Why Your Trade Website Isn't Getting You Calls (and What to Fix)

Most tradesmen I talk to have a website. Plenty of them paid good money for it. And a lot of them will tell me the same thing: "It's up there, but I've never really got a call off it."

That's rarely because the website is ugly. It's usually because it was built to look good rather than to get a customer to pick up the phone. Here are the problems I see again and again on trade websites in Ireland, and what to do about each one.

1. The phone number isn't one tap away on a phone

Most people looking for a plumber, roofer or electrician are on their phone, often in a hurry. If they have to zoom in, copy the number or hunt through a menu, a lot of them will just go back to Google and ring the next result.

The fix is simple. Put a tap-to-call button at the top of every page and keep it visible as they scroll. Test it yourself on your own phone. If you can't ring yourself in one tap, neither can a customer.

2. One "Services" page for everything

Someone searching "fuse board upgrade" or "flat roof repair" wants a page that answers exactly that. If all your work is crammed into one list on a single page, Google has nothing specific to show for each search, and the customer doesn't see their job in front of them.

Give each main job its own page: what it is, how it works, roughly how long it takes, the areas you cover and a clear way to get in touch. That's how a site starts to show up for the jobs you actually want. It's the same reason we build a page per job on every site we make. See what that looks like on our electricians, roofers and builders pages.

3. It's slow on mobile

Big uncompressed photos are the most common cause. A phone photo straight off the camera can be several megabytes, and putting six of them on a page makes it crawl on a normal 4G connection. Resize and compress every image before it goes up, and don't autoplay big videos on the homepage.

4. No proof you're the real deal

Customers are letting you into their home or onto their roof. They want to see that other people have trusted you first. That means:

• Real photos of your own work, not stock images
• Your Google reviews on the page, or at least a link to them
• Your registrations and insurance (RECI, Safe Electric, RGII, SEAI and so on, whichever apply to you)
• Your name, your area and a real face if you're comfortable with it

5. It doesn't say where you work

If a customer in Athlone can't tell whether you cover Athlone, they'll assume you don't. Say clearly which counties and towns you cover. If you travel, say how far. This also helps Google match you with people searching in those places.

6. The contact form goes nowhere

It sounds daft, but I've seen contact forms that send to an email address nobody checks anymore, or that quietly stopped working after a website update. Test your form every few weeks: fill it in with your own details and make sure it lands where you'll actually see it, ideally as a text or notification on your phone.

7. Nobody follows up

You're up a ladder or under a sink when the enquiry lands. By the time you ring back that evening, the customer has already booked someone else. The businesses that win the job are very often just the first to reply. An automatic reply that says "thanks, we'll be in touch shortly" the second a form is filled in makes a real difference, as long as you do actually call back the same day.

Where to start

If you only have time to fix one thing this week, make the phone number tappable on every page and test your contact form. Those two take ten minutes and cost nothing.

If you'd like someone to look at your site honestly and tell you what's holding it back, send us the address and we'll have a look, no strings. You can get in touch here or book a free 15-minute call.