Tradie Website Index 2026 · Edition 1.1

The Tradie Website Score

We scored 359 live Australian tradie homepages out of 100. The average is 63. Score your own site against the Index in ten minutes, then use the charts, data and share cards below. Free to use with credit.

Score your site Read the findings

63/100

average Tradie Website Score

mean 62.6, 95% CI 60.8–64.6; 359 live homepages

76.3%

failed at least one of three phone basics

274 of 359 scanned

2×

the Google reviews for sites that pass the basics (median 34 vs 17)

75 and 236 businesses; correlation, not cause

25.9%

carry schema with their phone and address

87 of 336 homepages fetched as raw HTML

Self-check · 10 minutes

Score your own site

The same ten checks we ran on 359 tradie homepages. Open your homepage on your phone and answer each one.

Your score · 0/10 answered0/100

01Does the first screen on a phone say what trade you are?
Open your homepage on your phone. Don't scroll. Read only what you can see.
10 pts
02Does that first screen name the suburb, city or region you work in?
Same screen, no scrolling. A logo or map doesn't count; it has to be words.
15 pts
03Can you tap a phone number to call without scrolling?
Tap the number. If your phone doesn't offer to call, it's text, not a link.
15 pts
04Is there a quote or contact form on the homepage itself?
Scroll the homepage. A link to a separate contact page doesn't count.
10 pts
05Does the page fit your phone screen with no sideways scrolling?
Swipe left and right on the homepage. Nothing should move sideways.
10 pts
06Does your site open on https:// without a browser warning?
Type https:// then your web address. Look for a warning page or a broken padlock.
7 pts
07If your footer shows a copyright year, is it 2025 or later?
Scroll to the very bottom. No year at all counts as a yes.
8 pts
08Does your site carry LocalBusiness (or a trade type like Plumber) schema?
Paste your homepage into Google's Rich Results Test and look for LocalBusiness or your trade.
10 pts
09Does the homepage link to a page for at least one specific service?
Look at the menu and homepage links: one page per job type, e.g. “Hot water repairs”.
8 pts
10Does the homepage link to a page for at least one suburb or area you serve?
Look for pages like “Plumber in Frankston” linked from the homepage.
7 pts

Your Tradie Website Score

0/100

0 of 10 answered

White line: Index average 63 (359 live homepages, Nov 2026)

Answer all ten on your own phone to compare yourself with the Index. Unanswered checks count as a no.

Clear0/25

Contactable0/25

Sound0/25

Findable0/25

Want the full picture? Get the 24-page report with all twelve chapters and the playbook.

Embeddable charts

Charts you can use

Download any chart, or copy the embed code. Licensed CC BY 4.0: credit ServiceScale, Tradie Website Index 2026.

Bar chart: Tradie Website Scores of 359 homepages in 10-point bands. Most sit between 50 and 79; the average is 63 out of 100. — How 359 tradie homepages score

Bar chart: average share of pillar points earned. Sound 90.9%, Clear 77.5%, Contactable 51.5%, Findable 30.6%. — Where the points are lost

Bar chart of average score by trade with confidence intervals: Plumbers 82 (n=15); Handymen 66 (n=25); Solar installers 65.2 (n=40); Fencing 64.2 (n=47); Tilers 58.8 (n=34); Carpenters 58.3 (n=24); Builders 49.6 (n=18); Excavation 46.9 (n=16). — Score by trade

Bar chart of average score by state with confidence intervals: ACT 70.3 (n=22); WA 67.3 (n=50); TAS 64 (n=16); SA 63.4 (n=34); QLD 61.2 (n=56); VIC 61.1 (n=81); NSW 60.7 (n=84). — Score by state and territory

Bar chart: median Google reviews by score quarter. Lowest-scoring quarter 8, then 14, 23, and 59 for the highest-scoring quarter. — Higher-scoring sites, more Google reviews

Bar chart of AI-readiness measures on 336 homepages: phone number in text 90.8%, same phone as Google listing 84.2%, street address 38.1%, LocalBusiness schema 35.1%, schema with phone and address 25.9%, FAQ content 22.3%, schema naming areas served 12.5%. — What a crawler that doesn’t run JavaScript can read

Bar chart: mobile Largest Contentful Paint for 70 homepages. 10 load in 2.5 seconds or less, 8 in 2.6 to 4 seconds, 28 in 4.1 to 10 seconds and 24 take over 10 seconds. — How long the main content takes to show on a phone

Annotated first-screen examples (fictional, no real business): fails · half there · passes

Share cards

Your trade, your state

Average score by trade and by state, sized for social posts and newsletters. Groups with at least 15 scanned homepages; n is on every card.

Open data

Download the data

Aggregate figures only: overall, by trade, by state, each check, the outcome comparison, AI readiness and page speed, each with its numerator, denominator and base. No business is named or identifiable.

Download CSV

Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Cite as: ServiceScale, Tradie Website Index 2026, servicescale.com.au/blog/tradie-website-index-2026. The method is on the findings article.

Press kit

For journalists and associations

About the Index

The Tradie Website Index is ServiceScale's annual look at how Australian trade businesses show up online. The 2026 edition draws on a catalogue of 27,331 trade businesses with a Google Maps listing across all eight states and territories, a phone-screen scan of 359 of their live homepages, a raw-HTML AI-readiness scan of 336 and a mobile page-speed test of 70. Every figure states its base. The same checks will run every November.

Citable findings

The average Australian tradie homepage scores 62.6 out of 100 on the Tradie Website Score (95% CI 60.8 to 64.6; 359 live homepages, Nov 2026).
76.3% of scanned tradie homepages failed at least one of three phone basics: what and where on the first screen, tap-to-call, and a quote form (274 of 359).
Tradie sites passing all three basics had a median of 34 Google reviews, against 17 for the rest (75 and 236 businesses; Mann–Whitney p = 0.002; correlation, not cause).
Only 25.9% of tradie homepages carry schema with both their phone number and address (87 of 336 fetched as raw HTML, 14 Nov 2026).
The median tradie homepage took 7.0 seconds for its main content to show in a mobile lab test; 10 of 70 met Google's 2.5-second 'good' mark.
About 3 in 10 Australian trade businesses in the catalogue have no website we could find (estimated 28.8%, 95% range 26.6% to 30.0%; 27,331 businesses).

Story angles

Trade press: the average tradie homepage scores 63 out of 100, and 3 in 4 fail a basic phone check. Plumbers average 82 (n = 15); builders and excavation businesses sit near 50.
Associations and training bodies: sites that pass the basics have twice the Google reviews (median 34 vs 17). A correlation worth teaching, not a promise.
AI search: nearly every site shows its phone number, but only 1 in 4 carries schema with its phone and address, and only 2.4% block AI crawlers.
Mobile: the median tradie homepage takes 7 seconds to show its main content in a mobile lab test; 1 in 7 meets Google's 'good' mark.
Local: about 3 in 10 trade businesses in the catalogue have no website at all; a third of those that do never say where they work on the first screen.

Author

Pat Fong ran a trade business and now builds websites for trade businesses at ServiceScale. He has worked in tech for more than 20 years.

“When I ran a trade business, most of our work came from referrals and word of mouth. The referral gets them there. The site decides whether they ring.” Pat Fong

“The biggest waste I see online is ads sent to a bad site. Fix the basics first, then spend.” Pat Fong

Assets

Contact

Media and association enquiries: info@servicescale.com.au

Common questions

How is the Tradie Website Score worked out?

Ten pass/fail checks, worth 100 points in total: trade named on the first phone screen (10), area named (15), tap-to-call on the first screen (15), a homepage quote or contact form (10), fits a phone (10), HTTPS (7), footer year not 2024 or earlier (8), LocalBusiness-type schema (10), a linked service page (8) and a linked suburb or area page (7). We scored 359 live homepages drawn at random from a catalogue of 27,331 Australian trade businesses in November 2026. The average is 62.6 (95% CI 60.8 to 64.6).

Can I use the charts and data?

Yes. The charts, share cards and CSV are licensed CC BY 4.0. Credit "ServiceScale, Tradie Website Index 2026" and link to the findings article.

Is my self-check score saved or sent anywhere?

No. The score is worked out in your browser and isn't stored or sent to us.

Does a higher score mean more work?

Not on its own. Sites that passed all three phone basics had a median of 34 Google reviews against 17 for the rest, but that's a correlation: busier businesses tend to have both. The score shows what a customer on a phone can and can't find.