Websites for tradesmen: what yours needs

5 min read. Darren Cavaree, Founder of Aeroy. 28 August 2026. Updated 16 October 2026.

What a trade's website needs: a working number, fast loading, photos of your work and a way to edit it yourself.

A bricklayer measures a freshly built block wall with a tape.

Websites for tradesmen need a working phone number, a fast load and photos of your own work. Everything else is a bonus. If those three are right, the site does its job.

In this guide

What should be on the home page?
Why does speed matter on a phone?
Which pages does a trade need first?
Can you update your own website?
Why a website is your online business card
What should you put on it first?
What to do next

What should be on the home page?

The home page should say what you do, where you work and how to reach you. A visitor should see all three without scrolling much.

When a trade’s site gets no calls, I look first for a working phone number on the home page. Many have the number buried, or it does not work at all.

Show your services clearly. Name your town and the places you cover. Then give people a way to get in touch straight away.

A bricklayer in an orange hard hat builds a wall on a house.

Why does speed matter on a phone?

Most people will find you on a phone. Ofcom’s Online Nation report for 2025 found that smartphones took 75% of men’s online time and 79% of women’s. It surveyed UK adults in May 2025 and left out work use.

So your site must load quickly on a weak signal. In my experience, people leave a page if it takes more than about three seconds. That is my view from building sites, not a figure from a study.

Google gives a target you can check. Its web.dev guidance says the main part of a page should show within 2.5 seconds for most visits. You can test your own site with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

Large photos are the usual cause of a slow site. They are easy to shrink.

Which pages does a trade need first?

Start with a home page that shows the business and its services, and a contact page. That is enough to go live. You can add more later.

Many people prefer to message rather than ring. So give them both choices. Put a phone number and a WhatsApp button on every page, so a visitor can reach you the moment they decide.

After those, add a page for each main service and a page for the areas you cover. A page that names the service and the town is what someone types into Google. Our website design page shows how we build these.

A roofer in a white hard hat sits on a roof and fits a panel.

Can you update your own website?

This is the most common problem I see. Tradesmen cannot update their site themselves, so they keep asking someone else to do it.

That costs you. You are busy on a job. You cannot wait for an email reply to change a phone number or add a photo. So the site goes out of date because you have no time.

You need to edit it yourself, quickly, with some guidance on what to update. Before you pay anyone, ask how you would change a number, a photo or a price on your own phone. If the answer is “send it to us”, think again.

An out of date site also makes visitors wonder if you are still trading.

Why a website is your online business card

I see a website as an online business card. It lets a customer check that you are real.

Many trades rely on Facebook alone. That works for some people, but plenty will not use it to judge a firm. Many Google Business Profiles I see have no website, no phone number and no email address. There is nothing for a customer to check.

A website with your number, your email and your work on it answers the question “are these people genuine?” before they ask it.

What should you put on it first?

Photos and videos of your own work. When you start out, take plenty and learn how to take them well. They are what a visitor looks at and what makes the difference on a website, on social media and in any advert.

Stock pictures do not prove you can do the job. Your own do.

A smiling heating engineer in a checked shirt works on boiler pipes and gauges.

Quick tip. Open your own website on your phone, on mobile data. Count how long it takes to load, and how long it takes you to find the phone number.

What to do next

Look at your site on your phone today. Can you find a working phone number in a few seconds? Does the page load quickly? If not, start there.

If you need a new site, our prices are on our website. One to five pages is £350, six to ten pages is £700, and more than ten pages is £1,100. You can book a free call and we will tell you what yours needs.