The 2026 tradesman website buyer's checklist

A trade website either wins you work or quietly wastes your money, and the difference is rarely how it looks. It is whether it passes a short list of unglamorous checks: does it say what you do and where in plain words, does it load fast on a phone, does it turn up in a local search, and do you actually own it at the end. Most tradespeople judge a site on the hero photo and the colour scheme, which are the two things that matter least. This checklist is built the other way round, from what decides whether the site earns its keep. Run any site, or any quote, past the twenty-five checks below across four groups: content, technical, getting found, and the commercial terms. If it passes all four groups you have a site that pulls in enquiries. If it only passes the first, you have an expensive brochure. Print it, screenshot it, or keep it open on your phone while a designer talks you through their pitch.

The content checklist: does it say what you do?

The first group is content, and the test is whether a stranger and a search engine can tell within five seconds what you do and where, from plain text rather than a slogan over a photo.

Content is where most trade sites quietly fail, because they lead with a mood and hide the facts. The fix is to state the obvious, in words. Check for these:

• A headline that names the trade and the main area, for example "Electrician in Wakefield", not "Quality you can trust".
• A separate page for each main service you want work in, not three lines on the home page.
• A real page for your two or three most important towns, with genuine local detail.
• Photos of your own work, not stock images of other people's.
• Reviews shown on the page, with the customer's town and the job named.
• An obvious way to call or message, visible without scrolling on a phone.

For the full breakdown of every page and section a trade site should carry, our guide to what a tradesman website should include goes deeper than the checklist can here.

The technical checklist: is it fast and mobile?

The second group is technical, and it comes down to three non-negotiables in 2026: the site loads in a second or two, works properly on a phone, and runs on a secure HTTPS connection.

You do not need to read code to check the technical basics. You need a phone and thirty seconds. Test these on mobile data, not wifi, because that is how customers arrive:

• It loads in roughly a second or two, not a slow crawl with things jumping around.
• Text is readable without pinching, and buttons are big enough for a thumb.
• There is a tap-to-call button within easy reach.
• The address bar shows a padlock, meaning HTTPS, not a "Not secure" warning.
• Nothing is broken, cut off or overlapping when you rotate or scroll.

Speed and mobile are not vanity metrics. Google's page experience signals, set out in Google Search Central, rank a slow, clumsy mobile page below a fast one, so a technical fail is also a getting-found fail.

The getting-found checklist: will it rank?

The third group is whether the site can actually be found, and the test is simple: does it have local pages written in plain text, a linked and complete Google Business Profile, and a steady flow of genuine reviews, rather than a single home page and nothing else.

A beautiful site that never appears in a search is a business card in a drawer. Getting found is a job in its own right, and these are the checks that decide it:

• The service and town appear in plain text in the page title and top heading, not only in images.
• There is a genuine page for each key area, not one thin "areas we cover" list.
• A complete Google Business Profile is set up and linked, to win the map pack.
• Your business name, address and phone match exactly across the site, the profile and any listing.
• There is a plan for gathering reviews regularly, not a one-off burst.

Getting found is also what turns a website from a cost into a lead source. If you are thinking about the bigger picture of where work comes from, our rundown of the best ways to get trade customers in 2026 puts the website in context alongside every other route.

The commercial checklist: do you own it?

The fourth group is the commercial terms, and the one rule that matters most is ownership: the domain and the site should be in your name, with clear pricing and no per-lead or per-enquiry charge.

This is the group buyers skip and regret. A site can pass every other check and still be a bad deal if the terms quietly work against you. Confirm all of these in writing before you pay:

• The domain is registered in your name, with account access, so you can never be held to ransom over it.
• You own the finished site and could move it to another host if you ever needed to.
• The full monthly or one-off price is written down, with no vague "as needed" extras.
• There is no per-lead or per-enquiry fee, so a busy site never costs you more.
• You know exactly what edits cost, or that they are included.

Weigh any figure you are quoted against the real tradesman website cost so you can tell a fair price from a plucked one. A cheaper site you do not own is not a saving, it is a longer bill.

Putting the checklist to work

A trade website that passes all four groups, content, technical, getting found and commercial, is worth far more than a cheaper one that only looks the part, because only the full set turns a search into a phone call.

The point of a checklist is to stop you being sold on the one thing that is easy to show off, the visuals, and to make you check the four things that actually decide the outcome. A designer who welcomes these questions is usually one worth hiring. One who gets twitchy at "do I own the domain" has told you what you needed to know.

Looking the part is the start, not the finish

A smart design earns the first few seconds of trust, and that matters. But it is the getting-found and commercial checks that decide whether the site ever gets those seconds in front of a customer, and whether it pays you back. For how a well-built site does more than look good, see how a website wins higher-value jobs.

The bottom line

Do not buy a trade website on looks alone. Run it past the four groups, content, technical, getting found and commercial, and only pay for one that passes all four. That is the difference between a site that sits there and one that rings. For what it is worth, I build and host hand-coded trade sites from £50/month, done for you, designed to pass every check on this list: fast, mobile, local pages built in, the domain in your name, and no per-lead charges. I will show you a free mockup of your actual business before you pay a penny, usually live within a week, hosting, SSL and unlimited small edits included. Start at sitework.uk/#apply.