Websites for plumbers
What a plumbing company’s website has to do to turn a visitor into a call.
A plumbing website is judged in its first screen, on a phone, by someone standing in water. It needs the number, the word today, and the towns you cover.
The person looking at a plumbing website is often standing next to the problem: a drain that will not clear, a water heater that has quit, water on the floor. They are on a phone, they are in a hurry, and they will call the first listing that looks like it answers the phone and comes to their town.
That changes what the site is for. It is not a portfolio and it is not an argument. It is a page whose first screen says drains, water heaters and emergency repairs for the towns you cover, with a phone number that dials when tapped. Everything else on the page exists for the smaller number of people who are planning a bathroom or comparing quotes, and it sits below. The site we build for a plumber puts the number first and keeps it on screen on every page.
Why plumbers lose the visitors they already have
The call happens in the first ten seconds or not at all
An emergency caller does not scroll. If the first screen is a slogan and a photo of a wrench, and the number is behind a menu, they go back to Google and tap the next result. The number has to be in the first screen, tappable, with 'today' or 'same day' next to it if that is true.
The site does not say which towns
A plumber who covers three towns and gets calls from a fourth loses half an hour a day saying no. A homeowner in the right town who cannot see it named on the page assumes you are somewhere else. The towns belong in the first screen and on the Google listing, in the same words.
Every page says 'we do it all'
Nobody searches for that. They search for a water heater, a sump pump, a slab leak, a gas line. A site with one page that lists everything is found for nothing. One page per service you want the phone to ring for, each written for the person with that specific problem, is how the site gets found.
The planned work gets no attention
Behind the emergency calls there is better work: repiping, remodels, water softeners, annual service plans. A site built only for the emergency caller never mentions them, so those jobs go to whoever did.
What your visitor arrived wanting
“I have a problem, maybe right now — can you come?”
In their words, the problem
- something is leaking right now
- I am locked out
- the door will not open
- it has stopped working and I do not know why
What they want to leave with
- get it stopped, then get it fixed
- know what it will cost before anyone starts
- not be talked into more than the job needs
A plumbing company’s homeowners think in terms of a call-out; the page should use their word, not the trade’s.
The page, top to bottom
This is the order a plumbing company’s homepage runs in when we build it. Core sections are on every site of this kind; strong ones are there whenever the business has the facts to fill them. Nothing is padded to look full.
- 01
The first screen: what you do, where, and how to reach you
Core
- 02
Services, as a list a customer can scan
Core
- 03
The promises you can keep
When the facts exist
- 04
Reviews, with the source named
When the facts exist
- 05
The towns you cover
When the facts exist
- 06
The questions people ask before they call
When the facts exist
- 07
The closing ask
When the facts exist
- 08
How to reach you, with a form that delivers
Core
One ask: “Call now”
The primary action for a plumbing company is call now. It sits in the first screen on a phone and repeats on every page; a second, quieter route to the form sits beside it. Two equal buttons pointing at the same place read as filler and cost calls.
On a phone, the sections a visitor must reach within the first three screens: services, as a list a customer can scan; the promises you can keep.
The services to name
Each of these is a search someone in your town types. Each gets its own line on the homepage and, where it matters, its own page.
- Emergency plumbing
- Drain cleaning
- Water heater repair and replacement
- Leak detection and repair
- Sump pumps
- Repiping
- Gas lines
- Bathroom and kitchen plumbing
What a homeowner checks before they call
- Your plumbing licence number, shown, and the state it is issued in
- The towns you cover, named in the first screen and matching your Google listing
- A flat-rate or quote-first promise, stated the way you actually work
- Google reviews with the link, and recent ones: an emergency caller checks the date
- The name of the person who answers the phone and the person who turns up
- Hours, including what 'emergency' means at your company (after hours, weekends, or only during the day)
Photographs: what belongs and what does not
The look to aim for is reassuring speed — someone competent is on the way.
Use
- the tradesperson working
- repair detail
- a residential setting
- the service van
Avoid
- disaster shots
- stock handshakes
- a face filling the frame
No stock photography in a work role: a photo captioned as your work is a claim, and a stock one is a false one.
Local SEO for a plumbing company
- Google Business Profile primary category: Plumber. Add the specific services (water heater, drain) as services on the listing with a sentence each.
- Keep the phone number identical everywhere: the site header, the footer, the listing, the van. Google matches them; so do customers.
- Use the listing's service area, not a street address, if you do not take walk-ins. A map pin at a house invites visits you do not want.
- Ask for the review while the problem is fresh and fixed, before the invoice is a memory. The same-day job is the easiest review you will ever get.
Questions plumbers ask us
- Should a plumber's website have an online booking form?
- For planned work, yes: a form that asks what the job is and when suits. For emergencies, the phone is the booking form. Do not make a leaking kitchen fill in a calendar.
- Does a plumbing site need photos?
- Fewer than a roofer's, and different ones: the van, the person who turns up, a clean finished install. Nobody wants to see the inside of a drain. A face and a van do more for a plumber than a gallery.
- What should the headline say?
- The trade and the towns, in plain words: 'Plumbing repairs and drain cleaning for Shelbyville, Columbus and Franklin.' Then the number. A slogan in that spot costs calls.
The two questions your own customers ask, which the site answers for you
- How much will it cost?
- Every call-out is different, so we tell you the figure before we start. If anything changes once we can see the problem, we tell you before we carry on.
- What should I do until you arrive?
- Call and describe it. We will tell you what to switch off, shut off or leave alone, so the problem does not get worse while you wait.
Free checklist: the plumbing company website checklist — ten things to check on your own site, each in about a minute.
Free, automatic, about 30 seconds
See what your plumbing company's site is missing.
The free audit checks the first screen, the title, whether Google can read the page, whether it is mobile-friendly and whether there is a way to call.
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