Websites for trades and workshops in Berlin

I went through around 400 Berlin trade businesses looking for work. This is what came out of it.

The most common case is not „no website"

Going through Berlin painters, roofers, electricians, joiners, tilers and heating engineers, the most common finding was not a missing website. It was a domain that is being paid for and leads nowhere.

Several businesses own an address, receive their post there, and anyone typing that address into a browser gets an error page, a placeholder from the hosting company, or a security warning because the certificate has expired. That is worse than nothing, because it looks like somebody gave up.

What a trade website has to do

• The phone number, large and tappable. Trades get called, not emailed. A number you cannot tap on a phone is a lost enquiry.
• Services in the words customers use. Nobody searches for „surface coating", people search for „get my flat painted".
• The area you cover. Do you drive to Spandau? Into Brandenburg? Someone who cannot find this calls somebody else.
• Your own photos. Not the stock pictures from the builder where everyone is smiling. Phone pictures from your own site are more credible than any catalogue image.
• Whether you are taking on work right now. One sentence that saves a lot of phone calls and shows the customer respect.

What does not matter

A gallery with thirty photos. A blog nobody writes. Animations. A contact form with eleven fields where a phone number would do. The busier the page, the quieter the phone.

Five pages are nearly always enough

Home, services, work, about, contact. A trade business rarely needs more, and fewer pages means less that goes out of date.