State of Australian Tradie Websites 2026: What 34,000 Trade Businesses Get Wrong Online

Most tradie websites aren't broken. They're just quietly out of date.

We looked at 34,754 Australian trade businesses between August and November 2026. Solar installers, fencers, tilers, chippies, builders, plumbers and sparkies, in every state and territory. For each one we recorded what was actually there: the Google listing, and the website if it had one.

The good news first: the work speaks for itself. Nearly 85% of these businesses hold a Google rating of 4.5 stars or better. Customers are happy.

The problem is everything around the work.

Part of our websites guide. For the bigger picture, see a website built around how tradies get work, and check the real cost of a tradie website before you get quotes. Also worth a read: 6 best landscaper websites in Australia.

The numbers at a glance

• 85% are rated 4.5 stars or better on Google.
• 10 is the median number of Google reviews. 48% have fewer than 10.
• 29% of sites show a footer copyright year of 2024 or earlier. 11% still say 2020 or earlier.
• 75% of sites have no structured data telling Google they're a local trade business.
• 64% run on WordPress, where the platform could be detected.
• About 1 in 20 sites has no working HTTPS.

Reviews: great scores, thin piles

The typical business in our catalogue has 10 Google reviews. Almost half have fewer than ten, and fewer than 1 in 5 have passed 50.

A 4.9 from eight reviews doesn't carry the same weight as a 4.7 from eighty, to a homeowner or to Google. The gap isn't quality. It's asking.

Sites that stopped a few years ago

Of the sites showing a copyright year in the footer, close to 3 in 10 still say 2024 or earlier. About 1 in 6 say 2022 or earlier, and 1 in 9 still say 2020.

A stale year isn't a crime. But a customer comparing three quotes notices it, and it's usually a sign nothing else on the site has been touched either: services, photos, prices, suburbs.

Google doesn't know what the business is

Three in four sites carry no structured data telling Google "this is a local trade business, here's where we work". A third have no structured data at all.

Customers never see it. But it's how search engines, and now AI answers, work out who does what and where.

WordPress still rules

Where we could detect the platform, about two in three tradie sites run on WordPress. Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy make up most of the rest. If you're weighing them up, we've compared the website builders tradies keep running into.

The platform matters less than whether anyone is looking after it.

More on this: tradie website content guide and web design trends for tradies 2026.

The basics still trip people up

About 1 in 20 sites has no working HTTPS, so browsers warn visitors before they ever get to the phone number. About 1 in 23 returned an error page when we checked.

What it adds up to

Most trade businesses have done the hard part. They do good work and customers say so.

What's missing is the boring layer that turns that reputation into calls: a steady flow of new reviews, a site that looks current, and the plumbing that tells Google what you do and where. None of it is expensive. It just needs doing. You can do it yourself, or if you'd rather hand the whole thing over, here's how our websites for tradies work.

Keep going: best website builders for tradies or what a fencing contractor website needs to win jobs.

Three things to check on your own site this week

1. Scroll to the footer. If the year isn't this year, what else hasn't been updated?
2. Count your Google reviews. If it's under 20, send your review link to your last five happy customers today.
3. Type your address with "http://" in front. If the browser shows a warning, your customers are seeing it too.

Common questions

How many Google reviews does a tradie need?

There's no magic number, but in our catalogue the median trade business had 10 and fewer than 1 in 5 had passed 50. Getting to 20 or more puts you ahead of about half the field, and a steady trickle of recent reviews matters as much as the total.

Does an old copyright year in the footer matter?

On its own, no. But it's the first thing a careful customer notices, and in our data it usually travels with other signs a site hasn't been touched in years. Updating it takes two minutes; checking what else is out of date is the real job.

What is structured data, and do tradie websites need it?

Structured data is a small block of code that tells Google what your business is, where you work and how to contact you. Customers never see it, but search engines and AI answers use it to match you to local searches. Three in four tradie sites in our catalogue didn't have it.

How we did it

We built a catalogue of 34,754 Australian trade business websites and Google listings, collected 13 August to 4 November 2026. It covers all states and territories, but it isn't a random sample. Some trades (solar, handyman, fencing, tiling, carpentry) are over-represented, and plumbers and electricians are under-represented.

Each percentage uses only the businesses where that field could be measured: Google rating (27,274), review count (26,801), footer copyright year (13,353), structured data (22,259), platform (16,337) and HTTPS (22,929). No individual businesses are named.

Want the full breakdown by trade or state for a story or a members' newsletter? Get in touch.