Plumber and electrician website design: pages that earn the call

A plumber or electrician website should do two jobs: make the phone easy to use for someone in a hurry, and give the slower, bigger jobs a page each. The design matters less than whether the number can be tapped, the hours are true and the page for the job a customer is researching actually exists. This post covers what to include for each trade. Both have an emergency reader and a slow reader, and most sites are built for only one.

What do both trades need on every page?

These apply whatever your trade.

• A tappable phone number at the top of every page. If it is part of an image, tapping does nothing. We found this on a builder's site that had been running ads into it for a year.
• True hours. Say who answers and until when. "Someone picks up until 10pm, seven days" is more useful than "24/7 emergency service", which everyone says.
• Where you work. Name the councils and suburbs you really cover. A caller wants to know whether you will drive to them.
• Your licence number and ABN. Every state has a register customers can check in about a minute.
• Real photos. Phone photos of finished jobs, with a line on what the job was.
• A short form. A name, a phone number or email, and a message. In our experience that gets more enquiries than a long quote form.
• Fast loading. A page that takes six seconds on poor reception loses the person who was only mildly curious. See what a slow website costs.

What does a plumber's website need?

Plumbers are often sold the idea that the website should win the emergency call. It mostly cannot. Someone with water spreading across the floor taps the first map result, and if nobody answers they tap the next. The page needs to load, show the number and let them tap it.

The money tends to sit elsewhere. We went through one plumber's invoices to see whether his site was worth keeping. Burst pipes and blocked toilets were a small share of what he billed, and every one had come through a ringing phone rather than the website. The bulk was hot water systems, a leaking shower, a gas cooktop, bathroom work and a run of jobs from one real estate agent. The site had been designed entirely for the emergency share.

So a plumber's design should include:

• A page for each slow job. Hot water, leaking showers, recurring blockages, gas fitting. Write each as a diagnosis: how bad is this if I leave it, what would you do, when can it wait. Being honest that a job can wait until spring wins trust.
• A statement of what you hold. Gas work is a separate authorisation. Say what you are authorised to do and let people check the register.
• A mention of compliance certificates, where customers get one at the end of the job.
• A short section for agents and strata managers, if they are part of your work: insurance, invoicing details, how access and keys are handled and an after-hours contact. Keep it to half a page so it can be forwarded.

The longer reasoning is in plumber websites: the work that is not an emergency.

What does an electrician's website need?

An electrician's two readers are the evening caller and the quote comparer.

The evening caller has lost power or a switch has started misbehaving. They want to know whether you are working, whether you come to their area and what happens if they ring. Put those answers where they appear without scrolling. If you do not take night calls, say so and say when you call back. It is better than three rings and voicemail.

Explain the callout arrangement in outline: whether there is a callout fee, whether it is waived if they go ahead and whether after-hours is charged differently. If you show a price, say whether it includes GST.

The quote comparer is planning a switchboard upgrade, an EV charger, ceiling fans or solar. They are not in a hurry and they read every quote. Give each job its own page, covering what is involved at their place, whether the switchboard will cope, how long the power is off, who handles the network application and what they receive at the end.

We worked with an electrician whose winter call log showed the split clearly: a long tail of evening calls and a separate cluster of weekday mornings. His site served only the mornings. The full piece is electrician websites: what gets the after-hours call.

Say that customers receive a certificate of compliance. Many do not know what it is, and the ones who do have often met someone who never produced one.

What should you leave off?

• Stock photos of models in clean hi-vis. People can tell.
• Generic safety blog posts. Write the job pages first.
• A live chat widget. On a trade site it tends to intercept people who were about to ring.
• Claims you cannot prove. "Most trusted" and "20 years of experience" need to be true and provable, or left out.
• A page for every suburb. We explain why in local SEO for tradies and service area pages.

How does the design connect to search?

The website backs up your Google Business Profile, which is where many calls start. They should agree on name, address, phone, hours and service area. Declare the business once in structured data using the specific type, Plumber or Electrician, as described in declare your business once. The search side is in SEO for tradies, plumbers and electricians.

What does it cost?

Our website plan is $298 a month, GST inclusive, on a 12 month term with no upfront build fee. It includes the design and build, hosting, security upkeep, a domain we manage, small edits and a monthly report. If you leave inside the term you pay out the remaining months at your plan rate. SEO and Google Ads management are optional add-ons at $549 a month each, month to month. We make no promises about rankings, leads or revenue.

See our web design service and pricing page, or read the full guide to a website for tradies. To start, get started.