A Website for Your Trade Business
A trade website isn't where people find you — it's where they check you out after someone gave them your name. Here's the small number of things it has to do, and how to get one built without spending months on it.
Most tradies overthink their website and then never build one. It helps to be clear about its job: almost nobody discovers a tradie by browsing websites. They get a recommendation, or they find you on a map, and then they look you up to decide whether to ring. That makes your website a credibility check, not a shopfront — and a credibility check is a much smaller project. This guide covers what it must contain, how to get it built, and how to make sure the enquiries it produces don't get lost.
Doing this job for a living? See job management in ServiceYak.
What a trade website is actually for
Someone has your name. They're standing in their kitchen deciding whether to call. They search you, land on your site, and spend maybe twenty seconds on it. In that time they're answering four questions:
- Do they do the thing I need?
- Do they come to where I live?
- Does the work look decent?
- How do I contact them?
That's it. A site that answers those four clearly beats an expensive one that buries them. Everything else — the about page, the blog, the history of the business — is optional, and none of it is worth delaying the launch for.
If you have no site at all, a complete Google Business Profile answers three of those four and is the better first move. Build the website second — but do build it, because the profile can't hold a portfolio and it isn't yours.
The pages you need, and the ones you don't
| Page or section | Why it's there |
|---|---|
| Home | Trade, service area and phone number visible without scrolling. This does most of the work |
| Services | Named jobs, not categories — switchboard upgrades, blocked drains, ducted installs |
| Gallery of finished work | The single most persuasive thing on the site. Ten good photos beats a hundred words |
| Reviews or testimonials | Pull the best lines from your real reviews rather than writing new ones |
| Areas serviced | List the suburbs. It answers the question and it helps people searching for a local |
| Contact | Phone, a form, and your licence number. Make the phone number tappable on a phone |
| A blog | Optional, and only if you'll actually keep it going. An abandoned blog dated three years ago hurts you |
One well-built page carrying all of that is a perfectly good trade website. Plenty of successful trade businesses have never had more than that.
How to get it built
There are three realistic routes. They differ mainly in how much of your time versus your money it costs, and all three can produce something perfectly good.
- A website builder you use yourself. A template-based platform where you fill in your details, upload photos and publish. Fastest and cheapest, and you can change it yourself at 9pm without ringing anybody. The trade-off is that it will look like a template unless you put real photos in it.
- A local web designer or a trade-focused agency. Costs more and takes longer, but you get something specific to your business and someone to call when it breaks. Worth it if you're competing in a crowded market or the site is a real sales tool.
- A site attached to a tool you already pay for. Some trade software includes a simple site built from the details you've already entered. Convenient, and the enquiries land somewhere useful, but check what happens to the site if you ever leave.
Whichever you choose, get current pricing directly from the provider before you commit — build costs, hosting and ongoing fees vary a lot and change often. Ask specifically who owns the site and the content if you stop paying, because that answer differs between routes and it matters later.
Whatever it costs, weigh it against a job. If a website costs you roughly what one decent job pays and it brings in two a year, it has paid for itself and then some. That's the sum to do — not whether it feels expensive in isolation.
Writing it so it reads like you
The most common mistake on trade websites is corporate language. Nobody rings the business that offers comprehensive solutions for all your electrical needs. They ring the one that says what it does.
- Say the trade and the area in the first line. Licensed electrician, servicing the inner west. That one sentence answers two of the four questions before they scroll.
- List the actual jobs. Write the names people use for what's gone wrong. A homeowner doesn't search for electrical services, they search for the thing that isn't working.
- Use your own photos. Stock images of a smiling model in clean overalls are worse than no images. Real photos of your finished work, the ute and the crew build more trust than any copy on the page.
- Put the licence number and insurances on it. It costs a line and it removes a doubt. Clients who've been burnt before are looking for exactly this.
- Say how quickly you respond. If you get back to people same-day, say so — and then do it. It's one of the few claims a trade website can make that a competitor won't match.
Mobile, speed, and catching the enquiry
Almost everyone reading your site is doing it on a phone, often on mobile data, often standing next to whatever's broken. Two practical consequences:
- Test it on a phone before you launch, not on the laptop you built it on. Check the phone number taps to call, the form works, and nothing needs pinching to read.
- Keep it fast. Big unresized photos are the usual culprit. If it takes several seconds to appear on mobile data, people leave.
- Make the enquiry form short. Name, phone, suburb, what they need. Every extra field costs you enquiries.
- Send the enquiry somewhere it gets seen. An email to an address you check twice a week is where leads go to die.
In ServiceYak a web enquiry becomes a record you can respond to and quote from, so a lead that arrived while you were on the tools is still sitting there in a list rather than buried in an inbox.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a website if I already have a Google Business Profile?
The profile is the more important of the two and worth doing first, but it can't hold a proper portfolio, it isn't yours, and referred clients often search your business name rather than your trade. A single-page site covering your services, area, photos and contact details fills that gap for very little effort.
What should a trade website cost?
It depends entirely on the route — a template builder you set up yourself, a local designer, or a site bundled with software you already use. Get current pricing from the provider rather than trusting a figure in an article, and judge it against what a job earns you: a site that brings in two jobs a year has usually paid for itself.
How many pages does a tradie website need?
One good page is enough to start. It needs your trade and service area up top, a list of the specific jobs you do, photos of finished work, a couple of real reviews, and a tappable phone number. Add pages later if you find yourself wanting to rank for individual services.
Should I write a blog on my trade website?
Only if you'll keep it up. A regularly updated blog answering the questions clients actually ask can bring in searches over time, but an abandoned one with three posts from years ago signals a business that may not still be trading. If you're unsure, leave it out.