A full order book today doesn’t guarantee a full order book next year. Trade businesses that rely on word of mouth alone are leaving new work to chance — and the next generation of customers finds their electrician, roofer or plumber on Google. This guide covers what a trades website really needs, what it should cost, and the mistakes worth avoiding.
Referrals remain the best advertising in the trades — but they have changed. People used to ask a neighbour; today they google the recommended business before calling. If they find no website, or one from 2012 with a pixelated logo, they move on to the next result. The referral was wasted.
Urgent jobs are even clearer: a burst pipe, a broken heating system, storm damage. Nobody waits for a recommendation — they search "emergency plumber" plus their town, from their phone, often in the evening. If you don’t show up there, you simply don’t exist for those customers.
A good trades website is not a digital brochure — it is a tool for generating enquiries. The proven structure:
"Quality, reliability, customer satisfaction" — these words appear on tens of thousands of trades websites and say nothing. What prospects actually want to know: Do you handle exactly my problem? In my town? How fast? And do you seem trustworthy?
So write specifically: "Bathroom renovation in Dortmund and the surrounding area — from planning to the finished shower, usually within 2 to 3 weeks." Name the towns you serve, show real projects with key facts, and answer the questions people always ask on the phone anyway. That convinces customers — and this kind of concrete copy is exactly what Google rewards in local search.
The best-looking website is useless if nobody finds it. For trades, local search is what counts — and you have two levers. First, the free Google Business Profile: complete every field, choose the right category, upload real job-site photos regularly, and actively ask for a review after every completed job. A business with 50 good reviews beats one with three — almost every time.
Second, the website itself: one page per service, town names woven naturally into the copy, fast loading, flawless display on smartphones — over 60 percent of local searches come from mobile. Realistic timelines: the Business Profile often shows results after 4 to 8 weeks; website rankings take 3 to 6 months. Anyone guaranteeing position 1 in four weeks just wants your money.
There are three routes, each with honest pros and cons. DIY website builders (Wix, Jimdo and the like) cost 10 to 40 euros per month — but you do everything yourself: copy, images, technology, legal pages. Most trade businesses have neither the time nor the patience, and the results show it.
A traditional agency builds once for 3,000 to 8,000 euros. After that, maintenance, updates and security are your problem — or a paid extra. Many of these sites quietly go stale because nobody looks after them.
The subscription model spreads the cost: build, hosting, maintenance, updates and changes are bundled into one monthly rate — with us from 79 euros (Starter) to 299 euros (Premium) per month. For businesses without their own IT, this is often the most pragmatic route: you work on site, someone else keeps the website current. Run the numbers soberly: if the website brings just one additional job per month, it has already paid for itself in most trades.
We see these mistakes again and again — and every one of them costs enquiries:
Custom web design, German hosting, maintenance and personal support in one monthly package.
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