Contact features
These decide whether an interested visitor becomes an enquiry. They are the first thing we design and the last thing we test before launch.
| Tap-to-call number | Visible near the top of every page on phones, as a button and as plain digits. Use a number customers recognise as safe to call: a local number, a mobile, or an 03 number, which Ofcom says costs no more than a call to an 01 or 02 number. |
|---|---|
| Job request form | Short: name, contact route, postcode, job type and a description. Optional photo upload only if you will actually look at the photos before calling. |
| Email address | A business address on your own domain, written out so people can copy it. |
| Hours and response | When you answer, when you reply to forms and whether emergency cover differs. Honest and specific. |
| Thank-you message | A clear confirmation after a form is sent, saying when the customer will hear back. |
The phone number deserves the most care. On a phone it should dial in one tap. On a desktop it should still be easy to read and copy. We avoid premium-rate numbers entirely, and Google does not accept them on a Business Profile.[1][2]
Trust features
People are letting a stranger into their home. The site should give them facts they can check rather than adjectives they cannot.
| Registrations with numbers | Gas Safe registration for gas work, with the registration number and a link to the public check. WaterSafe or approved contractor scheme membership where held. Only current, authorised memberships. |
|---|---|
| Real people | Names and photos of the owner and team where they are comfortable with it, so customers know who might arrive. |
| Your own work | Photos of finished jobs and your vans, not stock images. |
| Fair reviews | Reviews from real customers, shown without cherry-picking, linked to where they were posted, with a published policy on how you handle them. |
| Clear pricing basis | Call-out fees, hourly rates or how you quote, so there are no surprises. |
| Business identity | Trading name, how to complain, and company or VAT details where they apply. |
Two legal points shape this section. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, businesses must not display trust marks they are not authorised to use, and Trading Standards guidance highlights the Gas Safe logo in particular.[3] Since 6 April 2025 the same Act has banned fake reviews and misleading presentation of reviews, including suppressing negative ones.[4]
Content features
| One page per main service | Written the way customers describe the job, with what is included, typical timescales and what you need from them. |
|---|---|
| Coverage list and area pages | Every town or district you serve, and genuine area pages where you have real local detail. |
| Plain explanations | Short answers to the questions you hear on the phone every week. |
| Emergency page | If you take urgent work: what counts, when you answer, what it costs and safety steps while they wait. |
| Up-to-date facts | Nothing describing services you no longer offer or memberships that lapsed. |
Search features
| Unique titles and descriptions | Each page described accurately in its own words, within sensible lengths. |
|---|---|
| One clear heading per page | A single main heading that states what the page is about. |
| Structured data | Business, service and page markup that matches what is visible on the page. |
| Clean addresses | Short, readable page addresses that do not change without a redirect. |
| Sitemap and robots rules | A current sitemap submitted to Search Console and robots rules that do not block important pages. |
| Internal links | Services linked to related services and areas, so visitors and crawlers can follow the structure. |
None of this guarantees rankings. It removes the obstacles that stop good pages being found. See local search foundations for how we set it up.
Speed and accessibility features
| Fast loading | Main content visible within about 2.5 seconds on a phone, quick response to taps and no jumping layout, in line with Core Web Vitals. |
|---|---|
| Readable text | Comfortable body size, short paragraphs and strong contrast. |
| Large tap targets | Buttons and links big enough and far enough apart for a thumb. |
| Keyboard and screen reader support | Visible focus, labelled form fields, errors explained in text. |
| Light build | Few scripts, self-hosted fonts and properly sized images. |
We use Google's Core Web Vitals thresholds as performance targets and the W3C's WCAG 2.2 at level AA as the accessibility standard.[5][6]
Privacy and security features
| HTTPS everywhere | A valid certificate and automatic redirects from insecure addresses. |
|---|---|
| Privacy notice | What the form collects, why, who receives it and how long it is kept, written in plain language. |
| Cookie honesty | No tracking cookies unless you choose them, and a clear explanation of any that are used. |
| Form protection | Spam protection that does not punish real customers, such as hidden honeypot fields and rate limits rather than difficult puzzles. |
| Security headers | Server settings that reduce common attacks, including a content security policy. |
| Backups | Regular off-site backups and a tested restore process. |
The ICO says privacy information must be given at the time data is collected and must be concise, transparent and in clear, plain language.[7] For cookies, the rules changed on 5 February 2026, when new exceptions for some analytics and preference cookies came into force under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.[8] The cookies guide explains what that means for a small trade site.
Features we recommend leaving out
Some features look impressive in a sales demo but rarely help a plumbing firm. Automatic chat pop-ups interrupt people who were about to call. Sliders hide most of their content. Long animated intros slow the page. Stock testimonials and counters claiming thousands of happy customers invite scepticism, and invented ones break the law. We will build anything that genuinely helps your customers, but we will tell you honestly when we think a feature will cost you more than it earns.
Start with a written scope, not a sales call
Tell us how your jobs come in, where you work and what the site has to do. You get a plain scope back by email.
Sources
- Google Business Profile Help Guidelines for representing your business on Google checked 29 October 2026
- Ofcom What are 03 numbers? checked 29 October 2026
- Business Companion (Trading Standards guidance) Membership logos and claims of approval checked 29 October 2026
- CMS Law-Now No more faux five-stars: the DMCC Act bans fake reviews secondary source checked 29 October 2026
- web.dev (Google) Web Vitals checked 29 October 2026
- W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 checked 29 October 2026
- Information Commissioner's Office The right to be informed checked 29 October 2026
- Womble Bond Dickinson New exceptions for non-intrusive cookies: the ICO's updated guidance secondary source checked 29 October 2026