We run a thing called the Website Autopsy, where we pull apart a real Kiwi business website out in the open and find the easy wins. This time it was Nielson Contracting, a husband and wife earthworks team out of Hamilton. Big cheers to Roy for putting his hand up to have his site pulled apart in the friendliest way possible.
Here is the thing though. None of the fixes we found are unique to Roy. Nearly every Kiwi service business has the same gaps. So instead of a straight recap, here are the 8 fixes you can steal for your own website. No tech degree required, and most of them you can sort yourself.
1. Put your face on your website
Kiwis back a family business. We like dealing with real, approachable people. So it is mad how many tradie websites have zero photos of the actual humans behind the work.
Think about it from your customer's side. You are about to turn up to their property and do a job. If they already know your face from the website, that is a big chunk of trust banked before you have even pulled into the driveway.
If your homepage already says something like "small team, you deal directly with us, no middleman", brilliant. Now show who that team is. And here is a bonus: a photo of the crew is almost always one of your best performing social posts too.
2. Get more Google reviews, then put them on your site
Google reviews do two jobs at once. They convince a human you do good work, and they help you show up higher in local search.
Aim for 20 or 30. The easiest way to get them is to stop waiting and start asking. Log into the Google account that has access to your business profile, grab the "get more reviews" link Google generates for you, and send it to every past client you have worked with. Just be upfront and ask.
Reply to the ones you have, too. It shows you are switched on.
Once the reviews are rolling in, pull them live onto your website so they update automatically. New review on Google, new review on your site, no extra work.
3. Document your work in a projects gallery
You are already doing the work. A lot of you are already posting the jobs on Facebook. So put that same content to work on your website.
Sort it into a projects gallery organised around your core services. If your three pillars are house sites and site prep, rural contracting, and driveways, lay the gallery out the same way. Tag each job under the service it belongs to. Ten examples of one service makes your experience obvious to a visitor, and it paints a dead clear picture to Google of what you actually do and how often you do it.
The captions you already wrote for Facebook? Reuse them. Work smarter, not harder.
4. Get more of your pages found on Google
Want to see how much of your site Google can actually find? Type site:yourdomain.co.nz into Google. The pages that show up are the only ones that can ever appear in search results.
If that list is only a handful of pages, you have got tiny surface area. Hardly any chances to show up for the searches your customers are making. More well-organised pages means more chances to be found.
5. Name the towns you actually work in
This one trips up heaps of businesses. If every page on your site says "Waikato", but your customers are searching "Hamilton" or "Cambridge" or "Te Awamutu", you are going to get buried.
The fix is simple. Create pages for the specific towns you work in, show the real jobs you have done there, and put the town name in your page title. So a search for "house site preparation Hamilton" has a proper chance of finding you on page one instead of page two.
This is local SEO, and it is some of the easiest, highest-value work you can do. You already have the proof because you have done the jobs. You just need to show it.
6. Give every service its own page
A common mess: a row of buttons on the homepage that point to services, but half of them have no real page behind them, and they do not show up in the navigation menu either.
Every core service deserves its own dedicated, well-organised page. It helps a visitor understand exactly what you offer, and it helps Google understand it too. Both of those win you work.
7. Sort the quick mobile wins
Most people will find you on their phone first, so a couple of small mobile tweaks go a long way.
Add a tap to call button so someone can ring you in one tap. And swap out any cheap stock icons for real photos of you doing each service. Real beats generic every single time.
8. Have a crack at Google Ads for your money services
If you offer a service that is genuinely in demand and costs more than five hundred or a thousand dollars to deliver, Google Ads can work really well.
Pluck out one specific, high-value service. Run an ad for it. For a lot of contracting and trade work, the leads that come back more than cover the spend.
The real question
Does your website reflect your business as it is today?
For most operators we look at, the honest answer is no. There is a gap between the hard-working, gets-the-job-done business in the real world, and the slightly cold, slightly busy website. Close that gap. Humanise it, and document the work you are already doing.
None of this is hard yards. It is mostly stuff that just keeps getting put off. Pick one fix off this list and sort it this week.
Want a hand with yours?
Run your site through our free 90 second website audit and we will show you where your easy wins are
Or if you fancy the full treatment, put your hand up to have your website pulled apart in a future Website Autopsy Here
