If you've spent half an hour clicking through plumbers and electricians on Google, you'll have noticed something odd: they all look the same.
Same stock photo of a smiling tradesperson with arms folded. Same blue-and-white colour scheme. Same six headings: Home, Services, About, Areas We Cover, Reviews, Contact. Same template, with the name swapped out.
That's not an accident. It's how the cheap end of the market works.
Where the sameness comes from
Most trade websites are built one of two ways. Either someone uses a Wix or GoDaddy template that's been used by thousands of other trades, or a web agency runs them through a “trade website package” that's the same layout every time, just with the colours changed.
Both approaches are fast and cheap to produce. That's the point. The builder isn't really designing for you — they're filling in blanks on a form that was designed for the average plumber, electrician or roofer.
Why it matters more than people think
Here's the bit that surprises people: customers can tell.
They might not be able to put their finger on why, but when they land on a site that looks like every other site they've seen that week, their brain quietly files it as “another one of these” — and they keep scrolling. The site hasn't done anything wrong. It just hasn't done anything for them.
A site that looks specific to your business — your van, your work, your patch — does the opposite. It says “this is a real person with a real business, not a template.” That's worth more than any clever wording.
What “looking different” actually means
It doesn't mean being arty or weird. Tradespeople don't need that, and customers don't trust it.
It means small, specific choices: real photos of your jobs instead of stock photos. The town names you actually cover instead of “the local area.” Your registration number on the page, not buried in a footer. A short note about why you started rather than three paragraphs of “with over 15 years' experience…”
None of that is expensive. It just takes someone who's prepared to ask you about your business before opening a template.
What I do differently
I build each site from scratch in code, not from a template. Before I do, I ask about your customers, your patch, the jobs you actually want more of. The site that comes out the other side isn't a clone with your logo dropped in — it's built for what your business does.
And if you don't like what I've built, you don't pay for it. That alone takes most of the risk out of trying.
If you want to see what that looks like, the Examples page has the latest builds.
Last updated: May 2026 · If anything in this guide is out of date or unclear, drop me an email — I'll fix it. nick@neobookworm.uk
Send me a quick note and I’ll tell you what I’d build for your trade and area.