Five things to see on the first screen of your trades website

Before you start

NN/g, a usability research firm, says content above the fold "serves as a gatekeeper, determining whether users will engage further with your site." NN/g, writing about homepages in general rather than phones, advises placing the most important content there. This article treats whatever shows on a phone before scrolling as that first screen; that choice is ours. Source: NN/g: Homepage Design Principles.

The five items are our own checklist. They are built from general homepage guidance and Google's business-listing rules, not from a study of plumbers, electricians or other trades.

Open your homepage on your phone in a normal browser tab. Do not scroll. Mark each item pass, fix or unsure. Note anything that covers the top of the page, such as a cookie notice or chat widget. For anything unsure, ask someone who does not know the business to look at the screen for five seconds and say what they think it offers. That is a suggestion, not a sourced method. The pages quoted below were read on 2026-11-02 and may change.

1. Your business name

NN/g puts it plainly: "Do not assume visitors to your site know your brand." In this checklist, your name should be readable without scrolling and should match how your business is listed elsewhere. Google's Business Profile rules say the name "should reflect your business's real-world name." If your site and your listing differ, make both match the name on your signage and paperwork. Source: NN/g: Homepage Design Principles; Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines to represent your business.

2. Your trade, in plain words

A made-up name like "Smith and Sons" does not say whether you fix pipes or wiring. NN/g advises that unless your company name gives away what you do, you include a concise tagline to communicate who you are and what you do. NN/g also states that failing to communicate a site's purpose at a glance causes potential customers to abandon it. It attributes this to studies it does not detail on that page, and it does not address trades sites. Source: NN/g: Homepage Design Principles.

Write the tagline as trade, then place, in one line, and read it aloud to check every word is true. The hypothetical example near the end shows the shape.

3. Where you work

Some trades businesses go to the customer rather than the customer coming to them. Google calls this a service-area business: one that visits or delivers to customers "directly but doesn't serve customers at their business address." Google also asks that your address and/or service area be accurate and precise. Source: Google Business Profile Help: Service-area businesses; Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines to represent your business.

As part of this checklist, name the main towns you cover in plain words near the top of your site, and keep them consistent with your Business Profile. That is our suggestion; Google's rules cover the profile, not your website.

Google says that a business that does not serve customers at its address should remove the address from its profile. Check which of these describes you before changing anything. Source: Google Business Profile Help: Service-area businesses.

4. A phone number that works with one tap

No source we found says a phone number must be on the first screen. Putting it there is part of this checklist, not a finding. What the sources do say is that content high on the page matters (NN/g) and that a tel: link starts a call on a phone (MDN). Source: NN/g: Homepage Design Principles; MDN: The Anchor element.

Look for your number without scrolling, then tap it. A number coded as a telephone link can start a call. MDN says cellular devices autodial the number, though behavior varies with device capabilities. The link is a small piece of code: a link whose address starts with tel:. On a laptop, tapping may do nothing, which is not a fault, so borrow a phone for this step. If tapping does nothing on a phone, that is a request for whoever built or maintains your site. Source: MDN: The Anchor element.

Also check the number itself. Google advises using a local phone number instead of a central call-center helpline number whenever possible. That guidance is written for Business Profiles, so treat it as a prompt to make sure your site and profile show the same number. Source: Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines to represent your business.

NN/g's customer service research looked at tasks such as shopping for insurance or opening a bank account rather than hiring a trade. It found that when contact information was nonexistent or very difficult to find, people thought the company was trying to avoid being contacted entirely. That study did not look at plumbers or electricians, and it says nothing about how many calls any change brings. Source: NN/g: Omnichannel customer service UX.

5. One clear next step

NN/g advises giving users "a clear starting point by assigning visual prominence to key tasks." It also warns that if everything is emphasized, nothing stands out. For most trades sites the key task is probably calling, or asking for a visit or quote, but that is our reading, not a finding from the sources. Source: NN/g: Homepage Design Principles.

Check the label on your main button. NN/g advises clear, descriptive link labels. "Call now" or "Request a quote" are our examples of descriptive wording; "Learn more" or "Submit" are examples of vaguer wording. Source: NN/g: Homepage Design Principles.

Quick edit or ask whoever maintains your site?

These may be quick edits, depending on your site editor: the tagline text, the list of towns, the button label.

Probably a request to whoever built or maintains the site: making the number a tap-to-call link, changing what sits at the top of the page, changing the layout on phones.

Your checklist

1. Business name visible without scrolling, and matching your Google listing.

2. Trade stated in plain words near the name.

3. Main towns or areas named, consistent with your Business Profile.

4. Phone number visible on the first screen (our checklist's choice) and tappable; same number as your listing.

5. One clearly labelled next step that stands out.

Write down what failed, fix the quick edits yourself, and send the rest to your site maintainer as a short list. Run the check again after any homepage change. It finds out whether the basics are visible; it promises nothing about calls, rankings or traffic.

A hypothetical example

This example is invented. It describes no real business and no site was tested for this article. A business called "Smith and Sons" could add the line "Plumbing repairs and installs in Springfield" under its logo, if every word of that were true for the business. The structure is trade first, then place. Do not copy that wording unless it is accurate for you.