What your website has to do before a customer picks up the phone

Someone with a leaking radiator is not browsing. They have typed "plumber near me" into their phone, they have four results open in tabs, and they are going to ring whichever one makes it easiest. Your website is not competing on looks. It is competing on how quickly it answers the questions they already have.

Here is what the first screen — the part visible before anyone scrolls — needs to settle.

1. Can you help with this?

Say what you do in plain words, near the top. "Plumbing and heating repairs, boiler servicing and bathroom fitting" beats a slogan every time. If a visitor has to scroll to find out whether you do the job they need, most of them will go back and try the next tab instead.

2. Do you cover where I live?

Name the towns. A line such as "Covering Northampton, Wellingborough and surrounding villages" does two jobs at once: it reassures the visitor, and it tells Google which searches you should appear in. A map is a nice extra; the words are the part that counts.

3. How do I get hold of you?

The phone number should be on screen, and on a phone it should be a tap-to-call link rather than text someone has to copy. If you would rather receive enquiries by form, keep the form short:

• Name
• Phone number or email
• What the job is
• Postcode

Anything beyond that can wait for the conversation.

4. Can I trust you?

Visitors look for evidence that you are real and that other people have been happy with your work. Genuine reviews, photos of jobs you have actually done, trade accreditations and a named person behind the business all help. Stock photos of smiling people in hard hats do the opposite.

The most persuasive thing on a trade website is usually a photo of a finished job, taken on a phone, with the town in the caption.

5. Will this take forever to load?

Speed is part of the answer to every question above. A page that is still loading after a few seconds on patchy mobile data never gets the chance to answer any of them. Heavy page builders, autoplaying video and oversized images are the usual culprits, and they are the reason we write every site by hand rather than starting from a template.

None of this is about design

Good design makes all five answers easier to find, but it cannot stand in for them. If you are not sure whether your current site passes, open it on your phone, time how long it takes to find the phone number, and ask yourself whether you would ring.

If you would like us to take a look, our pricing is published and a proposal is free.