The right website for a trades business: three pages, one number, one proof

Two very different people open a trades website on these islands.

The first has a problem right now. The AC in a bedroom has died, a breaker has tripped, a pool pump will not restart. They are standing up, on a phone, and they will call the first number that answers. The second one wants nothing repaired: it is a concierge company, a villa manager, an architect. They are checking that you genuinely exist, that you carry insurance, and that a three-week job can be handed to you without unpleasant surprises.

The same website has to serve both. The good news is that it fits in three pages.

The tappable number comes before everything else

For the emergency, your site has exactly one job: start a phone call. That takes two things almost nobody gets right.

The number has to be visible without scrolling, at the top, not buried in the footer. And it has to be a link, not text:

<a href="tel:+590690000000">+590 690 00 00 00</a>

A number that is displayed but not tappable forces a guest to select it, copy it, open the phone app, paste it. Every step loses people. Write it in international format inside the href, and show it legibly in the link text.

It also assumes the page has actually appeared. A Google study puts at 53% the share of mobile visitors lost once the wait passes three seconds, and hosting sitting in Europe routinely takes 6 to 8 seconds to answer from the United States. For a restaurant, that is a lost table. For a call-out, it is the competitor down the road.

Three pages, not nine

Home says who you are, what you do, where you work, and offers the call. Nothing else.

Services lists what you actually do, in the words your customers use: "AC regas", "consumer unit", "leak detection", "pool servicing". Not "integrated thermal solutions". Those plain words are the ones typed into Google.

Contact gives the number, WhatsApp, the address if you have a workshop, and your real hours, including what happens outside them.

A three-paragraph "about us" can live on the home page. A blog is not your trade.

Put your coverage area in writing

This is the worst-handled point, and it is specific to these islands. Do you work on the French side only, or on the Dutch side too? Do you travel to St Barts, and on what terms: from what job size, with what lead time, is the crossing charged separately?

Every unanswered question costs you twice. The customer who might have called does not call, because they are not sure. And the one outside your area calls anyway, and takes ten minutes of your day. A coverage area written in plain language filters in both directions.

Proof, for the other visitor

The villa manager is looking for signals, and they are concrete: your company registration number, your liability and warranty insurance, how long you have been working here. Three lines are enough, but they have to be there.

Then add photographs of your own jobs. Not stock images: a plant room you wired, a split unit you just mounted, a before-and-after from a leak trace. A photo taken on a phone and cropped properly beats a flawless picture that is not yours, and it proves something no paragraph will ever prove.

Finally, link your Google Business Profile: it is often the first place people find you, and it is where your reviews live. We covered setting it up in a separate article.

A quote starts with a photo

A nine-field quote form does not get you better enquiries, it gets you fewer. Ask for three things, and ask where the customer already is: on WhatsApp.

A photo of the problem, the address or the neighbourhood, the timeframe. With those three, you know within thirty seconds whether the job is for you and you can give a ballpark price. A WhatsApp link prefilled with "Hi, here is a photo of my problem" does that work without anybody having to think about it.

What can be measured

We promise nobody the top spot for "plumber St Martin". What can be verified: how many calls the site starts, how many WhatsApp conversations it opens, and which pages cause them. That counter takes one line to set up on the sites we ship, and in a fortnight it tells you what a year of guessing will not. Measurable, not promised.

Studio Lagon builds trades websites that start phone calls in St Martin and St Barts — see the packages and pricing, or send your current site address through the contact form for an honest read.