Website for trades businesses: enquiries, not a business card.

Someone looking for a joiner, a painter or a garage usually wants three answers. Do they do what I need? Do they work in my area? How do I reach them quickly? A website for tradespeople answers these questions on the first screen, on a phone as well as a computer. Everything else comes second. That is why we build every page for the phone first and test it on real devices.

• Photos of finished jobs, with place, year and material
• A quote request form with fields that fit your trade
• Your service area, written out with place names
• An emergency number that dials with one tap on a phone
• Opening and contact hours, easy to find rather than hidden in the footer

An online business card lists a name, an address and a phone number. That is rarely enough to win a job. A website meant to bring in enquiries shows finished work, says clearly where you operate and makes asking for a quote easy. These five elements go into every website we build for a trades business:

Photos of real jobs are the strongest argument a trades business has. A fitted kitchen, a freshly painted facade, a well kept classic car: this is how customers judge what to expect from you. We show images large and without frames, with a few facts underneath. Place, year, material and dimensions are enough. A gallery becomes a portfolio of work.

Copy and images are included in the price. If you have photos of your own jobs, we are glad to use them, and good phone photos often work. If not, we supply suitable images for the launch. On-site photo shoots are not part of our offer. With the editing area you later replace the launch images with photos of new jobs yourself.

A single empty message box tends to produce questions like ‘How much is a kitchen?’. A better form asks for the key facts straight away. What is the job, when should it start, where is the property? A painter adds the approximate area, a garage asks for the type of vehicle. You get enquiries you can price without a round of follow-up calls.

A contact form is part of every package. We agree on the fields in the first conversation. Required fields stay few, because every extra question costs patience. Phone and email always sit next to the form, both tappable on mobile. Anyone who prefers to call should not have to fill in a form first.

Write on the page where you work. ‘Right shore of Lake Zurich, from Zollikon to Rapperswil’ is clearer for customers than a list of postcodes. It also helps search engines link your business to a region. For local searches, a Google Business Profile that you set up yourself helps as well.

If you offer an emergency service, the number belongs at the top, not in the legal notice. On a phone it becomes a button: one tap and the call starts. Your opening and contact hours sit right next to it. Someone calling at 6 pm should see beforehand whether anyone will answer. If office hours and emergency hours differ, we list them separately.

Three example websites show what this looks like in the trades. The businesses are examples, but the sites work in full. Amrein Holzwerk keeps a portfolio listing place, year, type of wood and finished dimensions. Its enquiry form asks for the kind of project, the timing and the postcode. Phone number and quote request stay in the top bar.

Garage Frei lists its prices openly, from an oil service to the hourly rate, and keeps an appointment request button in the top bar. Malerei Zbinden shows reference jobs with area, duration and colour, a before and after comparison and a clearly named service area. All three are among our example websites.

Every package has a fixed price and includes copy and images. Starter at CHF 849 suits sole traders and small businesses with a clear offer. You get one page with a contact form, Google Maps and SSL, live in 7 to 10 working days. Changes during the first month are included.

Business at CHF 1'449 is meant for trades businesses that want to present several services. It covers up to 7 pages, German and English, and the editing area. Ultimate at CHF 2'199 adds hosting, maintenance and ongoing changes for the first year. If you would rather not deal with the website at all, choose Ultimate. Business and Ultimate go live in 12 to 14 working days.

After the first year, or without Ultimate, the maintenance plan costs CHF 100 per month, billed every six months. Single changes without a plan cost CHF 75 per hour. Every item is broken down under website cost in Switzerland and website maintenance in Switzerland. You can compare all three in the packages on our home page.

From the Business package onwards you get your own editing area. You log in and change text and images directly on the page, with no coding knowledge. After saving, the change goes live automatically. Guard rails stop the layout from breaking, even when a text gets longer. We developed the editing area ourselves.

Typical changes in a trades business are quick to make. You upload a photo of a new kitchen and add the place and year. You announce your company holidays or adjust your hours around public holidays. You change a service description or a price. With Ultimate we make such changes for you during the first year if you are short of time.

It starts with a thirty-minute conversation, free and without obligation. You then receive a written quote with a fixed price and a delivery date. During the build you see the current state every day under a private link. Nothing goes live until you approve it. The full process is described under having a website built.

After launch you own the domain, the hosting account, the complete code and the login for the editing area. Hosting is in Switzerland with Infomaniak. If you change provider later, you take everything with you. We work for businesses across German-speaking Switzerland. We meet in person in the Zurich area, otherwise by video or phone.