What should be on a trade website's first screen?

Most people decide whether to ring you before they scroll. They’ve searched, tapped your listing or your website, and they’re looking at one screen on a phone. In a few seconds they want to know three things: do you do what I need, do you cover where I am, and do you look like you’ll turn up and do it properly.

So the first screen of your website does most of the work. Get it right and the rest of the site is backup. Get it wrong and the rest of the site never gets read.

Here’s what should be on it, in order, with real first screens from sites we’ve built.

Build it for a phone first

Before the list: design the first screen for a phone, then check it on a computer, not the other way round.

What we have seen

87% of the people who viewed Benny’s Barbershop’s Google listing in the six months to September 2026 were on a phone, from his Business Profile Performance screen captured on 28 September 2026. Read the case study.

That’s a barber, not a trade, but the point carries: most people will meet your website on a small screen. Everything below has to fit there.

The six things, in order

1. What you do and where, in plain words

The first words someone reads should be your trade and your town. Not a slogan, not “welcome”, not “quality you can trust”. If a customer can’t tell from the first line that you’re a tree surgeon in their town, they go back to Google.

Example: Luke and Dan’s site has a small line above the headline that reads “Tree surgeons in Royal Wootton Bassett”, and a line under the headline listing the work and the towns: felling, crown reductions, stump grinding, hedges and lawns, across Wootton Bassett, Swindon, Lyneham and Cricklade.

This also helps Google. Relevance is one of the three things Google ranks local results on, and its help pages describe it as “how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for”. A website that says plainly what you do and where gives Google something solid to match.

2. A real photo of your work

Your own work, not a stock photo. It’s what the customer is buying, and it proves you exist.

Examples:

• Luke and Dan’s open on their own photo of the lift up in a tree canopy, with a smaller photo of their stump grinder at work beside it.
• Wiltshire Junk Busters open on their own before-and-after photos that you drag across, with the line “Drag to see it cleared.” and three real jobs to switch between: an office, a yard and a garden.
• Swindon Transport & Recovery open on their own recovery truck with a vehicle loaded on the back.

The Junk Busters one is worth copying in any trade where the result is visible: driveway cleaning, rubbish removal, landscaping, valeting, painting. A before and after says more than a paragraph.

3. A headline that answers the customer’s worry

Every trade has one main worry. Find yours and answer it in the headline.

Firm	Trade	The worry	Their headline
Wiltshire Junk Busters	Rubbish removal	“How fast can you take it?”	“Booked this morning. Gone by tonight.”
Swindon Transport & Recovery	Vehicle recovery	“I’m stuck. Can you come now?”	“Broken down near Swindon?” with “24 hours, 7 days” and “Price before we move” above it
Luke and Dan’s	Tree surgery	“Will they be safe and tidy?”	“The tree team your neighbours recommend.”
A.P. Berrystone (a family firm: Adrian Berrystone is Tyler’s dad)	Building	“Will they finish on time and on price?”	“Swindon’s award-winning builder since 1989.”, with a line under it about finishing on time and within the price agreed

A good test: could your headline go on a rival’s website without changing a word? If so, it isn’t doing enough.

4. Proof other people trust you

Your Google rating, with the number of reviews, or a short real review. Put it near the top, not in a carousel at the bottom.

Examples:

• Benny’s Barbershop shows “5.0 from 141 reviews” above the headline.
• Luke and Dan’s show a line from a real Google review over the photo, “Site was completely cleared of all debris.”, with the customer’s name and village, plus their Google rating at the top.

A line from a real customer about the thing people worry about (here, mess) is worth more than any claim you make about yourself.

5. One clear way to get in touch, matched to how your customers buy

One main button. Which one depends on your trade.

• Urgent trades: the phone. Swindon Transport & Recovery’s main button on a phone is the phone number itself. Someone on the hard shoulder isn’t filling in a form.
• Quote trades: a quote form, with the number close by. A.P. Berrystone’s first screen has a “Request a quote” button with his phone number directly under it. Luke and Dan’s lead with “Get a free quote”.
• Booking trades: the booking button. Benny’s first screen has one “Book now” button, through his own booking app.
• Fast but bookable: say so. Junk Busters’ first screen has “Book online”, and their number is on every screen of the site.

What we have seen

In the 60 days to 1 October 2026, 84 people got in touch with Wiltshire Junk Busters and 64 of them rang. In the same 60 days, 24 of the 29 people who contacted A.P. Berrystone did it through his website form. Junk Busters case study and A.P. Berrystone case study.

Those two numbers are why the buttons differ. Rubbish removal customers ring. People planning an extension read first and fill in a form. Look at how your own customers get in touch, and put that button first. (Junk Busters’ new opening screen went live on 2 October 2026, after these 60 days, so these figures are about how each firm’s customers buy, not about that screen.)

6. A short line of trust

A few words that remove a doubt. Keep them true and specific.

Examples:

• Luke and Dan’s: “NPTC certified”, “Fully insured”, “Free quotes”, in a row under the quote button.
• A.P. Berrystone: “Free fixed-price quote” and “Usually a same-day reply” under his number.

In some trades there’s a legal one worth showing. A rubbish removal firm in England should show its waste carrier registration, for example, because householders have a duty to check it. We cover that in how to get more rubbish removal jobs.

What to leave off the first screen

• Sliders and carousels. One strong photo beats five that rotate before anyone reads them.
• Stock photos. Especially of people. Customers can tell.
• Pop-ups asking for an email address or offering a discount before they’ve seen anything.
• A menu of fifteen links. Keep the top simple: your name, a menu button, and the main action.
• Background video that makes the page slow on a phone. Speed matters more than movement.
• Vague promises. “Quality, reliability and value” could describe anyone.

Write your own first screen

Fill this in for your business. Keep each line short.

1. Small line at the top: [Your trade] in [your town]
2. Headline: the answer to your customers’ main worry, in under ten words
3. One line under it: your main services, and the towns you cover
4. Photo: one real job, ideally before and after
5. Proof: your Google rating and number of reviews, or one short real review with a first name and village
6. Main button: ring, quote or book, depending on how your customers buy
7. Trust line: two or three short, true things (insured, certified, free quotes, how fast you reply)

For example, for a made-up driveway cleaning firm:

• Driveway cleaning in Thatcham
• “Your driveway, like the day it was laid.”
• Block paving, patios and resealing across Thatcham, Newbury and Hungerford.
• Their own photo of one driveway, half cleaned.
• 4.9 from 38 Google reviews.
• Button: “Get a free quote” with 07700 900417 under it.
• Fully insured. Free quotes. Photos of your driveway are enough for a price.

The five-second test

Show your first screen on a phone to someone who doesn’t know your business. Give them five seconds, then take the phone back and ask:

1. What does this firm do?
2. Where do they work?
3. How would you get in touch?

If they can’t answer all three straight away, change the first screen until they can.

Once the first screen is right, the rest of the site backs it up: a page for each service and town, more photos, more reviews, and a short form. If you’re still choosing what to build it on, read Wix, Squarespace or a proper site. If people are visiting but not ringing, read why does my website get visits but no calls.

How we do it, and why it works

Every site we build starts from the first screen, written for a phone and for how that trade’s customers actually buy: the number first for urgent trades, a quote form for the bigger jobs, the owner’s own photos, and their real reviews. You can see all five of the first screens above on our work page.

That’s the website half of Found, alongside your Google listing worked every week and a review asked for after every job. Then Answered: calls ring you as always, a missed call from a mobile gets a text back in your name, and every form and message is replied to in your name and followed up. Then Counted: after each enquiry a text asks whether you won it and for how much, and once a month you get one page showing what came in and what it was worth.

It works because a clear first screen turns more of the people who find you into calls and forms, and the replies and chasing turn more of those into jobs. You pay nothing until you’ve won £500 of work through us. The free check shows who Google lists for your trade in your town and where you sit.