# TradesPlace — full content > We rebuild your existing website properly, free. See your new homepage in 48 hours and go live in 7 days, with no deposit and no obligation. - datePublished: 2026-09-08 - dateModified: 2026-09-12 This file is the complete, quotable version of https://tradesplace.co.uk/llms.txt: the same site, with the answers inlined rather than linked. Prices, plans, questions and page copy are generated from the same configuration the website renders from, so nothing here can disagree with a page. ## Facts Verified details, safe to quote verbatim. Every line here is generated from the same configuration the website and its structured data render from. - Legal entity: Aventura Labs Ltd, trading as TradesPlace, registered in England and Wales - Company number: 17437645 - Register entry: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/17437645 - Incorporated: 2026-09-05 - Registered office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, England, WC1N 3AX - Price: £49 (no VAT) per month (GBP), or £490 per year - Minimum term: none — cancel any time - Contact: support@tradesplace.co.uk ## The business TradesPlace is a UK-based web studio that designs, builds and hosts websites for independent trades and service businesses — plumbers, electricians, decorators, cleaners, window cleaners, salons and other local firms that rely on enquiries rather than online sales. We serve the United Kingdom, with localised sites in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian. Every engagement starts with a free tailored homepage concept, so a business can see the design direction before committing to anything. Contact: support@tradesplace.co.uk · https://tradesplace.co.uk/contact ## Pricing No setup fee, no minimum term, cancel any time. Prices exclude VAT. The same amounts apply in euros for EU markets. ### Essential — £49/month A proper website that works, looked after for you. Annual: £490/year (£98 saved). Included: - A complete website, built for you - Tailored desktop and mobile design - Enquiry form and click-to-call - Google Business connection - Reviews & gallery sections - Search-ready technical setup - Structured data (LocalBusiness) - Readable by AI assistants: llms.txt, schema and an open crawler policy - Hosting & SSL included - Security patches and uptime monitoring - Edit your own hours, prices, services, wording and photos - Monthly ROI report - Visitor stats without cookies or a consent banner Not included, quoted separately: - Content changes made for you (quoted) - New pages or sections - Form or integration updates - SEO or GBP edits No setup fee, ever — and you own the domain, site, content and reviews from day one. ## Frequently asked questions **Is the rebuild really free?** Yes. We rebuild your homepage from your own content and send it within 48 hours. There is no deposit and nothing to pay unless you decide to keep it. **What kind of websites do you build?** We specialise in professional brochure and lead-generation websites for UK service businesses. Ecommerce stores and custom web applications are outside this core offer. **How quickly can my website go live?** You see the rebuilt homepage within 48 hours. If you want the rest, most sites are live within 7 days of you approving it and supplying the remaining content. **What types of businesses do you work with?** Independent trades and service businesses: plumbers, electricians, decorators, cleaners, window cleaners, salons and other local firms that live on enquiries rather than online sales. **Do you build websites for businesses outside the UK?** Yes. We are a UK-based studio and also work with small businesses in Ireland, Spain, France, Portugal and Italy, with the site written in your market’s language. **Do I own my website and domain?** Yes. You own the domain, the site, the content and the reviews from day one. If you ever leave, it all goes with you. **Will my site show up when someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI for a local trade?** We cannot promise placement in anyone's AI answer, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What we can do is make your site readable: every page carries LocalBusiness structured data with your services and the areas you cover, your FAQ is marked up so it can be quoted, and the site publishes an llms.txt summary and a robots.txt that names the AI crawlers and lets them in. That is what an assistant needs in order to describe your business correctly rather than guess. **What happens to my domain and the DNS?** We handle it, and the domain stays registered in your name. Your current website keeps running the whole time we are building: the new site goes onto our hosting first and we check it is answering properly before anything points at it. Only then do we switch your domain over, so there is never a day when your site is down. **How much does a professional website cost for a small business?** £49 a month, with no setup fee and nothing to pay up front. That one price covers the build, hosting, SSL, backups, security updates and uptime monitoring. There is no cheaper tier to be upsold out of and no more expensive one to be pushed towards. **Am I tied into a contract?** No. £49 a month, cancel any time, with no minimum term and no exit fee. If you leave, the domain, site, content and reviews go with you, because they were yours from day one. Content changes are quoted separately. **I’m on Checkatrade. Do I still need a website?** Yes, and most members already have one, because the homeowner who finds you on a directory looks you up on Google next. A site you own also catches the customers who never open a directory. Keep the membership while the site ramps up, compare the cost per won job on both, and cut the loser. **I built my site on Wix or GoDaddy. Why change?** Because you are its administrator, and nobody is paying you for that. The renewals, the updates, the padlock, the form that stopped delivering: all yours, at 11pm. We take the whole job off you, and the rebuild looks like your business rather than the page you started from. Send us the address and judge it beside your own. **I already pay Yell or someone else for my website.** Then the question is what you own when that contract ends. With us the domain is registered in your name from day one, the whole site exports in one click, and there is no minimum term. If you are inside a contract, we build the new site now and it goes live the week the term ends, so you never pay twice and never have a day without a site. **What happens to my reviews if I leave a directory?** They stay on the directory, which is why we start before anything lapses. We run a review campaign to your past customers so the good ones land on your own Google Business Profile, where every customer looks and where nobody can take them from you. ## Who we build for ### Plumbers — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/plumbers Websites for plumbers that turn late-night searches into booked jobs Most plumbing work starts with a panicked search on a phone. Your website has one job in that moment: make you the obvious, trustworthy person to call. We build plumber websites around exactly that. What goes wrong today: - **Emergencies happen on mobile** A burst pipe at 11pm is searched on a phone, not a desktop. If your number is not tappable within one second of the page loading, the caller is already on a competitor’s site. - **Gas Safe means nothing if nobody can see it** Your registration is your strongest trust signal, but on most plumber websites it is buried in the footer or missing entirely. It belongs next to the phone number, with your registration number visible. - **Boilers and bathrooms are different customers** A boiler swap enquiry and a bathroom refit enquiry come from different searches with different budgets. One generic “services” page ranks for neither and converts neither. What a plumber's site needs: - **Emergency call button that follows the visitor** A sticky click-to-call header on mobile, with your hours honestly stated. If you genuinely answer 24/7, say so loudly; if you don’t, a fake promise costs you reviews. - **Gas Safe number where people actually look** Registration badge and number in the hero and next to every call-to-action, so the trust signal is present at the exact moment of decision. - **Separate pages for boilers, bathrooms and general plumbing** Each service gets its own page written around what customers actually search, so the right enquiry lands on the right page. - **An enquiry form that qualifies the job** Postcode, job type and a photo upload. You know before you ring back whether it is a washer or a re-plumb. **Do you understand what a plumbing website needs?** Yes — plumber sites are one of our core specialities. We build around emergency click-to-call, Gas Safe trust signals, and separate boiler, bathroom and general plumbing pages. You can see plumbing concept rebuilds in our portfolio. **Can you show my Gas Safe registration properly?** Yes. We place your Gas Safe badge and registration number in the header and next to every call-to-action, and link it to your entry on the Gas Safe Register so customers can verify it. **I get most work from word of mouth. Why do I need a website?** Because word of mouth now includes a search. When someone passes your name on, the next thing the customer does is look you up. A professional site confirms the recommendation; no site, or a dated one, quietly undoes it. ### Electricians — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/electricians Websites for electricians that make your qualifications do the selling Electrical work is a safety purchase — customers are choosing who they trust in their walls. A website that leads with your accreditations and real work wins jobs a cheap-looking site never sees. What goes wrong today: - **Customers can’t judge your work, so they judge your website** A homeowner cannot inspect a consumer unit installation, but they can tell a professional website from a neglected one in two seconds — and they assume your wiring matches your web presence. - **Landlord certificate work is searched by name** “EICR certificate” and “landlord electrical certificate” are searched with the exact intent to buy, often for multiple properties. Without a dedicated page, that recurring work goes to whoever has one. - **Accreditations hidden in a logo strip** NICEIC or NAPIT registration cost you real money and assessment. Squashed into a blurry footer strip, it does nothing. Placed properly, it is the reason you get picked. What a electrician's site needs: - **Accreditation badges at the point of decision** NICEIC, NAPIT, Part P — crisp, current and next to the phone number, not lost in the footer. - **A dedicated EICR and certificates page** Landlords search for certificates by name and often bring portfolios of properties. One clear page with what is included and how fast you can attend captures them. - **Photos of tidy work** A straight, labelled consumer unit photo sells better than any paragraph. We build a gallery that shows the neatness customers are actually paying for. - **Clear service area** The towns you cover, stated plainly — so the enquiries that arrive are ones you can actually take. **Can you build a page just for EICR work?** Yes, and we recommend it. Landlord certificate work is searched with clear buying intent and repeats annually. A dedicated page with what’s included, turnaround time and a simple booking form typically becomes an electrician’s best-performing page. **Will my NICEIC / NAPIT registration be shown?** Prominently. We place your accreditation badges in the header and beside every call-to-action, with your registration verifiable. It is the single strongest conversion signal an electrician has. **What if I do both domestic and commercial work?** We separate them. Commercial clients and homeowners look for different things — compliance and references versus reassurance and price clarity — so each gets its own page and its own enquiry route. ### Builders — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/builders Websites for builders that win the big jobs, not just the small ones An extension is a five-figure decision that a family researches for months. Your website is being compared against every other builder they shortlist — usually before you ever know they exist. What goes wrong today: - **High-ticket work means high scrutiny** Nobody books a £40,000 extension from a Facebook page. Customers shortlist two or three builders and quietly eliminate the ones whose web presence feels like a risk. - **Your best projects are invisible** The loft conversion you finished last month is your strongest sales tool, but it is sitting on your phone. Without structured project pages, every quote starts from zero trust. - **Tyre-kicker enquiries burn your evenings** A bare “contact us” form invites vague messages. You spend hours quoting jobs that were never real. What a builder's site needs: - **Project case galleries** Each significant project gets photos, scope and timeline — the evidence a serious customer is looking for when they compare shortlists. - **Your process, explained** Quote, schedule of works, payment stages, sign-off. Explaining how you work marks you out from every builder who won’t put it in writing. - **Insurance, guarantees and memberships** Public liability, structural guarantees, FMB or TrustMark if you hold them — stated clearly, because the customer’s biggest fear is the builder who disappears. - **A quote form that qualifies** Project type, rough budget band, timescale, postcode. Serious enquiries answer happily; time-wasters filter themselves out. **We’re booked months ahead. What’s the point of a website?** Full order books are exactly when to build the pipeline for the quieter season — and a strong website lets you be choosier, winning the well-funded jobs rather than whatever comes through. It also underwrites your quotes: customers accept higher prices from builders who look established. **Can you show our past projects properly?** Yes — project galleries are the heart of a builder’s site. Send us phone photos and a few lines per job; we turn them into structured project pages with scope, location and timeline. **Can the website reduce time-wasting enquiries?** Largely, yes. A quote form that asks project type, budget band and timescale filters out the vague enquiries before they reach your phone, and the ones that do arrive come pre-qualified. ### Roofers — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/roofers Websites for roofers in a trade where trust is everything Roofing customers are warier than any other trade’s — they’ve all heard the horror stories, and they can’t climb up to check the work. Your website has to do the trust-building before the first phone call. What goes wrong today: - **The rogue-trader stories poison the well** Every roofing customer has read about cowboys. A thin website with a mobile number and no address reads exactly like the thing they’ve been warned about — even when your work is excellent. - **Storm damage is urgent; a re-roof is researched** A leak after a storm needs a phone number now. A full re-roof gets weeks of comparison. One page trying to serve both serves neither. - **Your proof is on a roof nobody can see** Finished ridge lines, leadwork and flat-roof details are invisible from the street. If your photos aren’t on your website, your best work might as well not exist. What a roofer's site needs: - **Emergency repairs and planned work, separated** A repairs page built for speed — tap to call, response times — and re-roof pages built for research: materials, process, guarantees, photos. - **Job photo galleries, before and after** Real photos of your work, organised by job type. Drone shots if you have them — nothing sells a re-roof like the finished roof. - **Guarantees and insurance in writing** Workmanship guarantee, insurance-backed if offered, public liability. The customer’s fear is being left with a leak and a dead phone number; answer it on the page. - **A real identity** Named owner, base town, years trading, photo of the team or van. Roofing enquiries go to companies that look like they will still exist next winter. **Customers keep choosing cheaper quotes. Will a website help?** It’s often the deciding factor. When quotes differ, customers look for reasons to trust the higher one — guarantees in writing, real photos, an established web presence. A professional site is how the better quote justifies itself. **Can we show emergency availability?** Yes — a dedicated repairs section with tap-to-call and your genuine response times. We keep it honest: promising 24/7 and not answering does more damage than stating real hours. **We only have phone photos of jobs. Is that enough?** Usually, yes. Straight-on, well-lit phone photos of finished work present far better than stock imagery — customers can spot stock roofing photos instantly, and they trust real ones. ### Painters & Decorators — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/painters-and-decorators Websites for decorators where the finish does the talking Decorating is bought with the eyes. Customers don’t read paragraphs about your brushwork — they look at your finished rooms and decide in seconds. We build decorator websites as portfolios first. What goes wrong today: - **Galleries that undersell the work** Dark, cluttered photo dumps make careful work look average. A crisp, well-organised gallery makes average phone photos look professional — presentation is half the battle. - **Keyword-stuffed legacy sites** Many decorator sites were built in an era of stuffing every town name into every sentence. Google now punishes it, and customers find it spammy. Clean copy wins on both fronts. - **Interior and exterior are different seasons** Exterior work is searched in spring, interiors in autumn and before Christmas. A site that separates them captures both cycles instead of blurring them. What a painter and decorator's site needs: - **A portfolio-led homepage** Your best finished rooms above the fold, full-width and recent. The gallery is the pitch; everything else supports it. - **Interior and exterior pages** Separate pages, each with its own gallery and its own seasonal search traffic. - **Experience stated plainly** Years trading, the kinds of properties you work on, whether you handle wallpaper, spraying or period property work — the specifics that match you to the right jobs. - **A frictionless quote request** Rooms, rough timing, photos attached. Decorating quotes need a look either way; the form’s job is to start that conversation quickly. **My current site is old and stuffed with town names. Does it matter?** Yes — it now actively hurts. Search engines demote keyword-stuffed pages and customers read them as spam. We rebuild with clean, natural copy and let the gallery and genuine local signals do the ranking work. **Do I need professional photography?** No. Well-lit phone photos of finished rooms, taken straight-on in daylight, present excellently in a clean gallery. We’ll tell you exactly how to shoot them, and the site is built to make them look their best. **Can the site show both domestic and commercial decorating?** Yes, as separate sections — a homeowner choosing a living-room decorator and a facilities manager procuring a repaint look for different proof, so each gets its own page and enquiry route. ### Window Cleaners — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/window-cleaners Websites for window cleaners built around the round, not the one-off A window cleaning customer isn’t buying one clean — they’re choosing who turns up every month for years. Your website should make joining your round feel easy, reliable and obviously worth it. What goes wrong today: - **Quotes stall the sign-up** If getting a price means a phone call, most visitors leave. House size, frequency and postcode are enough to quote most domestic work — the form should capture exactly that and nothing more. - **Reliability is the real product** Everyone can clean glass. Customers switch window cleaners over missed visits and silence. A site that shows a professional operation — payment options, visit notifications, a real schedule — sells the reliability. - **Commercial work needs different proof** Shopfronts, offices and schools care about insurance, RAMS and invoicing — none of which belongs on the page selling a semi-detached house clean. What a window cleaner's site needs: - **Quote form above the fold** Property type, frequency, postcode — three fields to a price conversation. Every extra field costs sign-ups. - **Service plans, stated like a subscription** 4-weekly, 8-weekly, one-off. Clear pricing structure and what’s included: frames, sills, doors. Customers commit to plans they can understand at a glance. - **Before and after photos** Glass is the perfect before/after trade. A slider or paired shots prove the difference better than any copy. - **How you operate** Pure water poles, payment by GoCardless or bank transfer, text the night before — the operational details that signal you’re a business, not a bloke with a ladder. **Most of my round came from knocking doors. Why add a website?** Door-knocking builds the round; the website compounds it. New residents search when they move in, neighbours look you up after seeing the van, and a quote form fills gaps in the round without you knocking a single extra door. **Can customers request a quote without calling?** That’s the centrepiece: a short form — property type, frequency, postcode — sitting above the fold. You reply with a price and a start date, and the customer never had to make a phone call. **Do you handle gutter and fascia cleaning too?** We build pages for every service you offer — gutters, fascias, conservatory roofs, solar panels. Add-on services are where rounds grow their revenue, so each gets a clear page and price anchor. ### Double Glazing Installers — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/double-glazing Websites for double glazing firms competing with the nationals Your customers are comparing you against national brands with big ad budgets — and choosing local because they want a firm that answers the phone. Your website’s job is to look every bit as credible while staying every bit as local. What goes wrong today: - **High-ticket, long consideration** Windows for a whole house is thousands of pounds, researched over weeks. A thin website loses to the national’s polished one before you get to quote — even if your price would have won. - **Products need showing properly** Casement, sash, tilt-and-turn, composite doors, colour options, energy ratings — customers want to browse the range. No product pages means no shortlist place. - **FENSA buried, deposits feared** Certification and deposit protection answer the two biggest fears — non-compliance and losing money to a firm that folds. Most installer sites whisper both. What a double glazing installer's site needs: - **A product showcase** Window and door types with real photos, colours and energy ratings — structured so a customer can shortlist you the way they shortlist the nationals. - **FENSA / CERTASS front and centre** Certification, guarantee terms and deposit protection stated plainly. These close the trust gap with the big brands in one section. - **Installation galleries** Finished installations on real local houses — far more persuasive than manufacturer renders, because the customer’s house looks like these. - **A staged quote journey** Windows or doors, roughly how many, photos if easy — then a survey booking. Matching the customer’s pace beats a bare “request a callback”. **How do we compete with national installers online?** By matching their polish and beating them on locality. A credible product showcase gets you shortlisted; local installation photos, a named owner and a local reputation win the final decision. The nationals can’t fake local. **Can the site show our full product range?** Yes — structured product pages for each window and door type, with colours, glazing options and energy ratings. Customers research the product before they choose the installer; the range pages are what get you into the comparison. **We mostly get work from showroom visits and referrals. Why invest online?** Because referrals now check the website before they visit the showroom, and the site is the showroom for everyone too far to drop in. It works the same hours the nationals’ marketing does: all of them. ### Cleaning Companies — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/cleaners Websites for cleaning companies that customers trust with their keys Hiring a cleaner means letting a stranger into your home or premises. Price matters, but trust decides — and trust is built by a website that shows exactly who you are and exactly what a clean includes. What goes wrong today: - **“What do you actually clean?”** The most common cleaning dispute is mismatched expectations. Sites that hide behind “full professional clean” generate awkward conversations; sites with checklists generate confident bookings. - **The trust gap** Insured, DBS-checked, the same cleaner each visit — the questions every customer has and most websites never answer. Unanswered, they default to the company a friend used. - **Domestic and commercial mixed together** An office manager procuring a nightly contract and a homeowner booking a fortnightly clean need entirely different pages. Blending them makes you look like a specialist in neither. What a cleaning company's site needs: - **Service checklists** Exactly what a standard clean, deep clean and end-of-tenancy clean include — room by room. Checklists close bookings and prevent disputes. - **Trust signals answered in one section** Insurance, DBS checks, keyholding policy, whether it’s the same cleaner each time. One clear section that answers the questions customers are too polite to ask. - **Domestic and commercial, separated** Homeowners get warmth and checklists; businesses get contracts, RAMS and invoicing. Separate pages, separate enquiry routes. - **Instant contact, including WhatsApp** Cleaning is often booked from a school-run phone moment. A WhatsApp button alongside the form meets customers where they already are. **Can the website list exactly what’s included in each clean?** Yes — room-by-room checklists for each service level are the highest-converting content a cleaning site can have. Customers book with confidence and disputes about what was included largely disappear. **We’re a small team, not a franchise. Does that hurt us?** The opposite — if the site says it. “The same trusted cleaner every visit” is your advantage over the franchises, where customers never know who’s coming. We make the smallness a selling point. **Can customers reach us by WhatsApp?** Yes — we add a WhatsApp contact button alongside the enquiry form. For domestic cleaning especially, many customers prefer a quick message to a call or an email. ### Gardeners & Landscapers — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/gardeners-and-landscapers Websites for landscapers that capture the spring rush all year Landscaping enquiries explode in spring and the diary fills by June. A strong website banks that seasonal demand — and keeps maintenance work and winter projects flowing when the rush is over. What goes wrong today: - **Transformations nobody sees** A garden transformation is the most visual proof in any trade — and most of it is stuck on a phone. Before-and-after project pages are what turn browsers into serious enquiries. - **One-off projects vs weekly rounds** A patio build and a fortnightly mow are different businesses with different customers. One page for both means the maintenance round never grows and the project work looks casual. - **The seasonal cliff** When enquiries drop in autumn, the trades with websites keep winning hedge reductions, clearances and winter hard-landscaping. The ones without go quiet until March. What a gardener or landscaper's site needs: - **Before-and-after project pages** Patios, decking, planting schemes and full redesigns — each project with photos, scope and rough timescale, because garden customers buy the transformation. - **A maintenance round page** Regular mowing and garden care sold like the subscription it is: frequency options, what’s included, easy sign-up. - **Seasonal service pages** Hedge cutting, garden clearance, pressure washing, winter tidy-ups — pages that keep the enquiries coming outside the spring peak. - **An enquiry form with photo upload** A photo of the garden tells you more than any description. Photo upload plus postcode means you quote accurately, faster. **Our work is seasonal. Is a website worth it year-round?** Yes — that seasonality is the argument. The site captures more of the spring surge than you could by phone alone, and pages for autumn and winter services keep the diary moving through the months that used to be quiet. **Can you show garden transformations properly?** Before-and-after project pages are the core of a landscaping site. Send phone photos from start and finish; we present them as structured projects with scope and timescale, which is exactly the proof serious customers compare. **We want to grow the maintenance side. Can the site help?** Yes — a dedicated round page selling regular care as a simple subscription: frequencies, inclusions, price anchor and a short sign-up form. Recurring work grows quietly in the background while project enquiries come and go. ### Hair Salons & Barbers — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/hair-salons Websites for salons where booking is one tap away A salon website has one conversion: the booking. Everything on the page — the gallery, the price list, the team — exists to get a new client to tap “book” with confidence. What goes wrong today: - **Instagram isn’t a booking system** Your Instagram shows the work, but a new client still needs prices, opening hours and a way to book without a DM. The website is where a follower becomes a client. - **Out-of-date price lists** Nothing erodes trust like arriving to different prices than the website promised. A price list you can update yourself — or that we update same-day — is non-negotiable. - **Cluttered template sites** Salon websites on old Wix and Hibu templates bury the booking button under sliders and stock photos. Clean, fast and booking-first is what converts. What a salon's site needs: - **Booking as the primary button** Whether you use Fresha, Treatwell, Booksy or the phone — the booking action sits in the header and repeats through the page. - **A live price list** Services and prices by stylist level, kept current. Clients check prices before they book; stale prices cost walk-outs and reviews. - **A gallery of your actual work** Your cuts and colours, not stock imagery — pulled together with the styling that makes phone photos look editorial. - **The practical details, instantly findable** Opening hours, parking, exact location and your team. Salon visits are planned around real life; friction here loses bookings. **We take bookings through Fresha. Can the website connect to it?** Yes — whatever booking system you use (Fresha, Booksy, Treatwell or your own diary), the site’s booking buttons link straight into it. The website’s job is to get new clients to that button convinced. **Our prices change. Who keeps the website up to date?** We do — content updates are included in every plan, typically live the same working day. A price list the salon can trust to be current is one of the main reasons clients book without phoning first. **We already have a strong Instagram. What does a website add?** The website is where Instagram interest converts: prices, hours, location and the booking button in one place, plus visibility on Google where new clients actually search “hairdresser near me”. The two work together — the site links your feed, the feed links your site. ### Accountants — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/accountants Websites for accountants that start client relationships Choosing an accountant is choosing a long-term adviser. Prospective clients aren’t looking for cheap — they’re looking for a practice that feels competent, approachable and clear about what it charges. What goes wrong today: - **Every practice website says the same thing** “Proactive, friendly, tailored advice” — on every accountant’s site in the country. Specific services, specific clients served and specific fees are what make a practice stand out. - **Fee opacity loses the switchers** Businesses unhappy with their accountant are often unhappy about surprise bills. Fixed-fee packages, stated openly, are the single strongest message for winning them. - **No obvious next step** “Contact us” is a dead end. A free initial consultation, bookable from the page, gives a hesitant business owner a concrete, low-risk way to start. What a accountancy practice's site needs: - **Services by client type** Sole traders, limited companies, landlords, contractors — pages that speak to each, because a CIS subcontractor and a company director search for different things. - **Fixed-fee packages** Monthly packages with what’s included — accounts, VAT, payroll, self-assessment. Clarity on fees is the top switching trigger. - **A consultation journey** A free-consultation offer with a short form or calendar booking — the concrete first step that “contact us” never provides. - **Credentials and software** Qualifications and body memberships, plus Xero, QuickBooks or Sage logos — shorthand trust for the businesses already using them. **Our clients come from referrals. Do we need more than a basic site?** Referrals check you out online before they call — a dated site quietly undermines the recommendation. And a clear site with fixed fees and a consultation offer converts the referrals that would otherwise drift. **Should we publish our fees?** Publishing at least package pricing wins switchers: fee frustration is the top reason businesses change accountant, and the practice that’s open about pricing gets the benefit of that doubt. We’ll structure it so bespoke work still gets quoted individually. **Can the site work for both individuals and businesses?** Yes — with separate routes. Self-assessment clients and limited companies have different needs and different fee levels; each gets its own page, and the enquiry form routes them accordingly. ### Plasterers — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/plasterers Websites for plasterers that let the finish sell itself Plastering is bought on the strength of a finish nobody can describe in words. Your website’s job is to show it — flat, clean walls in decent light — before anybody asks what you charge a wall. What goes wrong today: - **Customers cannot tell good plastering from bad** Until it is painted, and by then it is too late. So they judge on everything else — how you answer the phone, and whether your website looks like someone who cares about a clean edge. - **Photographs of finished plaster are genuinely hard** A flat white wall shot badly looks like nothing at all. Most plasterers’ galleries are dark phone snaps that undersell work that was actually excellent, which is a website problem rather than a plastering one. - **Skimming, rendering and damp are different customers** A homeowner wanting one room skimmed and a landlord with a rendering job are different searches, different budgets and different worries. A single “services” page speaks to neither properly. What a plasterer's site needs: - **A gallery built for flat surfaces** Large images, raking light, and before-and-after pairs shot from the same spot. The layout is doing half the work: a finish shown small and dark looks like every other finish. - **Separate pages for skimming, rendering and damp** Each written around what that customer actually types and worries about, so the right enquiry lands on the right page already half-answered. - **Honest timings and mess, stated up front** How many days a room takes, how much dust there will be, when it can be painted. Answering this on the page wins the jobs where the customer was quietly dreading asking. - **An enquiry form that sizes the job** Room count, ceilings or walls, new or re-skim, and a photo upload. You can price most of it before you ring back. **Will my plastering photos actually look good on the site?** That is largely a layout problem and we treat it as one — big images, generous space, before-and-after pairs shot from the same position. We will also tell you plainly which of your photographs are worth using and how to take better ones with the phone you already have. **Should I have separate pages for skimming and rendering?** Yes. They are different searches from different customers with different budgets, and one combined page competes for neither. Three to four service pages is the sweet spot for most plastering businesses. **I mostly work for builders, not homeowners. Do I need a website?** Trade customers check you up just as homeowners do, and often more carefully — a builder putting you in front of their own client wants to see the standard first. A site aimed at trade work looks different from one aimed at homeowners, and we build for whichever you actually want. ### Tilers — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/tilers Websites for tilers, where the portfolio does the quoting Tiling is chosen on looks and trusted on precision. A site that shows your cuts, your levels and your grout lines at a size people can actually see will win work from a cheaper quote with a thumbnail gallery. What goes wrong today: - **Your work is visual and your website is not showing it** Most tilers’ sites reduce beautiful work to postage-stamp thumbnails in a grid. The detail that justifies your price — a mitred corner, a level floor, a clean silicone line — is invisible at that size. - **Customers arrive with a picture, not a specification** They have seen a bathroom they like and have no idea what it involves. A site that answers the obvious questions before the call turns a vague enquiry into a serious one. - **Price per square metre invites the wrong comparison** Quoting by the metre on the page puts you next to whoever quotes lowest, on a job neither of you has seen. Showing the standard first changes what the number is compared against. What a tiler's site needs: - **A gallery that shows the detail** Full-width images with close-ups of the cuts and edges, grouped by room type. This is the page that wins the job, so it gets the space. - **Pages for bathrooms, kitchens and floors** Three different customers with three different budgets and three different searches. Each gets a page written around what they are actually looking for. - **The practical answers, before the call** How long a bathroom takes, whether you remove the old tiles, whether you supply materials, whether you work with the customer’s own. Answering these converts browsers into callers. - **A form that takes measurements and photos** Room, rough size, tile type if known, and a picture of the space. Half the quote is done before you arrive. **Can you make my tiling photos look as good as the work?** Usually, yes — most tiling photographs are let down by being shown too small rather than by being bad. We build the gallery around large images and close-ups of the detail, and we will tell you which shots are worth taking again. **Should I put my prices on the website?** A rate per square metre invites customers to compare you with the cheapest quote on a job nobody has seen. A guide price range with what it includes, placed after the gallery, works better — you are then compared on the standard as well as the number. **Do I need separate pages for bathrooms and kitchens?** Yes, if you want to be found for both. They are separate searches from customers with different concerns, and a combined page ranks for neither as well as a specific one ranks for its own. ### Carpenters and joiners — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/carpenters-and-joiners Websites for carpenters and joiners that justify a bespoke price Bespoke joinery competes with flat-pack, and the comparison is only unfair if nobody can see the difference. Your website is where the difference gets shown — grain, joints, fit — before the price is mentioned. What goes wrong today: - **You are being compared with a flat-pack price** A customer pricing fitted wardrobes has a number in their head from a showroom. Without seeing what made-to-measure actually looks like in a real house, your quote is just a bigger number. - **“Carpenter” covers five different businesses** Fitted furniture, staircases, second fix on new builds, kitchen fitting and general repairs are different customers entirely. A site that lists all five equally tells each of them you are not quite the specialist they want. - **Bespoke work has no price anchor** Customers cannot guess what a staircase costs, so many never ask. Giving an honest indication of range on the page removes the fear that stops the enquiry. What a carpenter's site needs: - **A portfolio organised by what people search for** Fitted wardrobes, staircases, alcove units, kitchens — each with its own page and its own photographs, rather than one gallery of everything you have ever made. - **Detail shots that show the joinery** The close-up of a joint, a soft-close drawer, a scribed edge against an uneven wall. These are what separate you from a flat-pack fitter, and they belong on the page at a size people can see. - **An honest price range with what drives it** A range, and the three things that move it — size, timber, finish. Customers who were too embarrassed to ask now know whether to. - **The process, in four or five steps** Measure, design, make, fit. Bespoke work is a commitment, and showing how it goes removes most of the reason people hesitate. **I do everything from decking to fitted kitchens. How should the site handle that?** By leading with the two or three you most want more of, each with its own page, and covering the rest honestly further down. A site that presents five specialities equally reads as a generalist to every one of those customers. **Should I show prices for bespoke work?** A range rather than a figure, with the factors that move it. Most customers have no idea whether a fitted wardrobe is £800 or £8,000, and that uncertainty stops more enquiries than a high price does. **How many photos do I need?** Fifteen to twenty good ones beat sixty average ones. What matters is that each main service has several, including at least one close-up of the detail that a flat-pack version would not have. ### Locksmiths — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/locksmiths Websites for locksmiths that win the call at two in the morning Nobody browses for a locksmith. They are standing outside in the cold with a phone on twelve per cent, and the site that gets the call is the one that answers three questions in the first second: are you local, are you real, and how fast. What goes wrong today: - **You are competing with national call-centres** Much of the top of a lockout search is booking services with no locksmiths of their own, subcontracting to whoever answers. Being visibly local, named and accountable is your advantage — if the site makes it obvious immediately. - **Customers have been frightened by pricing stories** Everyone has heard about the £300 lockout. A locksmith who states a call-out charge plainly on the page wins the call from three who do not, before any of them has quoted. - **It is an emergency on a dying phone** Every second between landing and dialling is a risk. A heavy page, a cookie banner over the number, a form where a phone number should be — each one loses a job that was already yours. What a locksmith's site needs: - **A number that is the first thing on the page** Large, tappable, above everything else, on every page, with your response time next to it. Nothing is allowed in front of it. - **An honest call-out price, stated** A figure or a clear range for a standard lockout, and what changes it. This single element converts better than anything else on a locksmith’s site. - **Credentials and DBS, next to the number** MLA approval, DBS checks, insurance, and the fact that you are a named local person rather than a switchboard. This is a stranger being let into a house at night. - **The towns you genuinely reach, and how fast** Stated in plain English. A customer twenty miles away needs to know now, not after a phone call neither of you needed. **Should I publish my call-out price?** For emergency work, yes — it is the strongest thing you can put on the page. The fear of being overcharged is the main reason a locked-out customer hesitates, and a plainly stated charge removes it while your competitors are still saying “call for a quote”. **How do I compete with the national lockout companies?** By being visibly the opposite of them: your name, your face, your town, your accreditation and a real local number. Those companies win on ad spend, and they lose the moment a customer realises they are booking an unnamed subcontractor. **Do I need more than a one-page site?** Emergency lockouts are the priority, but lock changes, uPVC repairs, safes and security upgrades are separate searches worth their own pages — and they are better-paid, planned work rather than 2am call-outs. ### Driveway and paving specialists — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/driveways-and-paving Websites for driveway and paving firms that answer the doubt first Driveways are a large, visible, one-off purchase in a trade with a reputation problem it did not choose. The website that wins is the one that deals with that head-on — real completed work, a real address, and a price that is explained rather than quoted at the door. What goes wrong today: - **The rogue-trader worry is the first thing in their mind** Doorstep driveway scams get national coverage every summer, and every legitimate firm pays for it. Your site has to establish that you are established before it does anything else. - **Block paving, resin and tarmac are different decisions** Customers are usually choosing between surfaces, not just contractors. A site that explains the trade-offs honestly gets the enquiry from the one that just lists them. - **It is a big number with no reference point** Most people have never bought a driveway and have no idea whether £4,000 is fair. Without a guide on the page, many never enquire at all rather than risk looking foolish. What a driveway specialist's site needs: - **Before-and-after pairs from the same angle** The single most persuasive thing a driveway firm can publish, and the thing customers actually scroll for. Shot from the same spot, at the same time of day, in quantity. - **A surface comparison, written honestly** Block paving against resin against tarmac: cost, lifespan, maintenance, drainage. Being straight about where each one loses is what makes the rest believable. - **Proof you are not a doorstep operation** Trading address, company number, years established, insurance, guarantee terms, and a named person. All of it above the fold, not in a footer. - **Guide pricing by size, and what moves it** A range per square metre with the factors — excavation, drainage, edging, access. Enough for a customer to know whether to ring. **How do I show customers I am not a doorstep trader?** With the things a doorstep trader cannot produce: a real trading address, a company number, insurance details, written guarantee terms, years established, and a large body of your own completed local work. Put them near the top, because that is where the doubt is. **Should I put driveway prices on my website?** A guide range by size, with what moves it. Driveways are one of the purchases people most fear being overcharged for, and a firm that explains its pricing gets enquiries from customers who were too uncertain to ring anyone else. **Do I need pages for each surface type?** Yes — "resin driveway" and "block paving" are different searches by customers at different stages, and a page that explains one surface properly will out-rank and out-convert a page that lists four. ### Kitchen and bathroom fitters — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/kitchen-and-bathroom-fitters Websites for kitchen and bathroom fitters that get shortlisted A kitchen or bathroom is the biggest disruption most households will invite in voluntarily. They are not buying tiles and units — they are buying confidence that you will finish, and finish well. That is what the site has to establish. What goes wrong today: - **The fear is not the price, it is the mess and the overrun** Everybody knows somebody whose kitchen took eleven weeks. A site that states realistic timescales and what happens if something slips answers the worry that is actually stopping the call. - **“Do you supply or just fit?” is asked on every enquiry** It is the first question on the phone every time, which means it belongs on the page. Answering it up front removes a round of calls and filters out the wrong customers. - **Your finished rooms are shown too small to sell** A fitted bathroom is a space, and spaces need width. A thumbnail grid turns your best work into wallpaper and gives the customer nothing to imagine themselves in. What a kitchen and bathroom fitter's site needs: - **Full-width finished rooms, grouped by project** Several images of the same room rather than one each of twenty. A customer wants to walk around one finished job, not glance at a catalogue. - **A plain answer on supply and fit** Whether you supply units, whether you fit customer-bought kitchens, which suppliers you work with, and what you will not fit. High on the page, in plain words. - **Honest timescales and what disruption looks like** How many days without a kitchen, whether the water goes off, when the mess is worst. Saying it first is what separates you from the quote that goes quiet in week three. - **A form that captures the room and the stage** Room, rough size, whether they have a design yet, and photographs. You know before you ring whether it is a quote or a conversation. **Should the site say whether I fit customer-supplied kitchens?** Yes, prominently. It is the first question on nearly every enquiry call, and answering it on the page saves you time and filters out the customers you would have turned down anyway. **How many photographs of one kitchen should I show?** Four to six of the same room beats one each of six rooms. Customers are trying to picture the finished thing in their own house, and that takes more than one angle. **Should kitchens and bathrooms have separate pages?** Yes. They are different searches, different budgets and often different customers, and a combined page competes properly for neither. ### Tree surgeons — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/tree-surgeons Websites for tree surgeons that lead with insurance and qualifications A customer hiring a tree surgeon is letting someone drop heavy timber near their house, their car and their neighbour’s conservatory. The whole decision turns on whether you are properly qualified and properly insured — so that is what the site says first. What goes wrong today: - **The insurance question decides the job** Every serious customer asks about public liability, and many have been told a horror story first. A site that states the cover and the qualifications up front has won the comparison before the quote. - **Storm work arrives as an emergency, on a phone** A limb through a fence at seven in the morning is a call, not a browse. If the site is slow or the number is buried, the next arborist gets it. - **TPOs and conservation areas frighten people off** Customers do not know whether they are allowed to touch their own tree, and many do nothing rather than find out. A page that explains it plainly turns a worry into an enquiry. What a tree surgeon's site needs: - **Qualifications and cover, in the hero** NPTC and City & Guilds tickets, Arboricultural Association membership if you hold it, and your public liability figure stated as a number. Next to the phone number, not in the footer. - **An emergency and storm-damage route** A clearly separate path for urgent work, with honest hours and response times, and a tappable number that follows the visitor down the page. - **A plain-English page on TPOs and conservation areas** What they are, how to check, who applies, and how long councils take. It is the most-searched question in the trade and almost nobody answers it properly. - **Before-and-after work, with the site left tidy** Crown reductions and fellings shown as pairs — and a photograph of the cleared site afterwards, because “will you take it all away?” is the second question on every call. **What should a tree surgeon put on the homepage?** Your NPTC qualifications, your public liability cover as an actual figure, a tappable phone number, and a before-and-after photograph of your own work. Those four answer what a customer is really deciding, which is whether this is safe. **Should I explain tree preservation orders on my site?** Yes — it is one of the most searched questions in the trade and one of the least well answered. A clear page on TPOs and conservation areas brings in customers who were not going to ring anybody until they understood where they stood. **How do I get storm-damage work?** Be findable and reachable within the first hour. That means a fast site, an emergency route that is obvious on a phone, a Google Business Profile with honest hours, and a number you actually answer at seven in the morning. ### Fencing and decking installers — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design-for/fencing-and-decking Websites for fencing and decking firms built for the week after a storm Fencing demand arrives in bursts — the morning after high winds, and the first warm weekend of spring. A site that loads fast, prices plainly and answers the boundary question wins a disproportionate share of both. What goes wrong today: - **Demand is seasonal and it arrives all at once** The morning after a storm you get a month of enquiries in a day. Whether you capture them depends on how quickly the site answers and how easily someone can send you a photograph of the damage. - **“Whose fence is it?” stops the enquiry** Customers do not know whether the boundary is theirs, and many delay rather than ask. Answering it on the page converts hesitation into a call. - **Pricing per panel invites a race to the bottom** A bare price per panel puts you next to the cheapest quote in the county, on a job with different ground, different access and different posts. Explaining what moves the number changes the comparison. What a fencing installer's site needs: - **A storm-damage route that works on a phone** An obvious path for urgent repairs, with a form that takes a photograph of the damage and a postcode. Half the quoting is done before you drive anywhere. - **Guide prices per metre, with what changes them** Closeboard against panel against composite, and the factors — ground conditions, access, concrete or timber posts, removing the old fence. Enough for a customer to know if you are in their range. - **A plain answer on boundaries and neighbours** How to work out whose fence it is, what to do about a shared one, and how you handle it when the neighbour is involved. Nobody else in the trade writes this page. - **Finished runs, not close-ups of panels** A whole garden with a new fence around it, shot the length of the run. That is what a customer is buying, and it is what a panel close-up fails to show. **How do I handle the rush after a storm?** With a site that loads fast on mobile data, an obvious emergency repair route, and a form that takes a photo and a postcode so you can triage without a site visit. The firms that win storm work are the ones that answer the same day, not the ones that quote lowest. **Should I put fencing prices on my website?** A guide range per metre by fence type, with the four or five things that move it. A bare price per panel invites a comparison with jobs that are not the same job; a range with reasons starts a conversation instead. **Is it worth writing about boundary ownership?** Yes. It is one of the most common searches in the trade, almost nobody answers it properly, and the customer reading it has a damaged fence and no idea what to do next. That is exactly the enquiry you want. ## Towns we have built for (UK) ### Reading, Berkshire — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design/reading Website design for Reading trades and service businesses Reading is a crowded market — whatever your trade, a customer searching for it here gets pages of choices. The businesses that win the click look established, load fast and make calling effortless. Reading is in our portfolio directly: a full concept build for a plumbing and heating firm, where the phone number is the hero and the whole page is shaped around the 2am burst pipe rather than the browser. It is a complete working demo — open it and judge the standard your own rebuild would meet. **Do you work with businesses anywhere in Reading?** Yes — central Reading and the whole surrounding area: Woodley, Earley, Tilehurst, Caversham, Calcot and out to the villages. We’re a UK-based studio and everything is handled by phone, email and screen-share, so there’s no callout radius. **Will my website mention the Reading areas I cover?** Naturally, yes — your service area is written into the site properly (not stuffed into every sentence, which search engines now punish). If you serve specific neighbourhoods or nearby towns, the site says so where it counts. ### Bracknell, Berkshire — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design/bracknell Website design for Bracknell trades and service businesses Bracknell’s trades compete with both local rivals and Reading-based firms pushing east. A professional website keeps the local advantage local — your name, your area, your reviews, one tap from a call. Bracknell itself is not in the portfolio yet — the nearest concept builds are a domestic cleaning business in Wokingham and a plumbing and heating firm in Reading, both a few miles up the road. Each is a complete working demo: open either and see the standard your own rebuild would meet. **Do you cover the towns around Bracknell too?** Yes — Sandhurst, Crowthorne, Binfield, Warfield, Ascot and across the borough. Wherever your round or service area runs, the site is written around it. **Can I see an example for my trade before committing?** Better — we’ll build one for you. Send your current website address and we rebuild your homepage free within 48 hours, so the example you judge is your own business, not someone else’s. ### Wokingham, Berkshire — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design/wokingham Website design for Wokingham trades and service businesses Wokingham customers skew careful: they read reviews, compare websites and choose the business that looks like it will still be trading next year. A dated site fails that test before you get a chance to quote. Our Wokingham concept build is a domestic cleaning business: a light, checklist-led site that puts what is included and the price per visit on the page, and asks for three fields rather than ten. It is a real working demo, and the same care goes into every trade we build for. **Do you only work with cleaning firms in Wokingham?** No — the cleaning business is simply our Wokingham concept so far. We build for plumbers, electricians, decorators, salons, accountants and most local service businesses across Wokingham, Winnersh, Finchampstead and the surrounding villages. **How does the free homepage rebuild work?** Send us your current website address. We check it by hand, rebuild your homepage properly around what you actually do, and email you the working link within 48 hours. No deposit, no obligation — you only pay if you decide to go live with us. ### Newbury, Berkshire — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design/newbury Website design for Newbury and West Berkshire trades West Berkshire trades live on reputation — many have decades behind them. The websites rarely show it. Bringing a long-established business’s web presence up to the standard of its work is exactly what we do. Newbury is in our portfolio directly: a full concept build for a double glazing installer, written for a purchase people think about for months — product photography at scale, the guarantee where nobody can miss it, and a survey to book instead of a salesperson to dodge. Open it and see the standard. **We’ve traded for decades without much of a website. Why now?** Because your next generation of customers checks online first, even when they got your name from a neighbour. A professional site makes forty years of reputation visible to people who weren’t here for it — and it’s the longest-established firms that benefit most. **Which areas around Newbury do you cover?** All of West Berkshire — Thatcham, Hungerford, Kintbury, Lambourn, the Downs villages — and everything is handled remotely by phone and email, so distance never matters. ### Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design/henley-on-thames Website design for Henley-on-Thames businesses Henley customers are not usually shopping on price, which changes what a website has to do. It has to look like the sort of firm they already expected to hire — before anybody discusses a quote. Our portfolio includes a full concept build for a Henley-on-Thames practice: an editorial, typography-led site for an accountancy firm, designed for a considered purchase rather than an urgent one. It is a complete working demo — open it and judge the standard your own rebuild would meet. **Do you work with businesses across Henley and the surrounding villages?** Yes — Henley itself and the villages around it: Shiplake, Remenham, Hambleden, Nettlebed, Sonning Common and across the bridge into Berkshire. We are a UK-based studio working by phone, email and screen-share, so there is no callout radius. **Henley customers expect a certain standard. Can you meet it?** That is precisely the point of the free rebuild — you see the design before you commit to anything. Our Henley concept work is deliberately restrained and typography-led rather than templated, because that is what the market here responds to. ### Basingstoke, Hampshire — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design/basingstoke Website design for Basingstoke trades and service businesses Basingstoke is a big town with a lot of trades in it, and most of them are competing on the same searches. The ones that win the click look established, load fast on a phone and make calling effortless. Basingstoke is in our portfolio directly: a full concept build for a north Hampshire roofing contractor, designed around the survey rather than the sell, with the guarantee and the insurance cover carrying a page that has no photography on it at all. Open it and see the standard. **Do you cover the whole Basingstoke area?** Yes — the town and the surrounding area: Chineham, Old Basing, Overton, Whitchurch, Tadley, Hook and out to the villages. Everything is handled by phone, email and screen-share, so there is no travel limit. **Will my website mention the Basingstoke areas I cover?** Yes, written into the site properly rather than stuffed into every sentence, which search engines now punish. If you serve specific areas or neighbouring towns, the site says so where it counts. ### Maidenhead, Berkshire — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design/maidenhead Website design for Maidenhead trades and service businesses Maidenhead trades compete with firms pushing out from Reading and Slough on both sides. A professional website is what keeps the local advantage local — your name, your area, your accreditations, one tap from a call. Maidenhead is home ground for one of our portfolio concepts: an electrical contractor’s site built around the accreditation numbers, where every service names the certificate it ends with. It is a complete working demo, and it shows exactly how we handle a trade that is bought on trust rather than on looks. **Do you cover Maidenhead and the surrounding villages?** Yes — Maidenhead, Cookham, Bray, Taplow, Holyport, Furze Platt and across to Marlow and Windsor. We work by phone, email and screen-share, so there is no callout radius. **My trade is bought on trust, not on looks. Does design still matter?** It matters differently. For an accredited trade the job of the design is to make your credentials impossible to miss and easy to verify, not to be decorative — which is exactly how our Maidenhead concept is built. ### Slough, Berkshire — https://tradesplace.co.uk/website-design/slough Website design for Slough trades and service businesses Slough is dense, competitive and full of good trades who are invisible online. A website that loads fast, says plainly what you do and where, and puts your reviews next to the phone number is most of the advantage. Our portfolio includes a full concept build for a Slough decorating firm: an editorial, all-serif layout where the preparation is the pitch and the price is the last thing mentioned — the deliberate opposite of the emergency-first sites elsewhere in the portfolio. Open it and judge it for yourself. **Do you work with businesses across Slough?** Yes — central Slough and the whole surrounding area: Langley, Datchet, Iver, Burnham, Stoke Poges, Eton and out towards Windsor. Everything is handled remotely, so there is no travel limit. **There are a lot of trades competing in Slough. What actually makes a difference?** Being the one that loads instantly on a phone, states the trade and the area in the first sentence, and shows real reviews beside the call button. Most local competitors fail at least one of those, which is a larger advantage than it sounds. ## Switching from a directory, a builder or a managed provider Honest pages for businesses already paying somebody for their web presence. Index: https://tradesplace.co.uk/switching-from ### Checkatrade (Lead directories) — https://tradesplace.co.uk/switching-from/checkatrade On Checkatrade? Keep it for now. Own the next lead. Checkatrade is where a lot of trades get their first customers, and nobody here will tell you to cancel it tomorrow. The question is what you own at the end of the year: a membership, or a website with your name on the domain, your reviews on your own Google profile, and every enquiry it brings coming to you alone. What you have today: - **A membership plus a fee per lead** Tradespeople report paying £80 to £100 a month for a typical membership, £100 to £300 when active, more in cities, with a lead fee of £5 to £40 on top. The bill arrives whether the lead becomes a job or not. - **Leads shared with the firms beside you** The homeowner who posts a job hears from several members. You are one quote among a handful, and the quickest reply often wins rather than the best fit. - **Reviews that stay on the platform** Ten years of five-star feedback builds Checkatrade’s page, not yours. Leave, and the customer looking you up on Google finds a profile with less on it than you have earned. What changes with a site you own: - **Every enquiry is yours alone** A customer who finds your site and calls has chosen you. There is no shortlist and nobody else quoting for the same job. - **Reviews build where they travel with you** We point the review request at your Google Business Profile. It is yours, it is what customers check first, and it goes with you whatever else you subscribe to. - **One fixed price, whatever comes in** The plan is one price a month with no fee per lead and no minimum term. Fifty enquiries cost the same as five. - **Your domain, in your name** The domain is registered to you from day one and everything on the site exports in one click. No company stands between you and your own customers. What does not change: Keep your Checkatrade account while the site ramps up. Run both for six months, compare the cost per won job on each (the calculator below is for exactly that), and cut whichever one loses. If the account still earns its keep, keep it: the site is not asking you to choose, it is giving you something that is yours either way. **Do I still need a website if I am on Checkatrade?** Yes, and most members already have one, because the homeowner who finds you on Checkatrade looks you up on Google next. A dated site, or none, undoes the profile. A site you own also works for the customers who never open a directory at all. **What happens to my reviews if I leave?** They stay on the directory. That is why we start the review campaign before anything lapses: a request to your past customers so the good ones land on your own Google Business Profile, where every customer looks and where nobody can take them from you. **Is this cheaper than what I pay now?** Only you can say, because only you know your membership, your lead fees and how many of those leads become jobs. Put your own numbers into the calculator on this page and set the result beside the plan price. The site is one fixed price a month, with no fee per enquiry. ### MyBuilder (Lead directories) — https://tradesplace.co.uk/switching-from/mybuilder On MyBuilder? Stop paying per shortlist for jobs you did not win. MyBuilder charges when you express interest, not when you win. A website you own costs the same every month, and every enquiry it brings is yours to quote alone. What you have today: - **A fee every time you are shortlisted** Tradespeople report £5 to £35 or more per shortlist, and £100 to £200 a month in competitive areas. The fee is paid to be considered, not to be chosen. - **Three to five trades quoting the same job** Each posting goes to a handful of members. Your quote is compared line by line against the others before the homeowner has spoken to anyone. - **A profile you rent** Your reviews, your photos and your history live on MyBuilder’s pages. They are visible for as long as you pay. What changes with a site you own: - **Every enquiry is yours alone** A customer who finds your site and calls has chosen you. There is no shortlist and nobody else quoting for the same job. - **Reviews build where they travel with you** We point the review request at your Google Business Profile. It is yours, it is what customers check first, and it goes with you whatever else you subscribe to. - **One fixed price, whatever comes in** The plan is one price a month with no fee per lead and no minimum term. Fifty enquiries cost the same as five. - **Your domain, in your name** The domain is registered to you from day one and everything on the site exports in one click. No company stands between you and your own customers. What does not change: Keep your MyBuilder account while the site ramps up. Run both for six months, compare the cost per won job on each (the calculator below is for exactly that), and cut whichever one loses. If the account still earns its keep, keep it: the site is not asking you to choose, it is giving you something that is yours either way. **Can I keep using MyBuilder alongside a website?** Yes, and we suggest you do for the first six months. The site does not compete with the account; it gives you a place of your own to send the customers you win, and a source of enquiries that costs the same whether it brings one or twenty. **What happens to my reviews if I leave?** They stay on the directory. That is why we start the review campaign before anything lapses: a request to your past customers so the good ones land on your own Google Business Profile, where every customer looks and where nobody can take them from you. **Is this cheaper than what I pay now?** Only you can say, because only you know your membership, your lead fees and how many of those leads become jobs. Put your own numbers into the calculator on this page and set the result beside the plan price. The site is one fixed price a month, with no fee per enquiry. ### Rated People (Lead directories) — https://tradesplace.co.uk/switching-from/rated-people On Rated People? Own the enquiry, not the shortlist. Rated People sells you a place on a shortlist. A website you own sells nothing: the customer who finds it has already picked you. What you have today: - **A monthly fee plus a fee per lead** Tradespeople report around £30 to £35 a month plus £2 to £65 per lead, paid on the lead rather than on the job. - **Up to three trades per job** Rated People says a lead goes to at most three trades. It is still a comparison you are in, not a call you have won. - **Reviews that stay on the platform** The rating in the name is theirs. Leave, and the customer looking you up on Google finds a profile with less on it than you have earned. What changes with a site you own: - **Every enquiry is yours alone** A customer who finds your site and calls has chosen you. There is no shortlist and nobody else quoting for the same job. - **Reviews build where they travel with you** We point the review request at your Google Business Profile. It is yours, it is what customers check first, and it goes with you whatever else you subscribe to. - **One fixed price, whatever comes in** The plan is one price a month with no fee per lead and no minimum term. Fifty enquiries cost the same as five. - **Your domain, in your name** The domain is registered to you from day one and everything on the site exports in one click. No company stands between you and your own customers. What does not change: Keep your Rated People account while the site ramps up. Run both for six months, compare the cost per won job on each (the calculator below is for exactly that), and cut whichever one loses. If the account still earns its keep, keep it: the site is not asking you to choose, it is giving you something that is yours either way. **Do I still need a website if I am on Rated People?** Yes. The homeowner who sees you on a shortlist looks you up on Google before replying, and what they find decides whether you get the call. A site you own also catches the customers who never open a directory. **What happens to my reviews if I leave?** They stay on the directory. That is why we start the review campaign before anything lapses: a request to your past customers so the good ones land on your own Google Business Profile, where every customer looks and where nobody can take them from you. **Is this cheaper than what I pay now?** Only you can say, because only you know your membership, your lead fees and how many of those leads become jobs. Put your own numbers into the calculator on this page and set the result beside the plan price. The site is one fixed price a month, with no fee per enquiry. ### Bark (Lead directories) — https://tradesplace.co.uk/switching-from/bark On Bark? Pay for the job, not the introduction. Bark charges you to reply. A website you own charges the same every month, and the customer who calls from it is not comparing five replies. What you have today: - **Credits spent to respond** Tradespeople report £7 to £40 per lead, paid in credits when you reply, whether or not the customer ever answers. - **Up to five professionals per request** Each request goes to as many as five. Your reply is one of a handful the customer reads, if they read them. - **Requests from anywhere, for anything** Bark covers every service under one roof. A local trade sits beside national firms and out-of-area quotes, and the customer sees all of them. What changes with a site you own: - **Every enquiry is yours alone** A customer who finds your site and calls has chosen you. There is no shortlist and nobody else quoting for the same job. - **Reviews build where they travel with you** We point the review request at your Google Business Profile. It is yours, it is what customers check first, and it goes with you whatever else you subscribe to. - **One fixed price, whatever comes in** The plan is one price a month with no fee per lead and no minimum term. Fifty enquiries cost the same as five. - **Your domain, in your name** The domain is registered to you from day one and everything on the site exports in one click. No company stands between you and your own customers. What does not change: Keep your Bark account while the site ramps up. Run both for six months, compare the cost per won job on each (the calculator below is for exactly that), and cut whichever one loses. If the account still earns its keep, keep it: the site is not asking you to choose, it is giving you something that is yours either way. **Do I still need a website if I am on Bark?** Yes. The customer who reads your reply looks you up next, and a site that shows your work, your area and your reviews is what turns a reply into a call. It also brings the customers who search on Google and never post a request anywhere. **What happens to my reviews if I leave?** They stay on the directory. That is why we start the review campaign before anything lapses: a request to your past customers so the good ones land on your own Google Business Profile, where every customer looks and where nobody can take them from you. **Is this cheaper than what I pay now?** Only you can say, because only you know your membership, your lead fees and how many of those leads become jobs. Put your own numbers into the calculator on this page and set the result beside the plan price. The site is one fixed price a month, with no fee per enquiry. ### Yell (Managed website providers) — https://tradesplace.co.uk/switching-from/yell Paying Yell for a website? Own the next one. A Yell website is built and hosted on Yell’s platform, on a contract. The question is what you own when the contract ends. With us the answer is everything, from day one. What you have today: - **A site on their platform** The site sits on Yell’s system and is edited through it. Leave, and it comes down; what you take with you depends on the contract you signed. - **A term, then another** Tradespeople report contracts that run for a fixed term and renew. The price and the length are in the paperwork, not on the site. - **A listing next to a website** Yell is also a directory. The website and the listing come as a bundle, and the listing sits beside your competitors’ listings. What changes with a site you own: - **Your domain, in your name** The domain is registered to you from day one and everything on the site exports in one click. No company stands between you and your own customers. - **Export everything in one click** Every page, image and word on the site can be exported from your dashboard whenever you like. The site is yours, not a licence to use ours. - **No day offline in the move** Your current site keeps running until the new one is checked and switched over. The move happens on your timetable, not the contract’s. - **One fixed price, whatever comes in** The plan is one price a month with no fee per lead and no minimum term. Fifty enquiries cost the same as five. What does not change: If you are inside a Yell term, the switch waits for it. We build the site, you see it before you pay, and it goes live the week the term ends, so there is never a month paying twice and never a day with no website. The Yell listing is separate from the website, and you can keep it if it earns its keep. **Can I leave Yell before my contract ends?** That is a question for the contract you signed, and we do not pretend to know its terms. What we can do is have the new site built, checked and ready, so the day the term ends is the day it goes live. **Will I lose my Yell listing?** The listing is separate from the website and you can keep it if it earns its keep. The website is the part that should be yours. **Do I own the new site?** Yes. The domain is registered in your name, the site and its content export in one click, and there is no minimum term. If you ever leave, it all goes with you. ### Wix (Website builders) — https://tradesplace.co.uk/switching-from/wix Built your site on Wix? Stop being its administrator. Wix gives you the tools, and then the job. The renewals, the updates, the padlock, the mobile menu that stopped working: all yours, at 11pm. We take the whole job off you, and the result looks like your business rather than the page you started from. What you have today: - **You are the unpaid administrator** Whoever built the site owns every job that comes after it: the domain renewal when the card expires, the contact form that silently stops delivering, the plan upgrade to remove the adverts. On a Wix site that is you. - **Hours that cost more than the plan** Thirty hours of evenings at a trade day rate costs more than a year of our plan, and that is before anything goes wrong. - **A page that looks like the page it came from** Customers have seen the layout before, on a dozen other local firms. Familiar is not the same as trusted, and the customer comparing you against the next result on Google notices. What changes with a site you own: - **Nothing for you to renew, update or back up** SSL on every page, security patches, minute-by-minute uptime checks and a monthly backup, all included and all done by us. Nobody at your end is the administrator. - **Found by the customer on a phone at 7am** The site is built for the search that actually happens: a phone, a hurry, and a number that is tappable on the first screen. It is connected to your Google Business Profile, with the search setup done properly. - **Your domain and content move with you** If you already have a domain we move it into your name with us; if not, we register one for you. Your words and photos come across; nothing starts from a blank page. - **One fixed price, whatever comes in** The plan is one price a month with no fee per lead and no minimum term. Fifty enquiries cost the same as five. What does not change: Your current site stays up until the new one is checked and switched over. You do not need to cancel anything before you have seen ours; when you do, the plan you pay Wix for is the only thing that ends. **My Wix site works. Why change?** It may. The question is who looks after it and what that costs you in hours, and whether a customer comparing you against the next firm on Google chooses you. Send us the address and see the rebuild beside it; if yours wins, keep it. **Can you keep my domain?** Yes. The domain moves into your name with us and your web address does not change. There is no day when the old site is down and the new one is not up. **Do you offer help with the site I already have?** No. We build and look after websites; we do not sell hours on somebody else’s platform. The free rebuild shows you the difference, and you decide. ### GoDaddy (Website builders) — https://tradesplace.co.uk/switching-from/godaddy Built your site on GoDaddy? Stop being its administrator. GoDaddy gives you the tools, and then the job. The renewals, the updates, the padlock, the mobile menu that stopped working: all yours, at 11pm. We take the whole job off you, and the result looks like your business rather than the page you started from. What you have today: - **You are the unpaid administrator** Whoever built the site owns every job that comes after it: the domain renewal when the card expires, the contact form that silently stops delivering, the hosting plan that quietly went up. On a GoDaddy site that is you. - **Hours that cost more than the plan** Thirty hours of evenings at a trade day rate costs more than a year of our plan, and that is before anything goes wrong. - **A page that looks like the page it came from** Customers have seen the layout before, on a dozen other local firms. Familiar is not the same as trusted, and the customer comparing you against the next result on Google notices. What changes with a site you own: - **Nothing for you to renew, update or back up** SSL on every page, security patches, minute-by-minute uptime checks and a monthly backup, all included and all done by us. Nobody at your end is the administrator. - **Found by the customer on a phone at 7am** The site is built for the search that actually happens: a phone, a hurry, and a number that is tappable on the first screen. It is connected to your Google Business Profile, with the search setup done properly. - **Your domain and content move with you** Your domain may already be registered with GoDaddy. It moves into your name with us, or stays where it is and points at the new site; either way it is yours and your address does not change. Your words and photos come across. - **One fixed price, whatever comes in** The plan is one price a month with no fee per lead and no minimum term. Fifty enquiries cost the same as five. What does not change: Your current site stays up until the new one is checked and switched over. You do not need to cancel anything before you have seen ours; when you do, the plan you pay GoDaddy for is the only thing that ends. **My GoDaddy site works. Why change?** It may. The question is who looks after it and what that costs you in hours, and whether a customer comparing you against the next firm on Google chooses you. Send us the address and see the rebuild beside it; if yours wins, keep it. **Can you keep my domain?** Yes. The domain moves into your name with us and your web address does not change. There is no day when the old site is down and the new one is not up. **Do you offer help with the site I already have?** No. We build and look after websites; we do not sell hours on somebody else’s platform. The free rebuild shows you the difference, and you decide. ### Squarespace (Website builders) — https://tradesplace.co.uk/switching-from/squarespace Built your site on Squarespace? Stop being its administrator. Squarespace gives you the tools, and then the job. The renewals, the updates, the padlock, the mobile menu that stopped working: all yours, at 11pm. We take the whole job off you, and the result looks like your business rather than the page you started from. What you have today: - **You are the unpaid administrator** Whoever built the site owns every job that comes after it: the domain renewal when the card expires, the contact form that silently stops delivering, the plan that has to be upgraded to take payments or add a page. On a Squarespace site that is you. - **Hours that cost more than the plan** Thirty hours of evenings at a trade day rate costs more than a year of our plan, and that is before anything goes wrong. - **A page that looks like the page it came from** Customers have seen the layout before, on a dozen other local firms. Familiar is not the same as trusted, and the customer comparing you against the next result on Google notices. What changes with a site you own: - **Nothing for you to renew, update or back up** SSL on every page, security patches, minute-by-minute uptime checks and a monthly backup, all included and all done by us. Nobody at your end is the administrator. - **Found by the customer on a phone at 7am** The site is built for the search that actually happens: a phone, a hurry, and a number that is tappable on the first screen. It is connected to your Google Business Profile, with the search setup done properly. - **Your domain and content move with you** If you already have a domain we move it into your name with us; if not, we register one for you. Your words and photos come across; nothing starts from a blank page. - **One fixed price, whatever comes in** The plan is one price a month with no fee per lead and no minimum term. Fifty enquiries cost the same as five. What does not change: Your current site stays up until the new one is checked and switched over. You do not need to cancel anything before you have seen ours; when you do, the plan you pay Squarespace for is the only thing that ends. **My Squarespace site works. Why change?** It may. The question is who looks after it and what that costs you in hours, and whether a customer comparing you against the next firm on Google chooses you. Send us the address and see the rebuild beside it; if yours wins, keep it. **Can you keep my domain?** Yes. The domain moves into your name with us and your web address does not change. There is no day when the old site is down and the new one is not up. **Do you offer help with the site I already have?** No. We build and look after websites; we do not sell hours on somebody else’s platform. The free rebuild shows you the difference, and you decide. ### a Facebook page (Social pages) — https://tradesplace.co.uk/switching-from/facebook-page Running the business from a Facebook page? Give customers somewhere to check you out. A Facebook page is a good place to post. It is not where a customer goes to decide whether to trust you, and it is not where Google sends them. What you have today: - **A profile on somebody else’s platform** The page, the audience and the reach are Facebook’s. What the customer sees depends on the algorithm that day, not on what you want them to see. - **Not a business address** Customers checking you out before they call want a phone number, the areas you cover, your reviews and your work, on one page that loads in a second. A feed is none of those things. - **Invisible to the customer searching** The customer who types “electrician near me” into Google is not shown your Facebook page. They are shown the next firm with a website. What changes with a site you own: - **A site built from your page** We read your page, your posts and your photos, and build a real site around what you actually do. Nothing starts from a blank form. - **Found by the customer on a phone at 7am** The site is built for the search that actually happens: a phone, a hurry, and a number that is tappable on the first screen. It is connected to your Google Business Profile, with the search setup done properly. - **Keep posting on Facebook** The site links to the page and the page links to the site. Posting where your customers already are is worth keeping; it just is not the whole job. - **Nothing for you to renew, update or back up** SSL on every page, security patches, minute-by-minute uptime checks and a monthly backup, all included and all done by us. Nobody at your end is the administrator. What does not change: The Facebook page stays. It is a good place to post work and talk to customers, and the site gives every one of those posts somewhere to send people. **I get enough work from Facebook. Why would I need a website?** Then you are winning the customers who are already on Facebook and losing the ones who search. A recommendation now ends with a Google search; if it finds nothing, the next name on the list gets the job. **Do I have to stop using Facebook?** No. The page and the site do different jobs. Keep posting; the site is where the post sends people when they want to check you out and call. **I have no domain. Is that a problem?** No. We register one in your name as part of the plan, and it stays yours. ## Setup fees and what is paid upfront What "no setup fee" and "£0 upfront" mean here, and the questions a waived build fee leaves open. Index: https://tradesplace.co.uk/upfront Publicly advertised setup fees elsewhere in this market, as facts about published pricing and subject to change: - Yell (Websites): £399 – £3,499 advertised upfront. Upfront build fee plus a monthly plan, on a twelve-month term. - Trade Pixels: £1,499, or 12 × £150 advertised upfront. The instalment option is finance on the build, not an ongoing care plan. - 5 Star Trades: £350 advertised upfront. Build fee ahead of a £49 monthly plan. - Get A Trades Website: ≈ £99 advertised upfront. Entry fee ahead of a subscription. ### No setup fee — https://tradesplace.co.uk/upfront/no-setup-fee-website No setup fee. The question is what that is hiding. There is no setup fee here: no build fee, no deposit and nothing to pay before the site is live. One monthly plan covers the build, hosting, SSL, backups, security updates and content changes, with no minimum term. The domain, site, content and reviews transfer into your name on the first payment and stay yours whether the plan continues or not. Setup fees do still exist elsewhere in this market, from a double-digit entry fee to four figures; the table on this page names the published ones. What a waived build fee leaves open: - **Who owns the domain and the site?** A free build is often free because the provider keeps what was built. Ask whose name the domain is registered in, and what you are allowed to take with you. Ours transfer to you on the first payment and stay yours whether the plan continues or not. - **What is the minimum term?** A waived build fee is frequently recovered over twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six months you cannot leave. Ask for the term in writing before the price. There is no minimum term here: the plan is month to month and you can stop it whenever you like. - **What happens when you stop paying?** On most no-fee offers the site goes off and the address stops resolving, which is the moment the customer searching for you finds nothing. Yours keeps working because it is yours — the domain, the site, the content and the reviews. **Is the setup fee waived, or is there no setup fee?** There is no setup fee. It is not an introductory offer or a discount that ends, and there is no build cost recovered later in the plan or on exit. **So how is the build paid for?** Out of the monthly plan, over time. That is the trade: we carry the build cost and earn it back by being worth keeping. It only works if the site keeps doing its job, which is the incentive you want your provider to have. **What is the catch?** The plan is monthly and ongoing, so over several years you will pay more than a one-off build would have cost — and you get hosting, security, backups and unlimited content changes across those years, which a one-off build does not include. The guide on monthly versus one-off sets both out with numbers. **Do I have to sign a minimum term?** No. There is no minimum term and no notice period. Cancel whenever you like and the domain, site, content and reviews stay with you. ### £0 upfront — https://tradesplace.co.uk/upfront/0-upfront-trade-website £0 upfront trade website — and the domain is in your name A trade website here costs £0 upfront with no setup fee and no deposit. One monthly plan covers the build, hosting, SSL, backups and content changes, with no minimum term. The domain, site, content and reviews transfer into your name on the first payment and stay yours whether you keep the plan or not. We rebuild your homepage free before you pay anything. What a waived build fee leaves open: - **Who owns the domain and the site?** A free build is often free because the provider keeps what was built. Ask whose name the domain is registered in, and what you are allowed to take with you. Ours transfer to you on the first payment and stay yours whether the plan continues or not. - **What is the minimum term?** A waived build fee is frequently recovered over twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six months you cannot leave. Ask for the term in writing before the price. There is no minimum term here: the plan is month to month and you can stop it whenever you like. - **What happens when you stop paying?** On most no-fee offers the site goes off and the address stops resolving, which is the moment the customer searching for you finds nothing. Yours keeps working because it is yours — the domain, the site, the content and the reviews. **Is £0 upfront a limited offer?** No. There has never been a build fee here and there is no promotional price that steps up later. **Do I need to give card details before the site is built?** No. The free homepage rebuild happens first, with no card and no obligation. You decide once you have seen it. **Is a £0 upfront site a template?** Not here. The site is written and designed around your business, your photos and the jobs you actually take. The portfolio shows what that looks like. **Who owns a website I paid nothing upfront for?** You do, from the first payment: the domain in your name, the site, the content and the reviews, permanently, whether or not the plan stays active. ### £0 upfront · Electricians — https://tradesplace.co.uk/upfront/0-upfront-electrician-website £0 upfront electrician website, and you own it A electrician website here costs nothing upfront and carries no setup fee. You pay one monthly plan that covers the build, hosting, SSL, backups and content changes, with no minimum term. The domain, the site, the content and the reviews are transferred into your name on the first payment and remain yours whether you keep the plan or not. Before you pay anything we rebuild your homepage free, so you judge the work first. What a waived build fee leaves open: - **Who owns the domain and the site?** A free build is often free because the provider keeps what was built. Ask whose name the domain is registered in, and what you are allowed to take with you. Ours transfer to you on the first payment and stay yours whether the plan continues or not. - **What is the minimum term?** A waived build fee is frequently recovered over twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six months you cannot leave. Ask for the term in writing before the price. There is no minimum term here: the plan is month to month and you can stop it whenever you like. - **What happens when you stop paying?** On most no-fee offers the site goes off and the address stops resolving, which is the moment the customer searching for you finds nothing. Yours keeps working because it is yours — the domain, the site, the content and the reviews. **Is there really no setup fee for a electrician website?** None. There is no build fee, no deposit and nothing to pay before the site is live. The monthly plan is the whole cost, and the build is inside it. **What do I actually pay in the first month?** The monthly plan and nothing else. We rebuild your homepage free before that, so the first money you spend is on a site you have already seen. **What happens to the site if I cancel?** It is yours. The domain is in your name, the content exports in one click, and the reviews are on your own Google Business Profile. There is no minimum term to serve out first. **Do you understand what an electrician’s customers are looking for?** Yes. The page leads with what a homeowner checks before they let anyone near a consumer unit: your registration, your public liability cover, the areas you cover and a number that is tappable on the first screen. EICRs, fault-finding, rewires and EV points each get said plainly rather than buried in a services list. ### £0 upfront · Plumbers — https://tradesplace.co.uk/upfront/0-upfront-plumber-website £0 upfront plumber website, and you own it A plumber website here costs nothing upfront and carries no setup fee. You pay one monthly plan that covers the build, hosting, SSL, backups and content changes, with no minimum term. The domain, the site, the content and the reviews are transferred into your name on the first payment and remain yours whether you keep the plan or not. Before you pay anything we rebuild your homepage free, so you judge the work first. What a waived build fee leaves open: - **Who owns the domain and the site?** A free build is often free because the provider keeps what was built. Ask whose name the domain is registered in, and what you are allowed to take with you. Ours transfer to you on the first payment and stay yours whether the plan continues or not. - **What is the minimum term?** A waived build fee is frequently recovered over twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six months you cannot leave. Ask for the term in writing before the price. There is no minimum term here: the plan is month to month and you can stop it whenever you like. - **What happens when you stop paying?** On most no-fee offers the site goes off and the address stops resolving, which is the moment the customer searching for you finds nothing. Yours keeps working because it is yours — the domain, the site, the content and the reviews. **Is there really no setup fee for a plumber website?** None. There is no build fee, no deposit and nothing to pay before the site is live. The monthly plan is the whole cost, and the build is inside it. **What do I actually pay in the first month?** The monthly plan and nothing else. We rebuild your homepage free before that, so the first money you spend is on a site you have already seen. **What happens to the site if I cancel?** It is yours. The domain is in your name, the content exports in one click, and the reviews are on your own Google Business Profile. There is no minimum term to serve out first. **Do you understand what a plumber’s customers are looking for?** Yes. Most plumbing searches are urgent and happen on a phone, so the site is built to answer the emergency question in the first screen: whether you take call-outs, the hours you take them, the areas you cover, and the number. Boilers, bathrooms and leaks are separated out, because the customer searching for one is not searching for the others. ### £0 upfront · Roofers — https://tradesplace.co.uk/upfront/0-upfront-roofer-website £0 upfront roofer website, and you own it A roofer website here costs nothing upfront and carries no setup fee. You pay one monthly plan that covers the build, hosting, SSL, backups and content changes, with no minimum term. The domain, the site, the content and the reviews are transferred into your name on the first payment and remain yours whether you keep the plan or not. Before you pay anything we rebuild your homepage free, so you judge the work first. What a waived build fee leaves open: - **Who owns the domain and the site?** A free build is often free because the provider keeps what was built. Ask whose name the domain is registered in, and what you are allowed to take with you. Ours transfer to you on the first payment and stay yours whether the plan continues or not. - **What is the minimum term?** A waived build fee is frequently recovered over twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six months you cannot leave. Ask for the term in writing before the price. There is no minimum term here: the plan is month to month and you can stop it whenever you like. - **What happens when you stop paying?** On most no-fee offers the site goes off and the address stops resolving, which is the moment the customer searching for you finds nothing. Yours keeps working because it is yours — the domain, the site, the content and the reviews. **Is there really no setup fee for a roofer website?** None. There is no build fee, no deposit and nothing to pay before the site is live. The monthly plan is the whole cost, and the build is inside it. **What do I actually pay in the first month?** The monthly plan and nothing else. We rebuild your homepage free before that, so the first money you spend is on a site you have already seen. **What happens to the site if I cancel?** It is yours. The domain is in your name, the content exports in one click, and the reviews are on your own Google Business Profile. There is no minimum term to serve out first. **Do you understand what a roofer’s customers are looking for?** Yes. Roofing is a high-value job bought on trust, so the site is built around proof: finished work photographed properly, the cover you carry, how long a job takes and what the mess looks like. Storm damage and a planned re-roof are different searches and get different answers. ### £0 upfront · Builders — https://tradesplace.co.uk/upfront/0-upfront-builder-website £0 upfront builder website, and you own it A builder website here costs nothing upfront and carries no setup fee. You pay one monthly plan that covers the build, hosting, SSL, backups and content changes, with no minimum term. The domain, the site, the content and the reviews are transferred into your name on the first payment and remain yours whether you keep the plan or not. Before you pay anything we rebuild your homepage free, so you judge the work first. What a waived build fee leaves open: - **Who owns the domain and the site?** A free build is often free because the provider keeps what was built. Ask whose name the domain is registered in, and what you are allowed to take with you. Ours transfer to you on the first payment and stay yours whether the plan continues or not. - **What is the minimum term?** A waived build fee is frequently recovered over twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six months you cannot leave. Ask for the term in writing before the price. There is no minimum term here: the plan is month to month and you can stop it whenever you like. - **What happens when you stop paying?** On most no-fee offers the site goes off and the address stops resolving, which is the moment the customer searching for you finds nothing. Yours keeps working because it is yours — the domain, the site, the content and the reviews. **Is there really no setup fee for a builder website?** None. There is no build fee, no deposit and nothing to pay before the site is live. The monthly plan is the whole cost, and the build is inside it. **What do I actually pay in the first month?** The monthly plan and nothing else. We rebuild your homepage free before that, so the first money you spend is on a site you have already seen. **What happens to the site if I cancel?** It is yours. The domain is in your name, the content exports in one click, and the reviews are on your own Google Business Profile. There is no minimum term to serve out first. **Do you understand what a builder’s customers are looking for?** Yes. Extensions and renovations are decided over weeks, so the site is built to survive a long comparison: real projects with before and after, the trades you run in-house, how you quote, and what the timings honestly are. It gives the customer enough to shortlist you without ringing first. ### £0 upfront · Carpenters and joiners — https://tradesplace.co.uk/upfront/0-upfront-carpenter-website £0 upfront carpenter website, and you own it A carpenter website here costs nothing upfront and carries no setup fee. You pay one monthly plan that covers the build, hosting, SSL, backups and content changes, with no minimum term. The domain, the site, the content and the reviews are transferred into your name on the first payment and remain yours whether you keep the plan or not. Before you pay anything we rebuild your homepage free, so you judge the work first. What a waived build fee leaves open: - **Who owns the domain and the site?** A free build is often free because the provider keeps what was built. Ask whose name the domain is registered in, and what you are allowed to take with you. Ours transfer to you on the first payment and stay yours whether the plan continues or not. - **What is the minimum term?** A waived build fee is frequently recovered over twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six months you cannot leave. Ask for the term in writing before the price. There is no minimum term here: the plan is month to month and you can stop it whenever you like. - **What happens when you stop paying?** On most no-fee offers the site goes off and the address stops resolving, which is the moment the customer searching for you finds nothing. Yours keeps working because it is yours — the domain, the site, the content and the reviews. **Is there really no setup fee for a carpenter website?** None. There is no build fee, no deposit and nothing to pay before the site is live. The monthly plan is the whole cost, and the build is inside it. **What do I actually pay in the first month?** The monthly plan and nothing else. We rebuild your homepage free before that, so the first money you spend is on a site you have already seen. **What happens to the site if I cancel?** It is yours. The domain is in your name, the content exports in one click, and the reviews are on your own Google Business Profile. There is no minimum term to serve out first. **Do you understand what a carpenter’s customers are looking for?** Yes. Joinery sells on the work itself, so the site is built to show it at the size it deserves — fitted wardrobes, staircases, kitchens and second fix, each with its own photographs rather than one mixed gallery. ## Guides Long-form guides, grouped by topic. Each one opens with the short answer and closes with its questions, both reproduced here; the argument between them lives on the page. Index: https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides ### What it costs Real numbers for every route to a trade website, and the costs each route leaves out. #### How much does a website cost for a UK trade business in 2026? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/how-much-does-a-website-cost (updated 2026-08-22) A UK trade business website costs roughly £10–£30 a month to build yourself on a site builder, £500–£2,000 once for a freelancer, £2,000–£5,000 or more for an agency, or £30–£100 a month on a subscription studio that builds and hosts it for you. The quoted figure is rarely the whole figure: hosting, the domain, an SSL certificate, stock photography, a contact form that actually delivers, and your own time all sit outside most headline prices. **How much should a plumber or electrician pay for a website?** Most UK sole traders and small trade firms land between £500 and £2,000 for a one-off freelance build, or £30 to £100 a month on a subscription that includes hosting and support. Below about £500 you are usually buying a template with your logo on it; above about £3,000 you are paying for agency overheads a two-van business rarely needs. **Is a cheap website better than no website?** Usually yes, but not always. A fast, plain, honest one-page site with a tappable phone number beats nothing comfortably. A slow, broken or abandoned site is worse than nothing, because a customer who finds it concludes the business is the same. **Why do website quotes vary so much for the same job?** Because "a website" is not one product. A quote may or may not include the design, the copywriting, photography, hosting, the domain, SSL, ongoing changes and support. Two quotes ten times apart are usually pricing different things — ask each one what happens when you want a phone number changed. #### Monthly subscription or one-off build: which is cheaper for a trade website? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/trade-website-monthly-vs-one-off (updated 2026-09-12) A one-off build is cheaper in pure cash terms after roughly two to four years, but only if nothing needs changing and you pay for hosting, SSL, backups and updates yourself. A monthly subscription is more expensive over a long enough horizon and buys you a site that stays current, stays online and stays someone else’s problem. The decision is really about whether you want a website as an asset you maintain or a service you rent. **Is it cheaper to pay monthly or a lump sum for a website?** Over the first two years a monthly subscription is usually cheaper, because a one-off build front-loads the whole cost. Past year three the lump sum wins on cash — as long as you are not separately paying for hosting, a maintenance retainer and occasional changes, which is where most of the saving quietly goes. **What happens to my website if I stop paying a monthly plan?** That depends entirely on the provider, and it is the single most important question to ask before signing. Some hand over the files and let you take the site elsewhere; some keep the site and it goes offline. Your domain name should always be registered to you, whatever happens to the site on it. **Do I own my website if I pay monthly?** Not automatically. Ask, in writing, who the domain is registered to, whether you can export the site, and what you keep if you leave. A provider that will not answer plainly is telling you the answer. #### Is a website worth it if you are a one-person trade business? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/is-a-website-worth-it-for-a-sole-trader (updated 2026-09-12) For most UK sole traders a website pays for itself, because word of mouth now ends in a search: someone passes your name on, the customer looks you up, and what they find either confirms the recommendation or quietly undoes it. It does not pay in two cases — if you are already turning work away at the price you want, or if you are winding down. Everywhere in between, the site is not there to find you strangers so much as to stop you losing the customers you have already been recommended to. **I get all my work from word of mouth. Do I still need a website?** Word of mouth now includes a search. When someone passes your name on, the next thing the customer does is look you up — and a professional site confirms the recommendation while no site, or a dated one, plants a doubt. That is the job the website is doing for you, not finding cold strangers. **I am fully booked. Why would I want more enquiries?** You probably do not want more enquiries — you want better ones. A website that states your trade, your area and your standards filters out the jobs you do not want before the phone rings, and lets you raise your prices without losing the customers who were never price-shopping in the first place. **Is a website worth it if I am retiring in a couple of years?** Honestly, probably not for lead generation. It can be worth it if you intend to sell the business or hand it to someone, because a business with its own domain, its own reviews and its own web presence is a sellable thing in a way that a personal mobile number is not. #### What does website maintenance actually cost a small trade business? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/what-website-maintenance-costs (updated 2026-09-12) Running a small trade website costs roughly £100–£300 a year if you handle it yourself — a domain at £10–£20, hosting at £60–£150, and an SSL certificate that should be free — or £30–£100 a month bundled into a managed plan that also covers backups, security updates, uptime monitoring and changes. The cost that catches people out is not any of those: it is the £50–£150 a freelancer charges each time you want a phone number, a price or a photograph changed. **Do I have to pay for website maintenance?** You have to pay for hosting and a domain, and someone has to apply security updates. Everything else is negotiable. A simple, static trade site needs far less maintenance than a WordPress site with a dozen plugins, which is a good reason not to have one. **How much does it cost to change something on my website?** On a freelance build, typically £50–£150 per change or an hourly rate with a minimum. On a managed plan, small changes are usually included. Ask before you sign: the cost of changing a phone number tells you more about a provider than their portfolio does. **Can I run a trade website on free hosting?** Rarely. Free tiers usually mean a subdomain rather than your own name, adverts you do not control, no support when it goes down, and slow loading from the far side of the world. The domain is the part you should never economise on. #### The hidden costs of a cheap website for a trade business https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/hidden-costs-of-a-cheap-website (updated 2026-09-12) The hidden costs of a cheap trade website are the domain registered in someone else’s name, hosting charged separately and annually, per-change fees for edits you assumed were included, stock photography that makes the site look like every other site, no SSL certificate until a browser warns your customers, and a rebuild in year two because the first one was never going to last. Ask six questions before you pay and all six surface. **Why is my £300 website costing me more than that?** Because the £300 usually bought the design and nothing else. Hosting, the domain, SSL, email, changes and support are commonly billed separately or annually, and a site built to a £300 budget generally needs replacing sooner than one built properly. **What should I ask before paying for a cheap website?** Who will the domain be registered to? What does hosting cost and who pays it? Is SSL included? What does a change cost? Do I get the files if I leave? And what happens if you stop trading? Six questions, and any hesitation on the first one is the answer. **Is it worth paying more for a website?** Up to a point. The difference between £300 and £1,500 is usually real — ownership, speed, being written for your trade rather than a template. The difference between £3,000 and £8,000 for a five-page trade site is mostly agency overhead. ### Directories and leads Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Rated People and Bark — what they cost, what they give back, and what else works. #### Checkatrade alternatives: what else works for getting trade work in 2026? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/checkatrade-alternatives (updated 2026-09-12) The practical alternatives to Checkatrade are other directories (MyBuilder, Rated People, Bark — cheaper to start, generally pay-per-lead), a Google Business Profile, which is free and is where most local searches actually land, your own website, which costs less per year than most directory subscriptions and sends enquiries straight to you, and structured referral work through builders, letting agents and estate agents. The important difference is that directory spend stops working the day you stop paying, while a Google profile, a website and a referral network keep working. **What is the best alternative to Checkatrade?** For most trades, a Google Business Profile with real reviews plus your own website. The profile is free and captures the searches customers actually make; the website is what a customer reads after they have found you, and it is the only one of the two that you fully control. **Can I leave Checkatrade and still get work?** Many tradespeople do, but the sequence matters. Build the replacement first — profile, reviews, website — run it alongside for a few months and watch where enquiries come from. Leaving before anything else is in place is where it goes wrong. **Are the cheaper directories any better than Checkatrade?** Different, not better. Pay-per-lead platforms remove the fixed subscription but put you in a race with several other trades for the same job, which pushes prices down. Our page on switching from each one sets out what tradespeople report about each. #### Is Checkatrade worth it for a tradesperson in 2026? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/is-checkatrade-worth-it (updated 2026-09-12) Checkatrade is worth it for a tradesperson whose membership brings in more profit than it costs — which sounds obvious but is the calculation almost nobody actually does. Work out four numbers: what you pay a year, how many enquiries it produced, what proportion you won, and the average profit on those jobs. If it pays, keep it. If it only pays because you are discounting to compete with everyone else on the same listing, the directory is working and you are not. **How do I know if Checkatrade is paying for itself?** Ask every caller how they found you and write it down for three months. Then compare the profit on the jobs that came through the directory with what you paid it in that period. Most tradespeople have never measured this and are surprised in one direction or the other. **Why do I get fewer leads than I used to from directories?** More members competing for the same searches, and more customers going straight to Google or an AI assistant rather than a directory. That is the structural trend, and it is why a presence you own tends to outlast one you rent. **Should I use a directory and have my own website?** That is what most established trades end up doing, at least for a while. The directory buys reach now; the website and Google profile build something that keeps working when you stop paying. Running both for a few months is the only way to see which is really producing. #### Do I need a website if I am already on Checkatrade? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/do-i-need-a-website-if-im-on-checkatrade (updated 2026-09-12) Yes, in most cases — because a directory profile and a website answer different questions. The profile gets you found among a list of competitors; the website is what a customer reads when they have narrowed it to you, and it is where your own photographs, your accreditations and your own words live. A profile also cannot be changed the way you want, cannot stop a competitor advertising alongside it, does not belong to you, and disappears the day you stop paying. **Is a Checkatrade profile enough on its own?** It can be, early on, if enquiries are covering your costs. But a profile sits on a page with your competitors, is formatted the way the directory wants, and vanishes when the subscription lapses. As a permanent foundation it is rented ground. **Will having a website hurt my directory ranking?** No. They are separate systems. If anything a website helps, because customers who find you on a directory frequently search your business name afterwards, and finding a proper site at that moment is what converts the shortlist into a call. **What can a website do that a directory profile cannot?** Show your own work in your own layout, rank in Google for the services and towns you choose, be quoted by an AI assistant answering a customer’s question, collect enquiries with no competitor on the page, and keep existing whether or not you are paying anyone this month. #### How to get trade work without paying a directory https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/how-to-get-work-without-a-directory (updated 2026-09-12) Trade work without a directory comes from six places: a Google Business Profile with genuine reviews, which is free and is where most local searches end; referral relationships with builders, letting agents, estate agents and complementary trades; your existing customers, asked properly and at the right moment; a website that ranks for the services and towns you want; visible local presence, from a signwritten van to the jobs your neighbours watch you do; and being the trade that answers the phone. The first two produce fastest; the website compounds longest. **What is the cheapest way to get trade work?** A Google Business Profile with real reviews. It costs nothing, takes an afternoon to set up properly, and is where the majority of local "plumber near me" searches actually resolve. Nothing else has that ratio. **How do I get referrals from other trades?** Be specific and reciprocal. Pick trades that meet your customers just before you would — builders and kitchen fitters for plumbers, electricians for kitchen fitters — and make it easy: cards, a WhatsApp thread, and reliably passing work back. **How long does it take to stop relying on a directory?** Realistically six to twelve months to build enough of an alternative to feel safe, which is why the sane move is to build it alongside rather than cancel first and hope. #### MyBuilder vs Rated People vs Bark: which is worth it for a tradesperson? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/mybuilder-vs-rated-people-vs-bark (updated 2026-09-12) All three sell leads rather than memberships, but they share them differently, and that difference is the whole story. MyBuilder tends to suit larger, considered jobs where the customer shortlists on written detail. Rated People pushes leads to several trades quickly, which favours whoever responds first. Bark is the broadest and the least filtered, so lead quality varies most and competition per job is highest. On all three you are paying for the chance to quote, not for the work. **Which lead site gives the best quality leads for trades?** Reports vary by trade and region, which is itself the useful signal. Generally the more a platform charges per lead and the fewer trades it shares it with, the better the quality — you are paying for exclusivity, not for the introduction. **How much do trade leads cost on these platforms?** Typically a few pounds for a small job up to £30 or more for a large one, charged whether or not you win it. The number that matters is cost per won job, not cost per lead, and it is worth tracking for a quarter before judging. **Can I use lead sites and my own website together?** Yes, and it is the sensible order of operations. Lead sites fill the diary now; the website and Google profile lower what you need to spend on them next year. ### Building it yourself Wix, Squarespace, a Facebook page or paying someone: an honest read on where DIY stops paying. #### Is a DIY website builder costing your trade business jobs? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/diy-website-builder-vs-professional (updated 2026-09-02) A DIY website costs a trade business work in five specific ways: it reads as amateur to customers who cannot judge your actual trade, it buries or breaks the phone number on mobile, it is usually invisible in search because the template was never written around what customers type, it quietly consumes evenings you are not paid for, and the hours you spend on it are worth more on the tools. None of that shows up as a complaint — people simply call the next number. **Can I build a good trade website myself?** You can build a serviceable one if you are comfortable with the tools and willing to spend the evenings. What most tradespeople underestimate is not the building but the writing, the photography and the search work, which is where the difference in results actually comes from. **How do I know if my website is putting customers off?** Open it on your own phone as if you had a leak. Can you tell what the business does in three seconds, see a trust signal without scrolling, and call with one tap? Three noes is your answer, and it is the same test a customer runs without thinking about it. **Is a DIY website better than no website?** A fast, plain, current one, yes. An abandoned one with a dead form and last year’s phone number, no — a customer who finds that concludes the business is run the same way. #### Wix or pay someone: which should a tradesperson choose? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/wix-vs-paying-someone (updated 2026-09-12) Build it yourself if you enjoy the work, have evenings to spare, and want to change a price or a photograph at eleven at night without asking anybody. Pay someone if your time is worth more on the tools than at a laptop, if you want the site written around what customers actually search for rather than around a layout, or if you have tried and it has been "nearly finished" for four months. The break-even is about twenty to thirty hours: at a typical trade day rate that is most of the cost of a professional build, and you would still be doing the writing and the photography yourself. **Can a site you built yourself work for a tradesperson?** It can. The usual failure is not the software, which is competent — it is that the layout gets filled in rather than written, so the headings end up as slogans and the site says nothing a customer was searching for. It looks finished and ranks for nothing, which is the most expensive outcome available. **How long does it take to build your own trade website?** Twenty to forty hours to do it properly, and the split surprises people: writing every page is ten to fifteen of them on its own, photographs are another two or three, and choosing the layout is an hour. The building is the quick part. **Is it cheaper to build it myself than to pay a web designer?** In cash, yes, clearly. Counting your own hours at what you charge for them, usually not — and the comparison is only fair if the DIY version is finished, which is where a good proportion of them fall down. #### Squarespace or a site built for your customers: which suits your trade? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/squarespace-for-tradespeople (updated 2026-09-12) A picture-first website suits trades whose customers choose between finishes rather than between response times — kitchen and bathroom fitters, landscapers, joiners, heritage decorators — because for them the gallery is the pitch. It suits an emergency trade badly: a full-screen opening image pushes the phone number off a phone screen, and an urgent visitor does not scroll to find it. Either way, the part that decides local rankings is the same and no platform does it for you: a real page per service, per area, written around what customers type. **Does the platform matter for a trade website?** Far less than two other things: whether the phone number is tappable in the first second on a phone, and whether the words on the page match what customers type. A plain site that gets both right beats a handsome one that gets either wrong. **Will a design-led website rank well locally?** Not by itself. The technical basics are handled almost everywhere now, and none of it writes a real page for each service in each town you cover — which is the part that actually decides local rankings, and the part a beautiful five-page site with one combined services page is missing. **What happens if I want to move my site later?** Your domain and your words travel; the design does not, because the layout is tied to wherever it was built. A domain registered in somebody else’s name and photographs that exist only inside the site are what turn an inconvenient move into an expensive one. #### Can I build my own trade website? The honest scope https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/can-i-build-my-own-trade-website (updated 2026-09-12) Yes — the tools are more than adequate now. What people underestimate is the scope: twenty to forty hours, of which writing every page is ten to fifteen on its own, and the building itself is the quick part. Three things decide whether it produces any work at all: the writing, because a site written as slogans is invisible; your own photographs, because library images read as concealment; and the phone number being tappable in the first second, because an urgent visitor who has to hunt for it rings the next result and never tells you. **What do I need before I start building a website?** A domain in your own name, twenty or thirty decent photographs of your own work, your accreditation numbers, the services you want to be found for and the towns you genuinely cover. Gathering that is most of the work whoever builds the site — and a domain registered by somebody else is the name your customers know you by, held by a person you may one day be arguing with. **How many pages does a trade website need?** A home page, a page for each main service, an about page and a contact page — so typically five to eight. Three to six well-written service pages is the sweet spot for most trades; one generic "services" page ranks for nothing. **What is the most common mistake when building your own trade website?** Filling the layout in rather than writing the site. The placeholder headings become slogans instead of the words customers search for, and the result looks finished while being invisible — which is the most expensive outcome available, because it feels like having succeeded. #### Is a Facebook page enough instead of a website for a trade business? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/is-a-facebook-page-enough (updated 2026-09-12) A Facebook page is a reasonable starting point and a poor foundation. It does one thing very well — showing recent work to people who already follow you — and five things not at all: it rarely appears for someone searching "electrician in Reading" on Google, it is not readable by customers without an account, it has no service pages to rank, it can be restricted or removed without warning or appeal, and it belongs to Facebook. Keep it, and put something you own underneath it. **Can I use a Facebook page instead of a website?** You can, and plenty of trades do while getting started. The limit shows up when you want to be found by people who are not already following you, because a Facebook page rarely ranks for the local searches that produce most trade enquiries. **Does a Facebook page show up on Google?** Sometimes for your business name, seldom for "plumber near me" or "electrician in Newbury". Those searches are answered by Google Business Profiles and websites, which is the practical reason the page alone is not enough. **Should I keep my Facebook page if I get a website?** Yes. They complement each other well: the page keeps existing customers warm with recent jobs, and the website catches the ones searching for your trade cold. Link each to the other. ### Getting found Google, reviews, and what an AI assistant needs to be able to recommend your business at all. #### What should a tradesperson’s website actually include? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/what-a-trade-website-needs (updated 2026-08-22) A trade website needs seven things: a tappable phone number at the top of every page, one sentence saying what you do and where, your trust signals placed next to the phone number rather than in the footer, real photographs of your own work, a separate page for each main service, your service area stated once in plain English, and genuine reviews next to the calls to action. Everything else — sliders, animations, keyword-stuffed town lists, a blog you will not write — is either neutral or actively costing you calls. **What should be on a tradesperson’s home page?** A tappable phone number, one sentence saying what you do and where, your accreditations, a photograph of your own work, and an enquiry form. A visitor should know they are in the right place within three seconds and be able to call within one tap. **How many service pages should a trade website have?** Three to six for most trades. Boiler repairs and bathroom installations are different searches from different customers with different budgets; one combined "services" page ranks for neither and converts neither. **What should I leave off my trade website?** Sliders and carousels, keyword-stuffed lists of forty villages, music, pop-ups, and a news page you will stop updating. Anything between an urgent visitor and your phone number is costing you calls. #### How do I get my trade business to show up on Google? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/how-to-get-your-trade-business-on-google (updated 2026-09-12) Get a trade business onto Google in five steps, in this order: claim and complete a Google Business Profile with your real address or service area, categories and hours; earn a steady handful of genuine reviews on it; publish a website with a separate page for each service you want to be found for; make sure your name, address and phone number are written identically everywhere they appear online; and then be patient, because the profile can show within days while website rankings take months. Most trades do the website first and the profile never, which is exactly backwards. **Why is my business not showing up on Google?** The usual reasons, in order: no Google Business Profile or an unverified one, no reviews, a website with no page for the service being searched, or inconsistent contact details across listings. The first is the commonest by a distance. **How do I get on Google Maps as a tradesperson?** Create a Google Business Profile and verify it. If you work at customers’ premises rather than your own, set a service area instead of publishing your home address — the profile supports exactly that. **Do I need to pay Google to appear in search results?** No. Google Business Profile is free and the organic results are free. Google Ads buys the slots above them, which is a separate decision and not a prerequisite for appearing at all. #### Google Business Profile for trades: how to set it up properly https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/google-business-profile-for-trades (updated 2026-09-12) Set up a Google Business Profile by choosing a service area rather than publishing your home address, picking the most specific primary category available for your trade, filling in hours honestly, adding at least ten photographs of your own work, listing your services individually, and connecting it to your website. Four mistakes account for most underperforming profiles: a category that is too general, a home address made public, hours that say 24/7 when you do not answer at 2am, and no photographs. **Do I have to show my home address on Google Business Profile?** No. If you travel to customers, choose the service-area option and Google will hide the address while still placing you in local results for the towns you list. This is the single most common worry and it has a clean answer. **How many towns should I add to my service area?** The ones you genuinely work in — typically a handful, not forty. An unrealistically wide area dilutes your relevance for the places you actually cover, which is the opposite of what it is meant to achieve. **How often should I post on my Google Business Profile?** Photographs of recent work every few weeks is plenty and is worth more than text posts. A profile with current photographs of real jobs reads as an active business; one with none reads as a business that might have stopped. #### How long does a new trade website take to rank on Google? https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/how-long-does-a-new-website-take-to-rank (updated 2026-09-12) A new trade website is usually indexed by Google within a few days to two weeks, starts appearing for your business name and long specific searches within about a month, and takes three to six months to compete for the valuable ones like "plumber in Reading" — longer in a city, shorter in a small town. Two things genuinely shorten it: a Google Business Profile, which can produce enquiries in days rather than months, and having a separate, properly written page for each service you want to rank for. Anyone promising page one in a fortnight is selling something else. **How long before my new website gets enquiries?** From the website itself, typically two to four months. From a Google Business Profile set up at the same time, often within a fortnight — which is why the profile should be done on day one and not after the site launches. **Why is my new website not on Google yet?** Most often it has simply not been indexed. Submit a sitemap through Google Search Console and check the site is not still carrying a "discourage search engines" setting left on from the build, which is a very common oversight. **Can I pay to rank faster?** You can pay to appear above the results with Google Ads, which is instant and stops the moment you stop paying. You cannot pay to rank organically faster, and anyone claiming otherwise is describing something that does not exist. #### How to get more reviews for a trade business https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/how-to-get-reviews-for-a-trade-business (updated 2026-09-12) Get reviews by asking every satisfied customer, in person, at the moment the job is finished and they are pleased, then following up the same day with a direct link to your Google profile. Three things ruin it: asking by email a week later, asking with a generic "leave us a review" link the customer has to hunt through, and offering anything in exchange, which breaches Google’s policies and can cost you the reviews you already have. A bad review is not a disaster — a calm, specific, public reply to it persuades more readers than the original complaint discourages. **How do I ask a customer for a review without being awkward?** Ask while you are packing up and they are visibly happy: "if you have got two minutes, a Google review really helps a small business like mine." Then text them the direct link before you drive off. Asked at the right moment it is not awkward at all. **Can I offer a discount for a review?** No. Incentivised reviews breach Google’s policies and can get your reviews removed or your profile restricted. The risk is entirely on your side and it is not worth it. **What should I do about a bad review?** Reply publicly, calmly and specifically, within a day or two. Readers weigh the reply at least as heavily as the complaint, and a measured response to an unfair review frequently reads better than a page of uninterrupted praise. #### Will ChatGPT recommend my trade business? What AI assistants read https://tradesplace.co.uk/guides/will-ai-assistants-recommend-my-business (updated 2026-09-12) An AI assistant can only recommend a business it can read about, and it reads text, not design. In practice that means five things decide whether yours is quotable: the content must be in the HTML rather than assembled by JavaScript; the pages must answer questions plainly rather than in marketing language; your name, address, phone number and services need to be marked up as structured data; the same details must agree everywhere they appear online; and corroboration from sources other than your own site — a Google profile, a Companies House record, reviews — is what turns a claim into something an assistant will repeat. Nobody can promise placement in an AI answer, and anyone who does is guessing. **How do I get my business mentioned by ChatGPT?** There is no submission process and no one can guarantee it. What you can do is make your business legible: plain answers to real questions in server-rendered HTML, structured data describing who you are and what you do, consistent details everywhere, and independent corroboration. That is the whole of what is actually in your control. **Do AI assistants read my website?** Some crawl and index sites; some fetch a page live when answering; some rely on search results and never touch your site. Because you cannot tell which, the safe assumption is that only what is in your page’s HTML counts. **Is AI visibility different from SEO?** It overlaps heavily but is not identical. Both reward clear, well-structured, corroborated content. The difference is that search returns a list for the customer to choose from, while an assistant returns an answer — so being the page that plainly answers the question matters more than ranking near others that do not. ## Markets - United Kingdom: https://tradesplace.co.uk/