Website for a Trade Business: What Actually Brings Enquiries
Key takeaways
- For a trade business, a Google Business Profile is often more important than the website itself.
- What brings enquiries: service area, real project photos, a visible phone number, reviews.
- What does not: stock photos, animations, a blog with nothing in it.
- German trade businesses must list their chamber and professional title in the Impressum.
- A working trade website starts at €1,200.
Most trade businesses run on referrals. That works until the order book gets thin or a competitor becomes more visible online. Then the website question comes up.
What typically happens: an agency builds an attractive site with stock photos and animations, the business pays four thousand euros, and still gets no enquiries through it.
This article covers what on a trade website actually generates calls, and what you can skip.
Contents
First: the Google Business Profile
Before thinking about a website, set up a Google Business Profile. Free, thirty minutes of work, and for a local trade business often more effective than any website.
When someone searches "electrician Braunschweig", three listings appear first with a map, reviews and phone numbers — the Local Pack. Classic search results only come below that. Whoever is in the Local Pack gets the call.
What you need:
- Register at business.google.com
- Choose a category (electrician, plumber, painter)
- Define your service area — the towns you work in
- Complete verification (postcard or phone)
- Upload photos — real images of your work, not stock
- Ask your first five customers for a review
Five reviews at four or five stars do more in local results than any amount of search optimisation. That is not an exaggeration — it is how the Local Pack works.
What belongs on the website
The service area, named specifically
The most common mistake: "we serve the region." Which region? Google does not know, and neither does the customer.
Name the towns and districts: Braunschweig, Wolfenbüttel, Salzgitter, Peine, 40 km radius. That is information for the customer and a signal for Google at the same time.
Real photos of your work
A stock photo of a smiling tradesperson with folded arms says nothing. A photo of the tiles you actually laid, the heating you installed, the roof you finished says everything.
Phone photos at decent quality are entirely sufficient. What matters more than the camera is that it is your work. Before-and-after images work particularly well.
Legal note: if a customer's property is identifiable in the images, get their permission.
The phone number, visible and tappable
Trade customers call. They rarely fill in forms, especially when it is urgent.
The number belongs at the top of every page, large enough, and on mobile as a tap-to-call link.
Your services, listed individually
Not "we handle everything bathroom related", but the individual services named: bathroom renovation, accessible shower conversion, burst pipe repair, heating maintenance.
The reason is practical: people search for the specific service, not the category. Someone searching "accessible shower conversion Braunschweig" will not find a page that only says "plumbing".
If you have several major service areas, a separate page for each is worthwhile. Google indexes pages, not paragraphs.
Emergency service, if you offer one
If you are reachable outside regular hours, that belongs at the top. Emergency searches are the most urgent and most valuable enquiries there are, and competition on those terms is often lower.
Reviews and references
Two or three genuine customer statements with location and job type. Not invented ones. If you have Google reviews, link to them.
Impressum and privacy policy
Mandatory in Germany. For trade businesses, additionally:
- The chamber of crafts (Handwerkskammer) you are registered with
- Professional title and country of award (for master craftsman businesses)
- VAT ID if applicable
Details in my Impressum and GDPR article.
What you can skip
Stock photos. The smiling man in a hard hat on every second trade website. Everyone recognises him. He does not build trust — he does the opposite.
Animations and video backgrounds. They slow the site down, especially on a phone with poor signal on a building site. They bring no enquiries.
A blog with nothing in it. If you do not intend to write regularly — and most trade businesses rightly do not — leave the blog out. A section with three posts from 2022 looks worse than no blog at all.
A contact form as the only route. Forms are fine as an addition, but trade customers reach for the phone. Offer both, with the phone more prominent.
Ten pages for a two-person business. Five good pages beat fifteen half-empty ones.
How to be found locally
Local search follows different logic than general search. Three factors matter.
Proximity. Google favours businesses near the searcher. You cannot influence this directly, but a correctly configured service area helps.
Prominence. Mentions of your business with consistent details (name, address, phone) across platforms: local directories, the chamber of crafts register, trade portals. Consistency matters — the same spelling everywhere.
Relevance. Your site and profile must make clear what you do and where. Hence the specific services and locations.
A practical point for Braunschweig: precise search terms deliver more than general ones here. "Bathroom renovation Braunschweig Ölper" has less volume than "tradesperson Braunschweig", but the person behind it is much closer to hiring.
What a trade website costs
| Scope | What you get | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One-pager | All information on one page, mobile, with legal pages | from €1,200 |
| 4–6 pages | Separate pages per service area, better for Google | €2,000 – 3,500 |
| With project gallery | Plus structured references | €2,500 – 4,500 |
Ongoing costs: domain €10–20/year, hosting €0–30/month, occasional updates.
For a small business already well booked through referrals, a one-pager plus Google Business Profile is often enough.
The order to do things in
- Set up the Google Business Profile — free, immediately effective
- Collect five reviews — ask satisfied existing customers
- Collect photos — take two or three images on every job
- Commission the website — with the collected photos and clear services
- Link site and profile — link in the profile, matching details on both
- Additional directories — chamber of crafts, local listings
Step 3 is the one almost everyone skips and the one that delivers most. Two minutes per job, and after six months you have material for a convincing website.
Frequently asked questions
Does a tradesperson need a website at all? Legally no. Practically: a Google Business Profile is the more important first step. A website complements it, because it offers more room for services and references and belongs to you.
Is a Facebook page enough? As an addition yes, as a replacement no. The page belongs to Facebook, not you, and ranks worse in Google.
Do I need to show my master craftsman certificate? Not as an image, but the professional title and the responsible chamber belong in the Impressum. Mentioning the qualification on the homepage builds additional trust.
How do I get reviews? Ask directly, ideally right after finishing the work while the customer is satisfied. A short link via WhatsApp or on the invoice works well.
What if I get a bad review? Respond factually, offer a solution. A single critical review among good ones looks more credible than exclusively five-star ratings.
Does my website need to be accessible? For businesses under ten employees and €2M turnover, an exemption applies to services under the BFSG. Details in my BFSG article.
Summary
A trade website does not need to be beautiful, it needs to work: be findable, say clearly what you do and where, and make calling easy.
The Google Business Profile is the first step and costs nothing. The website complements it. Real photos of your work matter more than any design element.
If you want to know what makes sense for your business, describe briefly what you do and in which area. You will get an honest assessment, even if it is that a Google profile and a one-pager are enough.