Website design for trades isn’t about looking clever. It’s about getting the right person to pick up the phone. I’ve designed and built sites for garden room builders, marquee and temporary structure hire, wellness businesses, cleaning companies, landscapers, property buyers and event promoters, and the sites that bring in work all share the same ten pages.
What good website design for trades does
A trade website has three jobs: show you do the job, show you do it near them, and make getting in touch easy. Every page below serves at least one of those.
1. A homepage that says what and where
The first line should say what you do and where. Below it: a call button, your best photo, two or three reviews and your main services. That’s most of the job done before anyone scrolls.
2. One page per main service
Each service gets its own page: what’s included, photos of real jobs, prices or a price guide if you can, and a quote button. A single “services” page with a list of everything rarely ranks for anything.
3. A page for each town you cover
This is where most trade sites fall short. A proper page for each town, with jobs from that town, is how you show up when someone searches “service + town”. For one Wirral garden room company, these pages took them to position 1 in their best towns.
4. Case studies with the town in the title
“Garden office in Heswall” or “Office clean for a solicitors in Aylesbury”. Short, photo led, linked from the matching service and town pages.
5. A gallery of real work
Real photos, labelled with the job and the town. Nothing builds trust faster for a trade.
6. Reviews
Pull in your Google reviews and add any Checkatrade or Trustatrader ratings. Put a few on every key page, not just one reviews page.
7. An about page with real people
Who you are, how long you’ve been doing it, your accreditations and a photo of you or the team. People hire people.
8. A simple contact page
Phone, email, a short form, your opening hours and the areas you cover. Make it work perfectly on a phone.
9. An FAQ page
Answer the questions you get asked on every call: price ranges, timescales, planning, guarantees. It saves you time and it ranks.
10. A blog that answers real questions
One question per post, linked to the matching service page. Two or three a week, every week, is the rhythm I use for most clients.
How the pages work together
The ten pages aren’t separate. They should link to each other so both visitors and Google can follow the path from question to quote.
A blog post answers a question and links to the service page. The service page links to the town pages and the case studies. Each town page links to the case studies from that town and back to the service. Every page has a quote button.
That structure is what turns website design for trades from a brochure into something that brings in enquiries. On the garden room site I work on, one well linked town page went on to turn 17% of its views into enquiry actions over 90 days.
Common mistakes in trade websites
- A homepage slider instead of a clear headline.
- Phone number only in the footer.
- One “services” page instead of a page per service.
- No town pages at all.
- Stock photos of smiling people in hard hats.
- No tracking, so nobody knows which pages work.
The details that make the difference
- Tap to call in the header on mobile.
- Fast loading: a mobile PageSpeed score above 50 at the very least.
- A quote button near the top of every page.
- Google Analytics and call tracking from day one, so you know which pages bring in work.
Want to see what this looks like?
I’ve built sites for trades and local businesses across the Wirral, Bucks, Herts and beyond. If your site is missing some of these pages, I’ll check it for free and tell you which ones to add first.
[Get your free website audit]
FAQ
How many pages should a trade website have?
Start with the ten above. A trade covering several services and towns often grows to 30 or more, mostly service and town pages.
Should I use a website builder or WordPress?
WordPress gives you far more control over SEO and speed, which is why I build most trade sites on it.
How long does a new trade website take?
Usually a few weeks, depending on how many pages and how quickly photos and content come together.
