How Tradie Launch works
every feature explained

85% of people searching for a tradie are on their phone. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load on mobile, 53% of visitors leave before they even see your name.

Most tradie websites were built for desktop in 2016 and never updated — they look like garbage on a phone. Text is too small, buttons are impossible to tap, and the page jumps around while it loads.

A mobile-first site is designed for the phone screen first, desktop second. Big tap targets, fast loading, text you can actually read without zooming. The customer decides in 2 seconds if you look legit. A site that loads fast and looks clean on their phone says "this tradie has their act together."

The entire point of a tradie website is to make the phone ring. If a customer has to copy your phone number, switch apps, and paste it into their dialler — you've already lost half of them.

A click-to-call button that works the instant they tap it removes every barrier between "I need a plumber" and "I'm calling one."

WhatsApp is even bigger — tradies can't answer calls on the tools, but they can read a WhatsApp message at smoko. A pre-filled WhatsApp link ("Hey, I need a quote for...") gives the customer an easy way to reach you that doesn't require you to stop what you're doing.

Google has confirmed site speed is a ranking factor. A site that loads in 1.5 seconds ranks higher than one that loads in 5 seconds — all else being equal.

But it's not just rankings. Every second of load time costs you customers. A 1-second delay reduces conversions by 7%. A 3-second delay and 53% of mobile visitors are gone.

Most tradie websites are built on WordPress with 47 plugins, a theme that loads 3MB of JavaScript, and images that were never compressed. They load in 6–8 seconds. A hand-built site with optimised images loads in under 2 seconds. The customer doesn't notice a fast site — but they absolutely notice a slow one.

Every page on your website should have one obvious thing for the customer to do: call you, request a quote, or WhatsApp you. Not three options buried in a paragraph. One big, obvious button that says exactly what to do next.

Most tradie websites have a phone number in the header and nothing else. No button. No "Get a Free Quote" form. No WhatsApp link. The customer reads about your services, thinks "yeah, these guys look good" — and then has to figure out how to actually contact you. Every second of confusion is a customer who gives up and goes back to Google.

This is the technical backbone that makes Google understand your site. In plain English: it tells Google exactly what you do and where you do it.

Schema markup tells Google "this is a plumber in Wellington who does these 8 services across these 12 suburbs." Title tags and meta descriptions control what shows up in search results. Heading hierarchy tells Google what each page is about. Internal linking connects your service pages to your suburb pages.

Without this, your site is invisible to Google. You could have the best-looking site in the country and still not rank because Google can't understand what you do or where you do it. This is done once during the build and only needs minor tweaks after that — but it has to be done right.

Customers check your Google reviews before they call. But most tradie websites don't show reviews on the site itself — the customer has to leave your website, go to Google, find your profile, read reviews, then come back and decide to call. Every step is a chance to lose them.

Pulling your Google reviews directly onto your website keeps the customer on your page. They see "4.9 stars, 87 reviews" without leaving. Social proof right where the buying decision happens. This alone can increase enquiry rates by 15–20%.

Stock photos of a generic tradie in a hard hat holding a clipboard. Every customer has seen them. They scream "I bought a template."

Real photos of your actual work — a kitchen you just finished, a switchboard you upgraded, a deck you built — tell the customer "this is what I actually do."

Before/after photos are the most powerful content on any tradie website. A bathroom renovation from dated tiles to modern finish. A garden from overgrown mess to landscaped paradise. These photos do more selling than any paragraph of text ever will.

Most tradie websites have one page that lists every service in bullet points. "Plumbing. Gasfitting. Drainlaying. Maintenance." That tells the customer nothing and gives Google nothing to rank.

A dedicated page for each major service — "Bathroom Renovations Wellington", "Hot Water Installation", "Emergency Plumber" — does two things: (1) it gives the customer detail about exactly that service so they feel confident calling, and (2) it gives Google a specific page to rank for that specific search.

One service page can generate 5–10 calls per month by ranking for a search that your competitors' bullet-point list never will.

Customers want to know who's turning up at their house. A photo of you and your team, a short story about how you started, your qualifications, and why you give a damn — this is what converts a visitor from "maybe" to "I'll call these guys."

The about page is the second most-visited page on most tradie websites (after the homepage). Tradies who skip it or write a generic "we are committed to quality" paragraph miss the opportunity to build the trust that makes the phone ring.

A page targeting "electrician in Karori" ranks for that specific search. Without it, you're relying on your homepage to rank for every suburb — and it won't.

5 suburb pages at launch means you're fishing in 5 different ponds from day one. Each page includes localised content — mentioning nearby landmarks, common housing types, specific problems that suburb faces (old wiring in villas, salt air corrosion near the coast). This tells Google you genuinely serve that area, not just that you added the suburb name to a list.

Each page is a fishing line in the water. More pages = more lines = more calls.

Sounds basic. But 30% of tradie websites have forms that either don't work, go to an email nobody checks, or require 15 fields before the customer can submit.

Name, phone, what you need — three fields, that's it. The easier it is to submit, the more enquiries you get. Forms should send an instant notification and auto-respond: "Thanks, we got your details, we'll be in touch within a few hours." That confirmation alone stops the customer from calling your competitor while they wait.

SSL (HTTPS): Without the padlock icon, Chrome shows "Not Secure." Customers leave. Google penalises you. Free with most hosting. No excuse.

404 page: When someone hits a broken link and gets a generic error, they leave. A custom 404 with a link home and your phone number keeps them on the site.

Privacy policy: Nobody reads it. Google expects it. Customers notice if it's missing on a site that collects their phone number. 10 minutes to set up.