The 5 headline mistakes that cost tradies the most enquiries

Trade customers are the most decisive visitors on the internet. They have a problem — often urgent — and they're comparing three or four local businesses in under five minutes. Your headline either makes the shortlist or it doesn't. These are the five mistakes we see most, roughly in order of damage.

"Welcome to Smith & Sons." It's polite, it's warm, and it tells a customer with a burst pipe absolutely nothing. Your business name is already in the logo; the headline's job is to say what you fix and how fast.

"Quality electrical services" — in which city? Trade work is local, and customers filter by area before anything else. If your headline or the line under it doesn't name your service area, you're making people hunt for the most basic qualifying fact, and Google has the same problem ranking you for local searches.

"Fully licensed and insured, established 2009" belongs on the page — as a trust badge, lower down. Leading with credentials is answering a question nobody asked yet. The customer's question is "will my hot water work tonight?" Lead with the outcome, then prove you're qualified to deliver it.

"Plumbing • Gas • Roofing • Renovations • Maintenance" — when you say five things at once, the customer hears none of them. Pick the job that makes you the most money and lead with it. The full service list gets its own section (ideally its own pages — that's how you rank for each one).

Compare "Brisbane plumbers" with "Brisbane plumbers — on site same day or the callout's free." The second one wins the click even at position three in Google, because it's the only one taking a risk on behalf of the customer. If you have a guarantee, a response time, or upfront pricing, your headline is where it belongs.

Want to know which of these your site is making? Run a free scan — headline clarity is the first category in your report, with the specific fix written out for you.