The symptom
The website exists, it has your van on it, and every job still comes from someone who knows someone. Google Analytics says people visit. Nobody calls from it. On trade sites we review, the cause is on this list, usually several at once. Check them in order; the first three are the path from a phone to a call.
1. The phone number is not tappable and not at the top
A customer with water coming through the ceiling is on their phone. If the number is text they have to copy, or it is in the footer, or the first thing they see is a slider of your van, they have called the next result.
Fix: a tap-to-call button in the header on every page, visible without scrolling, with hours or "24/7 emergencies" beside it. A second one after every section.
2. The site takes five seconds on a phone
Trade sites are photo-heavy and often on cheap hosting. On mobile data with one bar, private window, count until the page appears. Over two seconds and the emergency customer has gone.
Fix: images sized and compressed, the hero prioritised, sliders removed, scripts trimmed, decent hosting with caching. The highest-return fix on most trade sites.
3. The quote form asks for everything and takes no photos
A ten-field form asking for address, postcode, budget and a description loses most people. A form with no photo upload loses the rest, because a photo is how a customer describes a job.
Fix: name, mobile, town, what needs doing, photos, preferred time. Six fields, photo upload from the phone's camera, straight to your phone or your job software within a minute.
4. You are invisible for the towns you actually cover
You work across six towns and your site mentions one address. "Plumber [other town]" finds your competitors. Google ranks a page about a town, and you do not have one.
Fix: a page per town you serve, with genuine local content: recent jobs there, the roads and estates you know, travel time, local reviews, a call button. Not one paragraph swapped for the town name; real pages.
5. You have one Services page for twelve services
"Boiler repair", "bathroom installation", "EV charger installation" are different searches and different customers. A bullet list ranks for none and convinces nobody.
Fix: a page per service: what it involves, what it typically costs or how you quote, how long, photos of your work, relevant accreditations, FAQs, Call and Get a quote buttons.
6. There is no proof you are real and insured
Customers are letting a stranger into their home. They want your licence or registration number, your insurance, your accreditations (Gas Safe, NICEIC, Master Builders, whatever applies), your face, your van, your real jobs and your reviews. A site with a stock photo of a handshake fails this.
Fix: a trust bar with registration numbers and accreditation logos linking to the registers; a team photo; job photos with captions; Google reviews pulled in with reserved space near the call buttons.
7. Enquiries go nowhere fast
The form emails an address nobody checks on site. The voicemail is full. The quote request from Tuesday is answered Friday, after the customer booked someone else.
Fix: form and photo quotes to your phone (via your job software or a notification), a same-day response target, a voicemail that says "text us a photo at this number", and a callback form for when you are under a floor.
8. You cannot tell what the site does
Without tracking, you cannot know which of the seven above is the problem or which town the jobs came from.
Fix: call-click and quote-submission events by page and town; a dedicated tracking number if most enquiries are calls; a monthly look at enquiries by area page.
The order
Items 1 to 3 are the path; fix them and calls start within days. Items 4 and 5 are visibility; they build over months and are what grows the business. Item 6 is why they choose you. Item 7 is whether you catch it. Item 8 is how you know.
Where this sits
This is the checklist every trade website we build is tested against before launch, and the first half of a diagnosis on an existing one. Most trade sites fail at least four; most failures are fixable without a rebuild, and the area pages are the one that changes the business.