What to put on a plumber’s website

What to put on a plumber’s website is a short list. The reader is often on a phone, with a leak, a cold boiler, or a bathroom they have been meaning to replace. They need to know you cover their area, that you do this job, and how to reach you. I’m a web designer, so this checklist is about the pages and the wording.

The site I build for this trade is on websites for plumbers. The wider list, for any small firm, is what a small business website needs.

Make the phone number easy to tap

The urgent job starts as a search and becomes a call. Put the number in real text, on every page, large enough to tap. A number inside a logo, or in a photo of the van, cannot be dialled. Use the same number on the van, on invoices and on your Google Business Profile.

Give the hours for emergency call-outs, and say if you finish at six or leave weekends alone. A bathroom, a boiler swap or a landlord check can wait for a form. A burst pipe still needs one tap.

Name the jobs in the customer’s words

People type the problem, not the slogan on the van. Write boiler repair, no hot water, blocked drain, leaking tap, toilet repair, bathroom installation and landlord gas safety check as ordinary text. Group the work the way you do it.

• Emergency and repair. Leaks, blockages, and loss of heating or hot water.
• Planned heating. Servicing, repairs and replacements, where that is your work.
• Bathrooms and installation, if you fit them.
• Landlords. Gas safety checks and other landlord visits, so a landlord can see they are in the right place.

Leave out any job you do not offer. A short list is easier to trust than a page that names the entire trade.

Write the towns and the hours in full

List the towns and villages you will travel to. “The local area” does not say whether you will come. If you stop at a certain distance, say so. Customers use it to decide whether to call. I can’t promise a position for “plumber near me”, or for any other phrase.

Put the hours beside the towns, including out of hours. Mention a night or weekend call-out fee when you charge one, and publish a price only when it is real. A yard or trade counter needs an address and a note on parking.

Show what a customer can check

Say who will turn up: you, a small team, or a named engineer. A few plain sentences and a daylight phone photo of you and the van are enough. Show finished bathrooms and boiler installs only with the householder’s permission, and only when the work was yours.

If you are Gas Safe registered, put the number on the page as text and point people at the Gas Safe Register so they can look you up. Do the same for any other scheme you belong to, and for insurance you hold. When you have Google reviews, link to that profile. Put your own details on the page, and leave borrowed ratings and invented quotes off it.

Five pages, and a form for quieter jobs

The form is for work that can wait. Ask for a name, a phone number or email, the town or postcode, what is wrong or what they want fitted, and a photo of the boiler badge, the leak or the old bathroom. Keep the phone number above the form.

1. A home page that says you are a plumber, names the area and shows the number.
2. A services page, split as the jobs are split above.
3. The towns, on their own page or in a clear section.
4. A short about page, with the details a customer can check.
5. A contact page, with the form, the number and the email.

Give each page its own title and description. “Home” is a weak title. “Boiler repair in [the town]” is fair when that is the work and the town. Before the design, gather the number, email, hours, towns, jobs in the customer’s words, registration number, a few permitted photos, and whether a domain is already yours. A logo can follow. A website built from scratch can start from a name and those notes.

What can wait, and what it costs

A blog can wait until you will write it. Card payments can wait until you have your own Stripe account, so I can connect the links. A booking calendar can wait until you have a system you will use.

Serve the site over HTTPS, and make it readable on a phone without pinching to zoom. If the current site fails that test, I build a new one, as described on make my website mobile friendly. If the old site is the wider problem, that is a website redesign. A domain in your own name costs around £5–£10 a year.

The small-business website I build is £500, the same figure as on the pricing page. A pay monthly website spreads that £500 in one of three ways: £150 up front then £50 a month for 7 months, £100 up front then £100 a month for 4 months, or three payments of £166.67, £166.67 and £166.66. Each totals £500. After payoff you choose a £10-a-month hosting and care plan, or a full handover. The care plan covers hosting and small edits, such as a new town or a changed number. Bigger projects are quoted from around £1,200.

The homepage mock-up is free. Send the business name, the towns and the jobs through the mock-up form. The portfolio shows sites I run and example designs for other businesses, so a plumber’s preview should use your own name, towns and registration number.