Three mistakes almost every trade website makes
Plumbers, electricians, builders. Most trade websites make the same three mistakes, and each one quietly costs jobs. Here they are, with the fixes.
If you run a trade business, a plumber, an electrician, a builder, your website probably makes the same three mistakes as nearly every other one in your field. They are not your fault. They are just what happens when a site gets built once and left. But each one is quietly costing you jobs.
The short version
Most trade websites make the same three mistakes: no photos of real work, a phone number that is not one tap, and no sign of which areas you cover.
They are not your fault, they are just what happens when a site gets built once and left.
Each one is a leak that quietly costs you jobs.
The fixes are quick: real photos taken on your phone, a big tap-to-call button on every page, and your areas said in plain words.
No photos of your actual work
Trades live and die on trust. A stranger is about to let you into their home and pay you real money, and they want proof you are any good before they call.
Most trade sites have none. Stock photos of a gleaming spanner, maybe, but nothing of the actual team or the actual jobs. Meanwhile the competitor with twenty real before-and-after photos looks ten times more trustworthy, whether or not they do better work.
The fix: photos of your real jobs and your real faces. Take them on your phone. They do not need to be perfect, they need to be real.
The phone number is not one tap
Someone with a burst pipe is not browsing. They have a problem right now and they want to call right now. If your number is plain text they have to copy, or an image they have to read and type, you have added friction at the exact moment they had none.
They do not need to be perfect, they need to be real.
The fix: a tap-to-call button, big and obvious, on every page. On a phone it should start the call with one touch. This single change wins jobs.
No sign you cover their area
People search for a trade plus a place. “Electrician in Centurion.” If your site never plainly says where you work, you are invisible for exactly the searches that matter, and unsure to the visitors who do land on it.
The fix: say your areas in plain words on the site, and set up your Google Business Profile properly so you show on the map when someone nearby searches.
Each fix is quick and pays for itself
That is the good news. These are not deep, expensive problems. They are leaks, and each one is a quick fix that pays for itself the first time it wins you a job you would otherwise have lost.