Skilled trades such as plumbing, is an incredibly competitive sector. Given the sheer volume of plumbers operating today, an excellent online presence is a vital component for the success of any plumbing business. In our digital age, plumbers and other tradespeople must think about crucial elements such as website design and website maintenance. In this article, marketing experts discuss 12 things a great plumber website should have.

A Contact Form On Every Page,  Include Your Phone Number And Emergency Number On Every Page, And Testimonials

“A great plumber website should offer the opportunity for users to convert across the entire website. First, your website must have a form. Do not allow the only way to reach your business be by phone or email. Next, you’ll want to include that form on every service page and the homepage of your website (not just a contact page). You’ll also want to include your phone number and emergency number (if applicable) on every page. We suggest making this a global announcement bar across your website.

Make it easy for users to reach you because if they have to search for your contact information they will just go to their next option.

Also, a plumber website should have testimonials front and center. Have them on your homepage, include them on service pages across the website, and even dedicate a page to your top testimonials as well as give clients the opportunity to submit their own – preferably using Google Reviews. Not only is having testimonials on your site important for reputability and establishing trust, but Google Reviews are very important for local SEO. Google will show the businesses with the most ratings and the best ratings before they will show one with no reviews whatsoever. They increase your trustworthiness in search.”

Morgan Hennessey, Manager, Search Marketing, Electric Enjin

A Custom Website, Keeping Your Audience In Mind At All Times Is Key To Your Content, Reviews Help Establish Credibility And Show Trust

“Plumbing services can be a very competitive market on the web, so ensuring you have a custom website is one key factor that can differentiate you from the plumbing companies who simply put up a very generic template style site simply to check off, have a website. When you go custom, you have the ability to handcraft the site with features to help connect with your audience, optimize for local search, and stand out from the pack. 

Keeping your audience in mind at all times is key to your content. For example, if you do 90% residential and only 10% commercial, craft your content to meet the needs of a typical residential customer looking for plumbing services. Have your phone number easy to find and on every page. Think of the things that set you apart from your competition. These should be your key initial messages. For example, you’ve been in business x-number of years, you have a quick response time, you give free estimates, you specialize in emergency services, remodels, or new builds, you are a locally-owned, family business, etc. 

Reviews are another key thing you need to have on your site. Pulling in real reviews from across the web using 3rd party services to add those to your site is an easy way to do this. Reviews help establish credibility and show trust.”

Sherry Holub, Creative Director, JVM Design

Call-To-Action Elements That Appear Above The Fold When A Visitor Lands On The Page

“There many elements that make a good plumber website, but none are more crucial to business than the number of call-to-action (CTA) elements that appear above the fold when a visitor lands on the page. A great website will have at a minimum of 5 CTA on desktop (can be 3-4 on mobile).

Common CTA elements are:

1) Clickable business email address

2) Clickable phone number (great for mobile)

3) Contact page linked in the navigational menu

4) Sidebar quote form

5) Chat support

In the digital marketing world, having a website that converts is crucial. It’s why we recommend plumbing companies have multiple CTA elements versus one.”

John Pinedo, Co-founder, Instinct Marketing

Estimations, Professionality, And An Option To Schedule

“Here are what plumber websites need:

Reviews – engaging, helpful reviews give people trust in you

Estimations – no one likes surprises. Don’t waste their time by offering value on certain jobs and your estimations of what they typically run.

Professionality – plumbers have this aurora of being dirty and unprofessional. Great photography that communicates otherwise is important.

Option to schedule – more and more people don’t want to get on the phones. Let me set up an appointment for you to come out via calendar or form! While not a necessity to have on your website, it is something to consider.”

Isaiah Ram, Marketing Specialist, Septic Masters

NAP Information (Name, Address, And Phone Number) And An Embedded Map In Every Single Location Page

“Something that I have recently started implementing across all of my plumbing client’s websites is NAP information (name, address, and phone number) and an embedded map in every single location page. This has been extremely beneficial to our SEO efforts for our plumbing clients. I have seen their rankings for important keywords like plumbers near me, local plumbers, plumbers X location, and local plumbing company dramatically increase. My clients were previously unranked in these terms and after about three months they are all on the first page of Google and often times in first place in these locations. We didn’t even have to use these phrases in the copy, which makes the content sound smoother and more user friendly. Having our clients appear at the top of the search results page for these

specific local terms brings in more relevant traffic and drives more leads.”

Katie Stone, Brand Coordinator, Leadhub

Plumbing services are an exceedingly crowded marketplace online. Therefore, for a plumbing business to truly flourish, having an exceptional digital presence is imperative. In addition to possessing a great website, tradespeople such plumbers must also understand that things like SEO services are essential for success in our digital age. Ultimately, utilizing effective design and marketing services is essential for establishments to succeed and thrive in 2020.

Sarah Bauder

Sarah Bauder is a senior content specialist at Little Dragon Media. Sarah has a degree in journalism and has a decade of experience writing content at numerous renowned publications. She enjoys writing about digital marketing, business, entrepreneurship and more.