What a tradie's website needs to win the call

A tradie's website has two jobs

The first job is to be found for the work you want. Someone types the job and a suburb into Google, and your page is one of the ones that comes up. The second job is to turn that visit into a call or a quote request. Everything else on the site, the about page, the photos, the logo, is there to help with one of those two jobs.

Google's own guidance for site owners asks whether your site has a primary purpose or focus, and whether it is self-evident to visitors who is behind the content. Of the qualities it lists, it says trust is the most important. For a trade business that is simple to satisfy: say what you do, where you do it, who you are and how to reach you, and make the number easy to tap.

When we designed and coded the website for ELT Power & Electrical, a Registered Electrical Contractor in Melbourne (REC 38556), the brief came down to those two jobs. A page for each kind of work ELT wants to be found for, a request-a-quote button in the header of every page, and on phones a bar pinned to the bottom of the screen with a call button beside the same quote button. The case study is on our work page.

One page per service, not one long list

Search engines rank pages, not businesses. A single services page that lists everything you do has one title, one description and one chance to match a search. A page for each service has its own title and its own description, each written the way a customer would search for that job. Rental compliance, a switchboard upgrade and a CCTV install are different searches by different people, and they deserve different pages.

Google's guidance asks whether a page provides substantial value compared with other pages in the search results, and whether a reader leaves feeling they have learned enough to achieve their goal. A page about one service can answer that properly. A page about everything cannot.

On the ELT site there are six service pages: residential electrical, builders and renovations, rental compliance, HVAC electrical support, CCTV and alarm systems, and general electrical work. Each has its own title and description. The rental compliance page is titled Rental Compliance, and its description says electrical safety checks, smoke alarm checks, safety-switch testing and clear documentation for rental properties across Melbourne, because that is what a property manager is looking for.

Each service page should cover four things.

• What you do, in the customer's words. List the actual jobs. ELT's residential page lists fault finding, lighting, switchboards, power points, smoke alarms and general repairs, not electrical solutions.
• Where you do it. Name the city or region and, if you travel for the work, how far.
• Your licence or registration number, on the page itself, not only in the footer. ELT's service pages show Registered contractor REC 38556 in the contact card at the foot of each page, as well as in the footer.
• What happens next. ELT's service pages set out four steps: send the details, ELT reviews them and confirms the next step, the work or site visit happens, then documentation or recommendations follow. It takes the guesswork out of calling a stranger.

Keep the phone number and quote button in reach on a phone

Assume the visitor is on a phone, possibly standing in the room with the problem. They should not have to scroll, hunt or copy a number. A phone number written as a tel link dials when it is tapped. A request-a-quote button should go straight to the form.

On the ELT site the request-a-quote button sits in the header of every page and jumps to the form on the contact page. On a phone, a bar pinned to the bottom of the screen adds a call button that dials ELT's number next to the same quote button. Whatever page a visitor lands on from Google, the two things they most likely want are in reach. The number is repeated at the bottom of each page, where people end up once they have read it.

• Make the number a link that dials, not plain text.
• Put a quote button in the header on every page, and on phones keep a call button pinned in view, not only on the home page.
• Repeat the number at the bottom of each page.
• Test it on your own phone, with one thumb, before the site goes live.

The quote form

A form is for the people who would rather not ring, or who are looking you up late at night. It should gather enough for you to give a sensible first answer and nothing more. Every extra field is a reason to give up halfway.

The form we built for ELT's contact page asks for a name, phone number and email, the suburb, what kind of customer they are (homeowner, landlord, property manager, builder, contractor or business), which service they need, a description of the job, an optional photo, and whether they would rather be phoned or emailed. The suburb tells ELT whether the job is in range before anyone picks up the phone. A photo of the switchboard or the leak often answers the question a first call would have asked.

The companion guide, the quote request form that gets you the details, goes through each field, what it is for, and how to handle the enquiries once they arrive.

Trust details customers look for

A customer is about to let a stranger into their house, or hand a builder a deposit. Before they call, they look for signs that you are a real, licensed, insured business. These details are cheap to add and expensive to leave out.

• Your ABN, so a customer can look the business up. On the ELT site it sits in the footer of every page.
• Your licence or registration number, where your trade has one. ELT's REC number is in the footer next to the ABN, and again on each service page. Your state regulator may also have rules about licence numbers in advertising, and some count websites as advertising; our guide, do you have to show your licence number on your website, goes state by state. This is general information, not legal advice; check the current rule with the regulator.
• Insurance, named. Fully insured on its own says little. Public liability insurance, and the level of cover if you are willing to state it, says something a customer can weigh.
• Real photos of your work. A phone photo of a tidy switchboard you wired, or a bathroom you finished, beats any stock image. Take them on the job, with the customer's permission, and show the finished result.
• Genuine reviews. Quote them accurately, credit them the way the customer left them, and link to where they live, such as your Google Business Profile. Never write your own.

Your service area and your Google Business Profile

If you work from a ute and a home office, there is no shopfront for customers to visit. Google's guidelines for Business Profiles say a business qualifies if it has a physical location customers can visit, or travels to customers where they are. A business that travels to customers is allowed one service-area profile, is told to hide its address, and sets a service area, which the guidelines say should not extend farther than about two hours of driving time from where the business is based.

Your website should tell the same story. Name the area you cover in plain words, the city, the regions or a list of suburbs, on the home page and on each service page. Google's guidelines ask you to represent your business as it is consistently represented and recognised in the real world, so the business name, the area and the phone number on your site should match your Profile exactly. ELT's site says Melbourne, Victoria on every page, and its home page description says across Melbourne.

Setting up and verifying the Profile is its own job. Our guide to Google Business Profile for tradies covers it step by step.

What not to bother with

Some things appear on trade websites only because a template had a slot for them. Leave these out and spend the time on the service pages.

• Stock photos of strangers in hard hats. Customers can tell, and the photo says nothing about your work. Your own van and your own finished job do more.
• A blog you will not keep up. Google's guidance warns against producing lots of content on many topics in the hope that some of it performs in search. A handful of old posts makes the business look closed. If you have something useful to say, put it on the service page it belongs to and keep that page current.
• A page for every suburb with the same text and the suburb name swapped. It adds nothing a customer wants, and Google's guidance asks directly whether content is made primarily to attract visits from search engines.
• A chat widget nobody staffs. A bubble that promises a reply shortly, when nobody will see it until tomorrow, is a broken promise on every page. A number you answer and a form you reply to are better.

Common questions

Do I need a separate page for every service?

One for each service you want to be found for on its own. If two jobs are always searched together, one page can cover both. On the ELT site six pages cover the work; a sole trader might need three or four.

Should I put my licence number on my website?

Yes. Customers look for it, and it is one of the few things on a trade website they can check. Put it on the service pages and in the footer. Your state regulator may have rules about showing it in advertising, so check the current rule there. This is general information, not legal advice.

Do I need a street address on the site if I work from home?

Google's guidelines say a service-area business should hide its address on its Business Profile. On your website, name the area you cover instead. A city or a list of suburbs is enough for a customer to know you are local, and it should match what your Profile says.

Do I need a blog?

No. A blog only helps if you keep writing useful posts, and that is a real commitment on top of the day's work. Service pages that answer the customer's question do the job a blog is meant to do, without the upkeep.