 to 6: it is leaking work, the fixes are on this page. 0 to 3: you are paying to be found and losing them on arrival, which is the most expensive way to run a website.

Straight answers

Questions trades actually ask.

What makes a good tradesman website?: One that wins you the call, not one that wins design awards. A good trades website makes it dead easy to ring you, catches the jobs you cannot answer in the moment, and shows a stranger you are the real deal with real photos, real reviews and your tickets on show. It loads fast, works on a phone first, and points at one thing: getting in touch. If it does that, it is a good website however plain it looks. If it does not, all the polish in the world will not save it.
What should a tradesman website include?: The short list: a phone number you can tap to call on every screen, a short form for when you cannot pick up, real photos of your own work, your reviews, your insurance and any tickets like Gas Safe or NICEIC, a named person and a face, and the areas you cover. That is the lot that wins work. Everything else is nice to have. If a section does not help someone decide to call you, it is decoration.
How much should a tradesman website cost?: There is no one price, so judge it on what it wins, not the sticker. The full breakdown is in the section above, but the short version: a plain website built to convert beats an expensive showpiece with the basics missing, every time. We build and host one for a hundred pounds a month, and a site that lands a single extra job a month has already paid for itself.
Do I need a website or is Facebook enough?: Facebook is a good place to stay in front of people who already follow you, but it is not enough on its own and it is not yours. Only a small slice of your followers ever see a given post, it cannot be laid out to win the call the way your own site can, and Google will not accept a Facebook link where your website should sit on your listing. Use Facebook to keep in touch. Send people somewhere you actually own to close the job. We weighed it up in full in our guide on whether you need a website.
Why is my website not getting me any calls?: Usually one of three things. The number is hard to find or not tappable on a phone. The site is slow, so people leave before it loads. Or there is no proof on it, so a stranger cannot tell you are any good and rings the next name instead. Run the five-minute self-audit above on your own site. Nine times out of ten the leak is obvious once you look at it like a customer on their phone in a hurry.
Should I put my prices on my website?: For most trades, exact prices do more harm than good, because every job is different and a number with no context just scares people off or brings tyre-kickers. What works better is a guide price or a starting-from figure, plus a clear sense of what a job involves, so people can tell whether you are in their ballpark before they call. Be upfront about how you quote. That builds more trust than a price list you would have to caveat to death.
Which accreditations should I show on my website?: Show the ones that are true for your trade and nothing you cannot back up. For gas work that is Gas Safe, for electrical it is NICEIC or NAPIT, and broader badges like CHAS, TrustMark, the FMB or Which? Trusted Traders add a layer on top. Public liability insurance is worth stating too. These badges are the fastest trust you can buy on a website, because a homeowner recognises them and relaxes. Never display one you are not actually registered with, it is the quickest way to lose the job and your reputation.
Does my website need to work on a phone?: It needs to work on a phone first, not as an afterthought. Nearly everyone who lands on a trades website is on their mobile, often standing in the room with the problem. If your site is fiddly to use with a thumb, the number is too small to tap, or it is laid out for a desktop, you are losing jobs you never even knew you had. Build for the phone and the desktop version looks after itself.
How fast should my website load?: Under three seconds on a phone, and faster is better. Google found that more than half of mobile visitors give up on a site that takes longer than three seconds, and that the chance of someone leaving climbs sharply with every extra second. A slow site loses the job before anyone has read a word of it. Speed is not a technical nicety, it is the difference between a call and a bounce.
Should I use a website builder like Wix or get one built?: A builder like Wix or Squarespace can absolutely produce a decent site if you have the time and the eye to set it up to convert. The catch is that most trades do not, and end up with a nice-looking template that buries the phone number and wins nothing. The question is not the tool, it is whether the finished site does the job. If you would rather not spend your evenings on it, a done-for-you site built to convert takes the decision off your plate.
Do I need to be on Checkatrade if I have my own website?: Not necessarily. A directory like Checkatrade can bring work to a brand-new trade with nothing of its own, but you are renting your spot, the same lead often gets sold to several trades at once, and the reviews are theirs, not yours. Your own website plus your free Google listing means the call comes to you and nobody else, with no per-lead fee. We broke down whether the lead sites are worth it in a separate guide if you want the full picture.

Want a website that actually wins the work?

Tell us a bit about your business and we'll show you what a website built to convert looks like, for a hundred pounds a month. Got a question first? Just message us.

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