Website for Tradespeople Case Study: Eiland EL, a Danish Electrical Contractor

A website for tradespeople has one job: get the right customer to pick up the phone or send a request, usually from a mobile. This case study shows how I approached that on a new website for Eiland EL, an electrical and plumbing contractor in Denmark. Below are the brief, the decisions, the results, and what any trade business in Europe can copy.

[PLACEHOLDER: confirm your role (whole site, development or design too), the year, and Eiland EL's written permission to be named. Note: the current eilandel.dk is credited to the agency Digitypes, so clarify whether you worked through them or on a different version of the site]

The short answer

In lines of code, a trades website is rarely a big project. For a trade business, though, the website is often where a new customer decides between you and the next name on Google. For a much larger build from scratch, read from idea to SaaS: choices and priorities.

The client and the brief

Eiland EL is an electrical and plumbing contractor with branches in several towns on Zealand, the Danish island that's also home to Copenhagen. Its services range from standard electrical installation to heat pumps, solar panels, EV chargers and plumbing. [PLACEHOLDER: confirm branches and services as they were at the time of the project]

That breadth is good for business and hard for a website. A homeowner who wants an EV charger needs to see quickly that this exact job, in their area, is covered. If everything sits on one page, they have to dig, and few people dig for long.

[PLACEHOLDER: the old site: platform, what wasn't working, and what Eiland EL wanted from the new one. Only facts you may share]

The five problems I check for first

Each of these costs calls, so I check them first on any trades website:

1. The phone number only appears in the footer or on a contact page.
2. Every service is crammed onto one page, so none of them can rank.
3. The service area isn't stated anywhere obvious.
4. Photos are so heavy the page stutters on mobile data.
5. The latest news is years old, so the business looks closed.

[PLACEHOLDER: which of these applied to Eiland EL, and were there others?]

What a trades website has to get right

Someone landing on a trades website wants three answers, fast: can you do the job, how soon, and how do I reach you. Everything above the fold should serve those three questions.

Contact in one tap

Put the phone number at the top of every page and make it tappable. Keep the form short: name, phone, postcode and a box describing the job. Every extra required field is one more reason to leave.

Electricians also serve two very different customers: the one whose power just went out, and the one planning a solar install next spring. Make it obvious how each gets through, for example with a separate emergency number if you run one.

[PLACEHOLDER: how contact was handled for Eiland EL: one number, one per branch, emergency line, form?]

A page for every service and every branch

People search for the job and their town, like "EV charger installer" plus a place name. Give each service its own page covering what's included, example jobs, photos and the questions customers usually ask. Give each branch a page with its address, phone, opening hours and coverage area.

I also recommend a Google Business Profile per branch, with the same name, address and phone number as the website and a link to the branch page. When every signal points to the same place, neither customers nor Google have to guess.

Proof beats copy

Trades sell on trust, and trust needs evidence:

• Photos of your own jobs and your own team, not stock images.
• Your certifications, guarantees and trade memberships.
• Reviews on a platform the customer can check independently.
• Short copy that answers real customer questions, including rough prices and lead times.

[PLACEHOLDER: which trust elements made it onto Eiland EL's site, and who supplied the photos and copy?]

Mobile speed: where trade websites lose calls

Google measures page experience with three Core Web Vitals. The largest element should render within 2.5 seconds (LCP), the page should respond to a tap within 200 milliseconds (INP), and the layout shouldn't shift by more than 0.1 (CLS). Google's guide on web.dev sets those targets for at least 75% of page loads, on mobile and desktop separately.

Trade sites are rarely slow because of the code. The usual culprits:

• Full-size photos straight off a phone, often several megabytes each.
• A video background or image slider at the top of the homepage.
• Chat widgets and tracking scripts that load code from other servers.
• A cookie banner covering half the screen. In the EU, non-essential tracking cookies generally need consent, so every extra tracker tends to bring a banner with it.

The fix is mostly subtraction. Resize images to the size they're displayed at and serve them as WebP or AVIF, load images further down the page only when the visitor scrolls, and keep only the scripts someone actually uses. I made the same trade-offs on my own site, simonij.com.

What I built

[PLACEHOLDER: stack, CMS, number of pages, who did the design, integrations and hosting. Only what's true. The current site also has a heat pump webshop and a heat pump calculator: if they were part of your work, mention them here and adjust the section on when you don't need a website like this]

On a project like this, the technical choice mostly comes down to one question: who updates the site after launch? If the business will add new jobs, photos and vacancies itself, it needs a CMS simple enough for a busy Tuesday. If the site will mostly stay as it is, it can be leaner and cheaper to run.

This is the page structure I usually recommend for a trade business with several branches:

1. Homepage with key services, phone number and branches.
2. One page per service.
3. One page per branch.
4. Recent jobs or projects with photos.
5. About the company and the team.
6. Contact, plus careers if you're hiring.

[PLACEHOLDER: how Eiland EL's final structure differed from this list, and why]

[PLACEHOLDER: one concrete decision from the project, as prose: the situation, your choice, why, and what you'd change today]

Results

[PLACEHOLDER: before/after figures approved by Eiland EL, e.g. leads per month, mobile LCP and rankings for key searches. State period and method]

[PLACEHOLDER: quote from Eiland EL, only with written permission. Otherwise delete this line]

No baseline from the old site? Start measuring now. I'd track:

• Taps on the phone number and form submissions, as events in your analytics tool.
• How each new customer found you. Ask them and write it down.
• The same months year over year, because demand in many trades is seasonal.
• Your Google Business Profile stats, where many local leads start.

When you don't need a website like this

A new website isn't always the best use of your budget. I wouldn't recommend one like this if:

• You run a one-person business and you're fully booked from referrals. A well-kept Google Business Profile and a simple page are usually enough.
• You offer one service in one area. A site builder will do the job for less, and I've compared the options in Wix vs Squarespace vs Webflow vs hiring a developer.
• Booking, instant quotes or logins are the core of what customers need. That's a web app, not a website, though a single calculator can still live on an ordinary site. Selling products online is an e-commerce build like the online store project for Meeshop.
• Nobody can supply photos and copy. New code won't help much if the content stays the same.

Next steps

Three fixes you can make on your current site today, no developer needed: move your phone number to the top and make it tappable, split your services onto separate pages, and remove the heaviest image or script on your homepage.

If you'd like help with the rest, here's how I build websites for businesses. And if you're wondering what working together involves, I've laid out a project with me from first call to launch.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a website for a trade business cost?+

It mostly depends on the number of pages, whether you'll edit content yourself, and how much copy and photography is needed. One service in one area is a far smaller job than many services across several branches. My pricing model is on my pricing page, and larger projects start with a paid, fixed-price pre-project so you know the budget first.

Isn't a Google Business Profile enough for tradespeople?+

For a small business with a full calendar, it can be. The profile is often the first thing a customer sees in Google Maps, but it leaves little room to explain services, show past work or rank for the jobs you want more of. I usually recommend both: the profile to get found locally, and the website to win the customer's trust.

Does a trades website need an English version?+

Only if a meaningful share of your customers don't read the local language. In cities with many international residents, an English version can win jobs that local competitors miss. Each version needs its own copy written for that reader, not a machine translation. Otherwise, one well-written site in your customers' language beats two half-finished ones.

Will I lose my Google rankings if I switch websites?+

Not if the switch is planned. Every old URL needs a permanent 301 redirect to its new equivalent, and important pages shouldn't lose their titles or content. Without redirects, old links and search results land on error pages, which is a common reason traffic drops after a relaunch.