What should a plumber put on their homepage?

Think about who actually opens a plumber's website. It is someone with a dripping ceiling, a boiler showing a fault code, or a toilet that will not stop running. They found you in Google or on a map, they have two other tabs open, and they will ring whichever firm looks most likely to pick up and turn up.

That is the job of your homepage. It is not a brochure. It is the page that decides whether the phone rings for you or for the next name down the list. So here is what belongs on it, in roughly the order a stressed customer looks for it.

What does a customer need to see in the first five seconds?

Before they scroll, on a phone, three things:

• What you do, in plain words. "Plumbing and heating in Croydon and South London" beats a slogan every time. If you do emergency call-outs, say so here, not on page four.
• A phone number they can tap. Big, at the top, and it should dial when pressed. A number that has to be copied into the phone app loses people.
• Whether you cover their area. A single line naming your towns or postcodes saves the customer guessing and saves you calls from forty miles away.

If you only fix one thing this week, fix that top strip. Everything else on the page supports it.

Should emergency and planned work be treated differently?

Yes, because they are two different customers. The emergency caller wants speed and reassurance: can you come today, and what happens out of hours. The boiler replacement or bathroom customer wants to compare, read, and book a quote at a time that suits them.

A good plumbing homepage splits these early. A clear "Emergency? Call now" route for one, and a "Get a quote" route for the other. If you do not take out-of-hours work, say that too. It is better to lose a 10pm caller honestly than to have them ring, get voicemail, and leave a bad review.

And if your phone is the bottleneck, because you are under a sink when it rings, the website cannot fix that on its own. That is where an AI assistant that answers and books enquiries earns its place. We looked at the maths in what missed calls really cost a trade business.

Which accreditations belong on the homepage?

The ones customers can check. If you work on gas appliances, your Gas Safe registration is not a nice-to-have, it is what the law requires, and customers increasingly know to look for it. Show the logo with your registration number so anyone can verify it on the public register.

Beyond that, show the memberships and schemes you genuinely hold, and your insurance. Keep it to a clean row of logos near the top. Never add a badge you are not currently entitled to use; one customer checking turns a trust signal into a problem.

How much proof do you need, and what kind?

More than a single "we're great" paragraph, less than a gallery of two hundred photos. What works:

• Real reviews, pulled from where they live. Your Google reviews carry more weight than quotes typed onto the page, because the customer knows they are harder to fake. If you have not set that profile up properly, start with the 20-minute Google Business Profile setup.
• A handful of your own job photos. A tidy cylinder cupboard, a finished bathroom, a neat manifold. Your own photos, not stock images of a smiling model with a spanner.
• A face and a name. People are letting you into their home. A photo of you or the team, and one line about how long you have been doing this, does more than any tagline.

What services should be listed?

List them as the customer would search for them, not as you would describe them on a job sheet. "Boiler repair", "boiler installation", "leak detection", "bathroom fitting", "blocked drains". Each one should link to its own page.

That last part matters for search. A homepage can mention ten services, but Google ranks pages that answer one specific thing well. A page for "boiler installation in Croydon" has a real chance of appearing for that search. A homepage trying to be about everything rarely does. That is the core of local SEO for trades, and it is why the homepage should act as a signpost rather than try to hold every detail.

What can you leave off?

Plenty. You do not need:

• A long history of the company above the fold.
• An auto-playing video or a sliding banner nobody waits for.
• A mission statement.
• A blog feed on the homepage, unless you actually post.
• Five different contact forms. One short form (name, number, postcode, what is wrong) is enough.

Every extra block pushes the phone number and the proof further down, and makes the page slower on a mobile signal in a basement.

How do you know if your homepage is working?

Open it on your phone, on mobile data, and see how long it takes to find your number and your area. If you hesitate, a customer with a leak will too.

The real test is enquiries. If people visit and do not call, the page is leaking somewhere: no clear area, a number that is hard to tap, no visible proof, or a slow load. We cover the wider set of causes in why your trade website isn't bringing in enquiries.

Where to start

If you already have a site, find out what is holding it back before you change anything. Run the free site audit for an instant check on speed, mobile use and the basics that stop the phone ringing.

If you want a homepage built around how plumbing and heating customers actually search and call, see websites for plumbing and heating firms, including emergency call flows, service pages by town and 24/7 call answering.