What does a tradie's website need to actually bring in jobs in Melbourne?

Short answer: a tradie's website has one job — turn a person searching "electrician Box Hill" on their phone into a phone call or a form submission in under thirty seconds. That means a number they can tap at the top of every page, a short form that asks for suburb and job, real reviews pulled from Google, photos of your actual work, and a page for each service and each area you cover. A site built to do exactly that costs from about A$900 in Melbourne and usually A$1,500 to A$4,000 with photos, copy and the service pages that make it rank. Everything else is decoration.

What the customer is doing

Picture the actual visitor. A hot water system has died on a Sunday. Someone is standing in a wet laundry with a phone, typing "plumber Doncaster" and tapping the first result that looks real. They will not read your about page. They will not admire your logo. They want to know three things in this order: can you do this, do you come to my suburb, and how do I reach you right now.

Every decision about a trade website follows from that picture. If a page does not help that person call you, it is costing you jobs by getting in the way.

The five things that matter

A number you can tap, on every page, at the top. Not in the footer. Not on the contact page. On the phone, a "Call now" button that dials when pressed, visible without scrolling. Half of trade enquiries happen on a mobile and most of those want to talk, not type.

A form that asks four things. Name, phone, suburb, what is wrong. That is it. Every extra field costs you a percentage of the people who would have filled it in. The form should land in your inbox and your phone as a text within seconds, because an enquiry answered in five minutes is a job and one answered in five hours is a job someone else got.

Reviews that are real and recent. Your Google reviews, shown on the site, with the star rating and the date. Not testimonials you typed up. Not a badge. A person choosing between two plumbers picks the one with forty reviews averaging 4.8 over the one with a paragraph from "Sarah, Hawthorn".

Photos of your work. A gallery of jobs you have actually done — the switchboard before and after, the bathroom you renovated, the deck you built. Real photos on a phone beat stock images every time. Label each one with the suburb and the job.

A page per service and a page per area. This is what makes the site show up. "Emergency plumber", "hot water repairs", "blocked drains" are separate searches, and each needs its own page that says what you do, where, and what it typically costs. Same with the suburbs you actually cover. Not fifty thin pages — six to twelve good ones for the services and areas that bring in most of your work.

What to leave out

• A slider. Nobody reads the third slide. It slows the page down and pushes the phone number off the screen.
• A blog you will not write. An abandoned "News" page dated 2022 makes the business look closed.
• A long about page. One paragraph, your licence number, your years in the trade, a photo of the van. Done.
• Anything that pops up. A chat widget that opens itself over the phone number is the single worst thing on a trade site.
• Stock photos of models in hard hats. Customers can tell, and it reads as not having real work to show.

Getting found in your suburb

The website is half of it. The other half is your Google Business Profile — the listing with the map pin that appears above the normal results for "electrician near me". It is free, it is the biggest local ranking lever there is, and most tradies set it up once and never touch it again. Keep it current: services listed, service area set to the suburbs you cover, photos added monthly, every review replied to. Our guide to getting your business on Google walks through the setup.

Then make the website agree with it. Same business name, same phone number, same service area named on the contact page. Google matches the two, and a site that names the suburbs you work in — in text, not just in a dropdown — gives it something to match. Our web developer in Melbourne page describes how we structure that for local search, and the small business website launch checklist has the steps for launch day.

What it costs

Ranges from Melbourne studios and freelancers for a trade business website:

The thing that moves the price most is content: a tradie who can send twenty job photos and a list of services with rough prices gets a site for a lot less than one who needs everything written and shot. Our website design service starts at the bottom of that table, and the website cost guide explains what sits behind each range.

When a tradie needs more than a website

Some trade businesses outgrow the brochure site. The signs are always the same: quotes being written in a notes app and retyped into invoices, jobs scheduled on a whiteboard that nobody else can see, a partner in the office rekeying every enquiry into a spreadsheet. That is the point where a small internal tool — a quoting screen that produces a branded PDF, a job board that texts the customer when you are on the way — pays for itself in a season. The internal tools guide covers when that line is crossed and what it costs.

If your current site is not bringing in calls, or you have never had one, book a free 30-minute call. Bring your Google Business Profile link and a few job photos, and we will tell you what the site needs to do — and whether the fix is a new site or a better listing.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a tradie website cost in Melbourne?

A four-to-six page trade business website in Melbourne costs from about A$900 when you supply the photos and words, and A$1,500 to A$4,000 with copywriting, a Google reviews embed and a job gallery. Sites with service and area pages written specifically to rank in your suburbs run A$3,000 to A$6,000. Adding online quoting or a booking calendar makes it a web app, which starts at A$2,500 and usually costs A$5,000 or more.

Do tradies need a website if they have Google Business Profile?

A Google Business Profile alone brings in work, and for a sole trader with more jobs than they can take it can be enough. A website adds the things the profile cannot: a page per service that ranks for specific searches like hot water repairs or switchboard upgrades, a gallery of real work, a form that captures an enquiry when you cannot answer the phone, and a place the profile can link to that looks like an established business. The two together rank better than either one alone.

What pages should a tradie website have?

A home page with the phone number, services and suburbs visible without scrolling; one page per main service such as emergency plumbing, hot water or blocked drains; one page per key suburb or region you cover; a gallery of real jobs with the suburb and job named; a short about page with your licence number and years in the trade; and a contact page with a four-field form. Six to twelve pages in total is typical. Skip the blog unless you will genuinely write it.

How do I get my trade business to show up on Google in my suburb?

Set up and keep updating a free Google Business Profile with your services, your service area set to the suburbs you cover, monthly photos and a reply to every review. Then make the website match it exactly: same business name, same phone number, and the suburbs you work in named in plain text on the contact and service pages. Add one page per major service and per key area, each answering what you do and roughly what it costs. Reviews, consistent details and those pages are what move a trade business up the local results.