Website for tradesmen: what the template sellers do not tell you

A website for a tradesman is only worth paying for if it does three things a template cannot: catch the enquiry when you are up a ladder, rank for the towns next to the one you live in, and show the reviews a buyer checks before they call. Template sellers sell the look. The look is the cheap part. This guide sets out what each option actually delivers, in your money, so you can pick one without being sold to.

What a trades website is for

A website for tradesmen is a page or set of pages that turns a search into a phone call. That is the whole job. Not branding, not a portfolio, not a place to put your logo. A search happens, a stranger lands, and within a few seconds they either ring you or go back to Google and ring the next name.

Most template pitches skip that definition. They show you a mock-up of a van, a hero image and a "Get a quote" button, and they price the design. They do not price the enquiry. So the first thing to do is write down what one enquiry is worth to you, because that number decides everything below.

The problem in your money: a worked example

Take a plumber in Walton-on-Thames. A standard call-out sits between £80 and £150, so use £120 as a middle figure. This is an example; put your own numbers in.

Suppose a site that ranks in two neighbouring towns brings three extra enquiries a week on top of what you get now, and you win half of them. The arithmetic over a year is:

3 extra enquiries x 0.5 won x £120 call-out x 52 weeks = £9,360 a year

Now the roofer version. A new roof averages £8,000 (the real range runs from £4,000 to £19,000). One extra roof a quarter from a site that shows up in Weybridge and Esher as well as Shepperton:

1 roof x £8,000 x 4 quarters = £32,000 a year

Those are the stakes. Against them, the difference between a template and a built site is not the design fee. It is whether the site ranks in the towns you drive to, and whether the call gets answered when it comes. A beautiful template that only ranks for your business name and goes to voicemail while you are on site produces none of the £9,360.

Flip it too. A one-van plumber who is booked three weeks out on referrals gains nothing from three more enquiries a week. He would have to turn them away. For him the right spend is close to zero, and the honest options section below says so.

What the data says about trades websites in 2026

These are UK search volumes from Google Ads data, 2026 run-rate, checked on 13 October 2026.

Two things stand out. First, plumbers search for websites far more than roofers do. Roofers search for leads, and buy them, which is a different problem covered in the roofer page. Second, the page-one results for "website for plumbers" are not what you would expect. On 13 October 2026 they were a mix of plumbers' own sites (a Sheffield contractor, a Lewisham firm), Which? Trusted Trader, a plumber directory, Amazon's home services listing, a plumbing app on Google Play, a directory-sites list from a marketing firm, and one trades web design seller. Google is not sure whether you want a website built or a plumber found. That confusion is your opening: a plain, specific page beats a vague one.

The more useful numbers are the town searches, because they show where the work is. Nobody types "website for tradesmen in Shepperton". They type the trade and the town:

Read that table as a map. A plumber based in Shepperton has 28 searches a month on his doorstep and more than 500 a month fifteen minutes away in Woking. A single-page template that says "Shepperton" throughout is invisible to the Woking searcher. That is the first thing template sellers do not tell you, because the fix (one real page per town) is work, and work is not in the package.

On the supply side, a "web design" search in Google Maps from Shepperton on 13 October 2026 returned 15 designers within 5 km, several with more than 40 reviews. You will not struggle to get quotes. You will struggle to compare them, which is what the rest of this article is for.

The three things a template cannot do

1. Answer the phone

What it means: the site's job ends the moment it shows your number. If you are under a sink, the call rings out. How you know: pull up your call log for last week and count the missed calls from numbers you did not recognise. Why it matters: each one is a £120 call-out, or an £8,000 roof, that went to the next name on the list. The maths of that is set out in what missed calls really cost a plumber. A template has no answer to it. A built site can be wired to an automatic text back on every missed call, and to a receptionist, a service that picks up and books when you cannot, so the enquiry is caught rather than lost.

2. Rank in the next town

What it means: Google ranks pages, not businesses. If there is no page about Woking, you do not appear for "plumber woking". How you know: search it yourself in a private window and see who does. Why it matters: the table above. The towns around you hold ten to twenty times the searches your own town does. A template is one page with your town name in it. Adding more towns to the footer does nothing; Google treats a page that mentions six towns as a page about none of them.

3. Show real reviews

What it means: a buyer about to spend £8,000 on a roof checks you out. They want to see Google reviews with names, dates and job details, not three typed-in quotes with first names. How you know: look at your own behaviour when you hire anyone. Why it matters: reviews are the proof that converts a visitor into a caller, and the ones that carry weight sit on your Google Business Profile, not in a template's testimonial block. A built site pulls them in live. Most templates let you paste text, which looks exactly like what it is.

The three options, honestly

Option 1: a template site (a theme you fill in yourself, or a seller who fills it for you)

What it means: a pre-built design with your logo, colours, a services list and a contact form. Often sold with hosting bundled. How you know what you are getting: ask the seller to name one town search the site will rank for and to show you a live example that does. Most cannot. Where it falls down: one page, one town, no answering, pasted reviews. It ranks for your business name and little else. Who it is right for: a trade that gets its work by referral and wants somewhere respectable to send people who already have the number. For that job it is fine, and it is the cheapest route to "looking real".

Option 2: a directory profile only, no website at all

What it means: a complete Google Business Profile, the free listing that appears in Google Maps, plus a trade directory such as Checkatrade or Which? Trusted Trader, and no site of your own. How you know it works: the profile takes about half an hour to set up properly, and it shows your reviews, hours and a call button without a site behind it. Where it falls down: you rank only in Maps and only near your registered address, you cannot write a page for Woking, and the directories charge for leads they also sell to your competitors. Who it is right for: the one-van referral business above. If your diary is full, this is the honest answer, and it costs you nothing but an hour a month keeping the profile fresh.

Option 3: a built site with town pages, live reviews and the phone answered

What it means: a site designed around the enquiry. One genuinely written page for each town you want work from, Google reviews pulled in automatically, a number and a short form visible on a mobile without scrolling, and every missed call caught by a text back or a receptionist. How you know it works: it is measured. You see visits, calls and forms per town each month, and the sum from the worked example above becomes a number you can check. Where it falls down: it costs more than a template, it takes weeks not days, and it is wasted on a business that cannot take more work. Who it is right for: anyone who quotes jobs in the thousands, covers more than one town, and misses calls on site.

The recommendation

Bottom line: if you are full, choose option 2 and keep your money; if you want work from the towns next door and you miss calls on site, choose option 3 and judge it on enquiries, never on the design.

The reason is the arithmetic. A template saves you money on day one and earns none of the £9,360 in the plumber example, because it does not rank in Woking and it does not pick up. The built site pays for itself only if those two things are true for you. If they are, it is not a design purchase, it is a lead system, and the templates are not competing with it at all. If they are not, do not let anyone sell you option 3. The page at what we build for trades says the same thing: the site is one part, the answering is the other, and neither works alone.

How to do it this week

1. Price one enquiry. Write down your average job value. Plumber call-out: £80 to £150. New roof: £8,000 average. Then your close rate on enquiries that reach you. Multiply. That is the figure every quote gets judged against.
2. Count the leak. Open your phone's call log. Count missed calls from unknown numbers over the last 7 days. Multiply by the figure from step 1 and by your close rate. If that number is bigger than any website quote you have had, the phone is the problem, not the site.
3. Map your towns. List every town you have invoiced in the last 3 months. Count the jobs per town. Any town with three or more jobs earns its own page.
4. Check who ranks there now. Open a private browser window. Search "plumber" plus each town from step 3. Note the three businesses in the map results and the first three websites. Those are the pages you are competing with. If they are directories and national chains, a specific local page can beat them.
5. Fix the free listing first. Search your business name on Google while signed in, click "Edit profile", and check: correct category, every service-area town from step 3 added, phone number right, opening hours right, at least ten photos of real jobs. Then ask your last five customers for a Google review by sending them the "Ask for reviews" link from the same screen. Done looks like: your profile shows the right towns and at least ten reviews.
6. Catch the missed calls. Before any website spend, set up an automatic text back to every missed call so the enquiry gets a reply within a minute. The simplest version is a reply that says who you are, that you are on a job, and when you will ring back. Missed-call recovery explains the options from a free away message to a receptionist that answers and books.
7. Only then get quotes. Send each designer the town list and ask two questions: which of these towns will have its own page, and how will I see enquiries per town each month? A seller who answers both is quoting a lead system. A seller who answers neither is quoting a template, whatever the price.

Done looks like this: a number per enquiry, a count of missed calls, a town list, a complete Google profile, a text-back on missed calls, and at most two quotes that answer the two questions.

Mistakes we see

• Buying the design. Choosing between quotes on how the mock-up looks. Buyers in Woking never see the mock-up. They see a search result and a phone number.
• One page, six towns in the footer. It feels like coverage. Google reads it as a page about nowhere. One town per page, written for that town, or do not bother.
• Typed-in testimonials. "Great job, highly recommend. Dave, Chertsey." Nobody believes it. Pull Google reviews in live or leave the block out.
• Paying for a site while calls ring out. The site creates the call. If nobody picks up, you paid to generate a missed call. Fix the answering first; it is cheaper and it pays sooner.
• Not knowing who owns the domain. Some template packages register your domain in the seller's name. Check before you sign. Ask the seller, in writing, whose name the domain is registered in.

The decision

If you cover more than one town and you miss calls on site, I can map the towns around you with their real search numbers and show you where the enquiries would come from, before you spend anything on a site. Want that map for your trade and your postcode? If your diary is already full, say so, and I will tell you to keep your money and fix the free profile instead. Plumbers start here, roofers here, and everyone else here.