Article
Should you redo your site when you are a tradesperson?
Often, no. A tradesperson's site that brings in jobs does not need to be beautiful; it needs to be findable, readable on a phone and current. Here is how to tell which case you are in, before paying anyone anything.
Four signs that say yes, rebuild it
Each of these four costs you calls, every day, and none of them is fixed by patching the site you have.
- It is unreadable on a phone — which is where your customers are, and the first thing Google measures.
- The padlock is crossed out or the browser says “not secure”: the HTTPS certificate expired and nobody renews it.
- You can no longer change anything: whoever built it has gone, or the tool no longer exists.
- It takes more than five seconds on 4G, on site, when someone is looking for your number.
Three signs that say no, keep it
A studio that always says rebuild is selling a rebuild, not a diagnosis. In these three cases, a rebuild will earn you nothing extra.
- It is merely dated, but fast, readable on a phone and current: the style is not costing you jobs.
- The phone already rings, through word of mouth and your Google listing: it is the content that needs filling in, not the structure.
- What is missing amounts to three additions — recent job photos, the areas you cover, your hours. That is a change, not a rebuild.
What a rebuild costs, plainly
Between €100 and €400 including tax, one-off, depending on how much page there is to make — sections, copy, motion, forms. The quote comes within 48 hours and the amount is fixed once the scope is agreed in writing: no surprise line at the end, no setup fee. Beyond that — a customer area, online quotes, scheduling — it is no longer a page but an application, priced on its actual scope.
What you must end up owning, either way
This is the question to ask anyone offering you a rebuild, and the answer belongs in the quote. A tradesperson who does not own their domain is renting their own visibility.
- The domain registered in your name, not the provider's.
- The code and its repository, yours on delivery, with no licence to buy back.
- Access to the hosting, or the ability to move onto your own whenever you want.
- No mandatory subscription for the site to stay online.
And afterwards, who looks after it
This is where tradespeople's sites die: nobody touches them for three years. That is what the subscription is for — €29 a month for hosting, security updates, monitoring and backups; €59 a month if you also want to be able to write “add these job photos, change the number” and have it done within 48 working hours. No minimum term, cancellable at any time, and 10 months for 12 if paid yearly.
My site is ten years old but it works. Really no need to rebuild?
If it displays properly on a phone, is on HTTPS, loads fast and the information is accurate: yes, keep it. Run through the four signs above instead — those are what cost you calls, not the site's age.
Is one page enough for a tradesperson?
Usually yes: what you do, where you cover, photos of real jobs, a number and a form. One page kept current converts better than six abandoned ones.
Start from scratch, or work on what is there?
It depends on the state of the code, and that is said after reading it — not before. The studio can also maintain a site it did not build, after that read; if its state makes a serious commitment impossible, that is said before anything is billed.
Will I lose my search ranking by rebuilding?
Not if the existing page addresses are kept or redirected, and the content that gets you found is carried over. That belongs in the quote, not in a post-launch surprise.
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archambault.a.alexis@gmail.com
https://studio.archambault.site/