The short answer
A tradie website needs to do three things quickly: show what you do and where, prove you're licensed and real, and make it easy to call or ask for a quote from a phone. In practice that means click-to-call on every page, a page for each main service, your licence and insurance, the suburbs you cover, real job photos, reviews and a short quote form, on a site that loads fast on mobile.
What pages does a tradie website need?
Most trade businesses need fewer pages than they think, but each one has to earn its place. The page that wins a search is a page about one job, so the core of the site is a page per main service rather than one long list of everything you do.
A typical small trade business can cover itself well in about ten pages:
- Home: what you do, where, your licence, a few reviews and the call button.
- A page for each main service, such as hot water, blocked drains and gas for a plumber, or switchboards and EV chargers for an electrician.
- Service areas: the suburbs you genuinely cover.
- About: who runs the business, licence, insurance and photos of you and your vehicles.
- Work or gallery: real jobs, each with a sentence on what was done.
- Reviews: customers' own words.
- Contact: phone number, quote form, hours and service area.
If you take urgent work, an emergency page is worth one of those slots. For trade-specific examples, see our pages on websites for plumbers, electricians and builders.
Which trust signals matter most on a trade website?
People hiring a tradie are letting a stranger into their home, often for work they can't judge themselves. They look for proof that you're licensed, insured and real before they look at anything else.
The licence number is the big one. Put it on every page, usually in the footer, and near the top of the homepage. In NSW, licensed contractors are generally expected to show their licence number in advertising, and that includes a website; other states have their own rules, so check yours.
After that come the signals that you're a real, local business: a business name that matches your vehicles and your Google listing, your ABN, photos of you and your team (with their permission), insurance stated plainly, and memberships of industry associations if you hold them. Stock photos work against you here, because customers recognise them.
How should click-to-call work on a tradie website?
Most people looking for a tradie are on a phone, and many of them would rather ring than fill in a form. The phone number should be a real tap-to-call link, written as text rather than inside an image, in the header of every page.
On a phone, keep a call button in reach as the visitor scrolls. Put your hours next to the number so nobody rings at midnight expecting an answer you can't give, and if you don't take after-hours calls, say what happens instead.
Use the same number everywhere: on the site, on your Google Business Profile and in directories. Mixed numbers confuse customers and make it harder for Google to be confident your details are right.
What should a quote form ask?
A good quote form gets you enough to reply properly without putting the customer off. For most trades, that's:
- Name and phone number (email optional)
- Suburb
- The type of job, as a short list to choose from
- How soon they need it
- A short description
- A photo upload, which often tells you more than the description
Tell the customer what happens next, such as "we'll text you today", and make sure the form actually reaches you. If enquiries pile up in an inbox, enquiry automation can send an instant reply, text you about urgent jobs and put the details straight into your job software.
Do suburb pages help a tradie get found?
They can, if each one is genuinely useful. A page about the area you work in, with the jobs you do there and how quickly you usually get there, helps both Google and the customer. Dozens of near-identical pages with only the suburb name changed are a different matter: Google describes that pattern as doorway pages, and it can count against the whole site.
For most small trade businesses, one service-areas page listing the suburbs you cover, plus a few pages for your main areas, is the honest version. Pair it with a well set-up Google Business Profile, which matters as much as the website for local searches. Our Google Business Profile checklist for tradies covers that side, and local SEO is part of every site we build.
How fast does a tradie website need to be?
Fast enough that the call button is on screen and tappable almost as soon as the page opens, on an ordinary mobile connection. Someone with a burst pipe won't wait for a slideshow to load.
The usual causes of a slow trade site are large uncompressed photos, auto-playing video and sliders, and heavy page builders. Resized images, a simple layout and good hosting fix most of it. Google measures loading and responsiveness through its Core Web Vitals, and a site that does well there is usually one customers find quick to use too.
What photos and reviews should go on the site?
Real photos of your own work, every time. Before-and-after shots, tidy finished jobs, your vehicles and your team do more than any amount of description. Keep clients' house numbers and personal details out of shot, and ask before you publish photos of someone's home.
Reviews work best in the customer's own words, with their first name and suburb if they're happy to share them. Link to your Google reviews as well, so visitors can see they're real. Never write or edit reviews yourself. Our own work page quotes each client exactly as they wrote it, which is the standard to aim for.
What's on the full tradie website checklist?
Use this to check an existing site, or as a brief for a new one.
- Tap-to-call phone number in the header of every page
- Call button kept in reach on a phone
- Hours shown next to the number
- Licence number on every page
- Insurance and ABN stated plainly
- A page for each main service
- Emergency page, if you take urgent work
- Suburbs you genuinely cover, listed clearly
- Real photos of your work, team and vehicles
- Reviews in customers' own words, plus a link to your Google reviews
- Short quote form with photo upload
- A line saying what happens after someone enquires
- Same business name, phone and area as your Google Business Profile
- Loads quickly on a phone
- Page titles that say the service and the area
Every point on this list is part of a Site & Care website: up to 10 pages, designed, built, hosted and looked after for $99 a month, including GST, on a 12-month term. See pricing for what's included.