What belongs on a website for tradespeople: the checklist for your business

The first screen makes the decision

Picture a customer who notices at 7 pm on a Saturday that water is seeping out from under the shower tray. She types "emergency plumber" and the name of her town into her phone and opens three websites. She stays on the one where she immediately sees: this is a plumber, he works in my area, I can call him now. Everything else she reads later, if at all.

For the top of your homepage this means: a clear headline with trade and area (for example "Electrical services for Linz and the surrounding area" instead of "Welcome to our homepage"), a real photo of you or your team at work, a tappable phone number and a clearly visible enquiry button. If you offer an emergency service, this is exactly where it goes.

Services: specific and per trade

"We do all jobs around the house" helps nobody. Customers search for a specific task: fitting a wallbox, replacing a gas boiler, installing a roof window, painting a facade. The more precisely your service pages name these tasks, the more likely Google is to show you for exactly that search, and the more likely the enquiry is to suit your business.

A good service page answers the questions you hear on the phone again and again: How does it work? How long does it take? What do I need to prepare? What price should I expect? Add two or three photos from your own jobs. A long list of 40 keywords is worse than six services that are properly explained.

Service area: where you travel to

Many businesses write "We cover the whole region" and are then surprised by enquiries from 80 kilometres away. Instead, name the towns and districts you regularly travel to, and say whether a call-out charge applies outside them. A simple map or list is enough. It helps Google too: the place names on your website support your visibility in exactly those places. How to do that without spammy pages is explained in the guide Local SEO for tradespeople.

Projects with real photos

Nothing convinces like finished work. Instead of a gallery of 200 unsorted pictures, five to ten well-described projects have far more impact: a title ("Bathroom renovation in a 1970s terraced house"), the task, your solution, the duration and two to four photos, ideally before and after. Give the location only roughly (district or municipality), never with a house number.

If you show your customers' homes, flats or the people themselves, you need their consent. How to take good project photos with your phone and get consent properly is covered in the guide Project photos and reviews.

Emergency service and availability

Be honest about when you can be reached. If you promise a "24/7 emergency service" and don't pick up on a Sunday, you collect bad reviews. A clear statement works better: "Emergency service for burst pipes and heating failures: daily 7 am to 10 pm" or "Workshop Mon to Fri 7.30 am to 5 pm, breakdown recovery around the clock".

• Phone number as a tappable link (one tap on a phone is enough), ideally in the header of every page.
• Availability stated realistically: when do you answer yourself, when does the office, when does voicemail?
• Emergency surcharges stated openly. Price information must be correct and complete in both countries, more on this in the guide to advertising and price information (Austria | Germany).
• Company holidays and public holidays added to the website and your Google profile in good time.
• Call-back option for when you can't take calls on site: "We'll call you back the same working day."

Enquiry form with photo upload

A photo of the fuse box, the dripping trap or the facade often tells you more than a ten-minute phone call. A good enquiry form therefore asks only for the essentials and requests photos: name, phone or email, town or postcode, type of job (as a drop-down), preferred time frame, a short description and one to five pictures. Every extra required field noticeably reduces the number of enquiries.

The postcode tells you straight away whether the enquiry is within your service area. The job type sends it to the right person on your team. More ideas on getting more suitable enquiries and fewer price-shoppers are in the guide More suitable enquiries.

Team, master certificate and qualifications

Customers are letting someone into their home or near their car. They want to know who is coming. A team page with photos, first names and roles (master, journeyman, apprentice, office) builds trust before you have even spoken. One sentence about the history of the business ("second generation since 1987") does more than a long mission statement.

You may show qualifications, but only those you can prove: master craftsman exam (Meisterprüfung), Befähigungsnachweis (the Austrian proof of competence for a regulated trade), entry in the Handwerksrolle (the German register of craft businesses), manufacturer training, membership of the trade guild (Innung). The title "Meister" and terms such as "Meisterbetrieb" are tied to a passed master craftsman exam. What applies in which country is explained in the guide to advertising (Austria | Germany).

Reviews on your website

For many customers, your Google reviews are the main reason to call you. Show the star rating and a few recent reviews on your homepage, with a link to your profile. Important: if you display customer reviews on your own website, you must state whether and how you check that they come from real customers (in Germany explicitly in § 5b(3) UWG, the Unfair Competition Act; Austria applies the same EU rule). How to collect new reviews regularly is covered in the guide Google Business Profile.

Careers page: the underrated section

In many businesses the problem is not a lack of jobs but a lack of skilled workers. A dedicated "Jobs" or "Careers" page with vacancies, apprenticeships, pay information and team photos costs little and works around the clock. What applicants want to read there is explained in the guide Finding skilled workers and apprentices through your website.

Legal essentials: Impressum, privacy, prices

Every business website needs a complete Impressum (the legally required provider information) and a privacy policy. In Austria the required details come mainly from § 5 ECG (E-Commerce Act), the Mediengesetz (Media Act) and the UGB (Commercial Code); in Germany from § 5 DDG (Digital Services Act) and, where relevant, the Medienstaatsvertrag (Interstate Media Treaty). Trades businesses also have to add trade-law details such as the responsible chamber and supervisory authority. You'll find all the details in the guides to the legal information for Austria and Germany. With the Impressum generator you can create the text in a few minutes.

Only load external content such as Google Maps, YouTube videos or social media feeds once visitors consent, or leave it out altogether. A website without tracking and without external embeds usually doesn't need a cookie banner either.

Mobile view: the thumb test

Test your website the way your customers use it: on a phone, one-handed, on the move with a weak signal. Can you tap the phone number with your thumb? Can you read the text without zooming? Does the homepage load in two to three seconds, or do huge photos straight from the camera slow it down? Does the photo upload in the form work with the phone camera?

The checklist to tick off

Want to see what this could look like for your trade? In the example sites you'll find finished websites for electricians, plumbers, car workshops, builders, roofers and interior trades. What such a website costs is worked out in the guide How much does a website for tradespeople cost?.