If you are a tradesperson with a website that is not generating any leads, you are not alone. The vast majority of trade websites in the UK sit on page three, four, or nowhere at all in Google search results. They exist on the internet, technically. But nobody finds them.
The frustrating part is that you probably paid good money for that website. A local designer built it, it looks decent enough, and it says all the right things about your business. So why does the plumber down the road — whose website looks worse than yours — rank on page one while you are invisible?
The answer is almost always the same. It is not about how the website looks. It is about how it is built. And the patterns are remarkably consistent once you know what to look for.
The typical trade website
If you look at a hundred trade websites across the UK — plumbers, electricians, roofers, builders — roughly eighty of them follow the same pattern:
Four to five pages. A homepage, an about page, a services page, a gallery page, and a contact page. Sometimes a testimonials page. That is it.
One generic services page. Everything the business does is crammed into a single page: “We offer boiler installation, boiler repair, bathroom fitting, emergency plumbing, central heating, underfloor heating, and more.” No individual detail about any of them.
No location targeting. The website mentions the county or region in general terms — “serving the South East” or “covering Kent and surrounding areas” — but does not have pages for individual towns.
Stock photos or no photos at all. Either the images are clearly from a stock library, or the site has no images beyond a logo.
No reviews on the site. Testimonials might exist on Checkatrade, but the website itself has no social proof.
No blog or content. The site was built, launched, and never touched again.
This describes the overwhelming majority of trade websites. And it explains why they do not rank.
What the top results actually have
Now look at the tradesperson ranking number one in Google for a competitive local search like “plumber in Maidstone” or “roofer in Norwich.” Their website looks fundamentally different:
Thirty or more pages. Not filler — each page serves a purpose. Dedicated pages for each service, dedicated pages for each town, plus supporting content like FAQs, blog posts, and case studies.
Individual service pages. Instead of one page listing everything, there is a separate page for boiler installation, a separate page for boiler repair, a separate page for bathroom fitting, and so on. Each page describes the service in detail, explains what the customer can expect, and includes a way to get in touch.
Individual location pages. Instead of “covering Kent,” there are pages for Maidstone, Canterbury, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Dartford, Gravesend, and every other town in the service area. Each one tailored to that specific location.
Real photos. Genuine images of completed work. Before-and-after shots. Photos of the team, the van, the tools. Nothing from a stock library.
Google reviews displayed prominently. The star rating and recent reviews are visible on the homepage and throughout the site.
Regular updates. New content, new photos, new blog posts. The site is clearly active and maintained.
The difference is not subtle. It is structural. And Google can see it clearly.
Why structure matters more than design
Here is a concept that many tradespeople and web designers miss: Google does not rank websites. It ranks individual pages. When someone searches “boiler repair Maidstone,” Google is looking for a specific page that matches that search. It wants to find a page that is specifically about boiler repair in Maidstone.
If your website has one services page that mentions boiler repair alongside fifteen other services, and mentions Maidstone alongside twenty other towns, Google has a weak match at best. But if your website has a dedicated page titled “Boiler Repair in Maidstone” that describes boiler repair services specific to the Maidstone area, Google has a perfect match. That page will rank. Your generic page will not.
This is why a beautiful five-page website from an expensive designer often gets outranked by a plain-looking thirty-page website built with SEO structure in mind. Google does not care about your colour scheme or your font choice. It cares about whether you have the right page for the right search.
The five most common mistakes
1. One page trying to do everything
The single biggest killer of trade website rankings is the all-in-one services page. “We offer plumbing, heating, bathrooms, drainage, and more — covering Surrey, Hampshire, and Berkshire.” That page is trying to rank for dozens of different searches and succeeding at none of them.
Each service you offer and each area you cover needs its own dedicated page. This is not about creating thin, low-quality pages — each one should genuinely describe the service, what the customer can expect, and how to get in touch. But they need to be separate so Google can match them to specific searches.
2. No location pages
If you serve a county or large area, having one page that lists all the towns you cover is not enough. A comma-separated list of twenty towns on your contact page does not help you rank in any of them individually.
A homeowner in Bromley searching “plumber in Bromley” wants to see a result that specifically mentions Bromley. If the only plumber websites that mention Bromley have dedicated pages for it — while yours just lists it among nineteen other towns — those sites will rank and yours will not.
3. No fresh content
Google rewards websites that show signs of being active and maintained. A website that was built three years ago and has not been touched since sends a signal that the business may not even be operating anymore.
This does not mean you need to blog every day. But adding new content occasionally — a new service page, a case study of a recent job, a seasonal tip — tells Google the site is alive. Even just updating your existing pages with new information or photos helps.
4. Ignoring mobile users
More than half of local service searches happen on mobile phones. A homeowner with a leaking pipe is not sitting at a desktop computer — they are standing in their kitchen with their phone. If your website does not work well on a phone screen, both Google and the customer will move on to one that does.
Google explicitly uses mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor. If your site is not responsive (meaning it adapts to different screen sizes), it will be penalised in mobile search results.
5. No connection to Google Business Profile
Your website and your Google Business Profile should work together. Your website should link to your GBP listing, and your GBP listing should link to your website. The information on both should be identical — same business name, same phone number, same address.
When Google sees consistency between your website and your GBP listing, and sees that your website has strong, relevant content that supports what your GBP says you do, both your organic rankings and your map pack position benefit. Our Google Business Profile guide explains how to set this connection up properly.
What you can do about it
If your website fits the pattern of the “typical trade website” described above, the good news is that the problem is fixable. The bad news is that it probably means a significant rebuild rather than a few tweaks.
Here is the honest assessment of your options:
Fix it yourself. If you have the time and willingness to learn, you can restructure your website to include individual service pages and location pages. This is a significant time investment — building thirty-plus pages of quality content takes weeks of work — but it is doable. Our local SEO tips for plumbers article walks through the approach.
Get your web designer to restructure it. If the designer who built your original site understands SEO (many do not), they may be able to add the necessary pages. Be specific about what you need: individual service pages, individual location pages, proper title tags, and mobile optimisation. Do not just ask for a “redesign” — the structure is what matters, not the look.
Work with a specialist. An agency or service that specialises in local SEO for tradespeople will know exactly what structure Google needs and will build it that way from the start. This saves time but costs money. Our article on how much SEO costs for tradespeople breaks down the pricing honestly.
The gap is your opportunity
Here is the thing about the typical trade website being so common: it means the bar is surprisingly low. In most counties, across most trades, the competition is not that strong. Most of your competitors have the same four-page website with the same generic services page. The tradesperson who builds a proper thirty-page site with dedicated service and location pages does not just rank — they dominate, because nobody else has bothered.
The gap between a typical trade website and one that ranks on Google is not about budget or talent. It is about structure. And the tradespeople who close that gap first get a compounding advantage that only grows over time.
If you want someone to handle the whole thing — a thirty-plus page website built to rank, directory listings across forty-plus sites, Google Business Profile management, review cards, and monthly rank tracking — Localengine does exactly that for three hundred pounds per month with no setup fee. We work with one tradesperson per county, so once you claim your area, your competitors are permanently locked out. Check whether your county is still available.