- Answer three questions in the first screen. What you do, where you work and how to reach you.
- Fast and easy on a phone matters more than fancy design.
- Real photos and fresh reviews beat stock images and old testimonials.
- Somebody has to own hosting, security and updates, or the site slowly breaks.
The five-second test
Open your website on your phone and look at it for five seconds. Can a stranger tell:
- what you do?
- where you do it?
- how to contact you, right now?
If any of those needs scrolling or tapping a menu, fix that first. It's the cheapest improvement you'll ever make.
What every trades website needs
- A plain headline. "Furnace and air-conditioning repair in Grimsby, Lincoln and St. Catharines" beats "Your comfort is our passion".
- A phone number you can tap, at the top of every page.
- A page for each main service. What it is, when you need it, what to expect and how to book.
- The towns you serve, written in the text where search engines and visitors can read it.
- Real photos. Your crew, your trucks, your finished work. Stock photos of smiling models in hard hats convince nobody.
- Recent reviews, ideally your newest Google reviews, shown automatically. See why your website should show your latest Google reviews.
- An easy way to make contact that doesn't depend on email: a text-us box, online booking or a quote form.
- Your credentials. Licences, certifications, insurance and your warranty, stated plainly.
- A privacy policy, and consent wording on any form that collects details.
What you can skip
- Sliders and carousels. Most visitors never see the second slide.
- Autoplay video. It slows the page and annoys people on mobile data.
- A long company history on the home page. Put it on the About page.
- Pop-ups the moment someone arrives. Let them see the page first.
- Ten different calls to action. Pick the main one, such as "Book an estimate", and repeat it.
Speed and phones
Most visitors are on a phone, often on mobile data, sometimes standing in a flooded basement. A slow site loses them.
Test your site with Google's free PageSpeed Insights tool, and try it yourself on your own phone away from Wi-Fi. Big images and add-ons you don't use are the usual culprits.
Accessibility
A site that's easy for people with disabilities to use is easier for everyone: readable text, good contrast, clear headings, descriptions on images and forms that work without a mouse. Ontario's accessibility law (AODA) also sets website requirements for some businesses, depending on their size, so check whether they apply to you.
Ready for AI search
People increasingly ask AI tools which local business to call. Those tools read your site too, so clear service pages, your service area in plain text and contact details that match your Google profile all help. Some sites also add structured business information that machines read directly. Our guide to local search and AI goes further.
The part nobody mentions: upkeep
A website isn't finished at launch. Somebody has to:
- keep it hosted and secure, with a valid security certificate (the padlock in the browser);
- apply updates, especially on platforms that rely on plugins, which need patching;
- change the content when prices, staff, hours or services change;
- check the forms still work, because a broken form fails silently.
Many trades businesses have a site built and then nobody owns it. Two years later the photos are out of date, a plugin is broken and the contact form sends to an old email address. Whether you do it yourself or have it managed, decide who's responsible.
Put this to work
Managed Website is part of Velocity, for Traction clients once their 30-day trial is complete. During the trial you can ask for mock website designs, a site audit and a free website consultation.
This article is general information for business owners, not legal advice. Survey figures are US consumer research where noted; we are not aware of equivalent published Canadian surveys and do not present them as Canadian data.