A website for tradespeople: what belongs on it

What customers look for first on a tradesperson's website

Someone looking for a tradesperson has a job in mind: the heating stays cold, the bathroom needs redoing, a tile is missing from the roof. On your website they check three things. Do you do this? Do you come to me? How do I reach you?

Those answers belong at the very top of the home page, readable on a phone. Name the towns you travel to. Getting in touch should take one tap.

Say what you do not do as well. If you run no emergency service, or only take jobs above a certain size, write it down. That saves both sides a conversation that leads nowhere.

Which pages a trade business needs

Five pages cover most of it: home, services, past work, the business and contact. A legal notice and a privacy policy come on top; in Germany have both checked by someone who knows the rules.

If you offer several services, give each one its own page. Customers search for the job they need done, rarely for the name of the trade.

Watch the words. Google advises thinking about the terms people search with: experts use different ones than newcomers. You say “hydraulic balancing”. Your customer types “radiator not getting warm”. Put both on the page. Google also says a page title can include where the business is.

Source: Google Search Central: SEO Starter Guide

Your own photos and what you supply yourself

Your work can be seen. A photo of the finished bathroom says more than a paragraph about care. So take a few pictures with your phone at the end of every job, in daylight and with the site tidied. Before and after, side by side, works best.

Ask your customers before you show their house or flat. Leave out house numbers, number plates and people.

Whoever builds your website also needs three things from you: the list of your services, the towns you work in, and the facts about your business. In Germany that can be a master craftsman title or guild membership, where they apply. An agency can write the text. Only you know your business.

How Google finds your business

When someone searches for a tradesperson nearby, Google shows local results on Search and on Google Maps. They come from Business Profiles, so a profile belongs next to the website. Google says the order there is mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence. Businesses with complete and accurate details are more likely to show up.

If you travel to your customers, set a service area in the profile. Google says it should not reach further than about two hours' drive from where you are based. If you run the business from home, hide the address. Google's own example for this is a plumber.

For prominence, Google counts among other things how many websites link to your business and how many reviews it has. Website and profile should say the same: same name, same services, same towns.

Sources: Google Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google · Google Help: Guidelines for representing your business

Build it yourself or have it built

With a website builder you can make the site yourself. That mostly costs time: a number of evenings. Be honest about whether you have that time, and whether you will keep the site up to date afterwards.

If you have the website built, one thing matters next to the price: the domain is registered in your name, and you keep every login. Otherwise your address on the internet depends on a contract you may one day want to end.

Ask every provider the same questions.

• Who is the domain registered to, and do I get every login?
• Who writes the text, and who supplies the photos?
• How many pages and how many rounds of changes are included?
• What does the website cost per month after launch?
• What do I get if I cancel?