What Belongs on a Tradesperson's Website?

What belongs on a tradesperson's website?

A tradesperson's website needs six things: clearly named services, your service area, a way to enquire, real references, a complete Impressum (legal notice) and a privacy policy. Everything else is a bonus. If you get these six right, you have a site that visitors understand and Google can classify.

This article goes through the points in order. We separate two things: what the law requires (Impressum, privacy) and what brings you enquiries (services, references, contact options). Both belong on the site, but for different reasons.

Who looks at your website, and on what device?

Most visitors come with a smartphone. In Germany, mobile devices made up almost 60 percent of web traffic in September 2026. Whoever has a burst pipe at night or needs an electrician on a building site quickly will search on their phone.

For you this means: plan the site from the phone. The phone number must be dialable with one tap, text must be readable without zooming, and buttons must be easy to hit with a thumb. Google also ranks mainly on the mobile version of your site. According to Google Search Central, the mobile version is used for indexing and ranking. If it shows less content than the desktop version, Google says this can lead to traffic loss.

Which content brings enquiries?

Visitors send enquiries when they can see within seconds what you do, where you work and how to reach you. The overview below shows what belongs on the home page and why.

Services: write what customers search for

Name services the way customers google them. Instead of “comprehensive solutions around the house”, write “bathroom renovation”, “gutter cleaning” or “electrical safety check”. Every important service gets its own subpage or at least its own section with two or three sentences: what do you do, for whom, how does it work?

Service area: name the places

Write down the places where you work. Visitors want to know whether you will come to them. A sentence like “We work in Augsburg and within 30 kilometres” is enough. Match your Google Business Profile to the same details, so that site and profile fit together.

Contact: make the first step easy

Phone number and email belong visibly in the header and the footer. A short form with few fields lowers the barrier for enquiries outside working hours. Ask only what you need for a first quote: name, callback number, place, short description. The more required fields, the fewer submissions.

References: your own photos instead of stock images

Show work you really did: before and after, with place and type of job. If customers are recognisable in photos or addresses are visible, get their consent first. Do not use invented reviews or customer names. They do more harm than good and are legally risky.

What goes into the Impressum?

The Impressum needs name, address, contact details and a tax ID in the form of the VAT ID or the economic ID. The obligation arises mainly from § 5 of the Digital Services Act (DDG). The German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) says the purpose is that customers can contact you and check how reputable the business is. This applies to Germany. Austria has its own rules, which this article does not cover.

• Full first and last name for sole traders; for companies the company name, legal form and authorised representatives
• A summonable address with street and house number. A PO box is not enough
• Email address and phone number
• VAT ID or, if you have none, the economic ID (Wirtschafts-IdNr.)
• Court of registration and registration number if you are in the commercial register
• For health trades such as hearing aid acoustics or dental technology: the responsible chamber of crafts and the legal professional title

According to the ZDH, the economic ID has been assigned automatically since the end of 2024. If you have a VAT ID, that is enough. The Impressum must be easily recognisable, directly accessible and permanently available. In practice: an “Impressum” link in the footer of every page, at most two clicks away. Wrong or missing details count as a breach of competition law, and competitors can send warning letters.

What goes into the privacy policy?

As soon as your site processes data, you need a privacy policy under Art. 13 GDPR. That already happens with a contact form, with server logfiles and with embedded maps or videos. The policy must say in plain language who is responsible, which data you process for what purpose and on what legal basis, and how long you store it.

• Name and contact details of the controller, that is you
• Purposes and legal basis of the processing, for example answering an enquiry
• Recipients of the data, such as your hosting provider or an email service
• Storage period or the criteria for it
• Data subject rights: access, rectification, erasure, objection and complaint to the supervisory authority
• Note on transfers to third countries if you embed such services

Write the text for your specific case. A template from the web only fits if it describes exactly the services that run on your site. If you embed tracking tools or external content, visitor consent also comes into play. The fewer external services you use, the shorter and simpler the policy.

What does a good page structure look like?

Most trade businesses get by with five to seven pages. More pages only make sense if you have more to say. What matters is that every page has a clear purpose and is easy to find in the menu.

The last point is often forgotten. Google advises writing page titles that are descriptive and unique for each page, keeping them short and avoiding repeated keywords. Vague titles such as “Home” are expressly given as an example of what to avoid. Better: “Bathroom renovation in Augsburg | Mustermann Plumbing”.

What should you watch for in technology and speed?

A tradesperson's website must load fast and be secure. That includes HTTPS, the encrypted connection you recognise by the padlock in the browser. Large photos are reduced in size before upload so the page appears quickly even on a weak mobile connection. How to check this is explained in our article on load time with PageSpeed Insights.

If your old site does not meet these points, a rebuild is often worth more than constant patching. How to tell is shown in the article Outdated website? 8 signs.

A checklist to get started

1. Collect services

   Write down what you offer and name it the way customers search for it.

2. Define the service area

   Decide which places or which radius you serve, and name them on the site.

3. Take photos

   Photograph finished jobs in good quality and get consent where people or addresses are recognisable.

4. Build in contact options

   Clickable phone number, visible email, optionally a short form.

5. Write the legal texts

   Write the Impressum and privacy policy for your site and link them in the footer.

6. Test on a phone

   Open the site on a smartphone and call yourself through it.

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