A Tradesperson Website in the UK: Accreditations, Reviews, Leads
Short answer: A UK trade website that wins work needs four things: accreditations shown accurately and only where you hold them, genuine reviews, a quote form that captures the job properly (postcode, photos, urgency), and fast-loading service pages for the towns you really cover. Gas Safe's own policy says only registered businesses may show its logo or a registration number, and only with their registered trading name. Since April 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 also bans displaying a trust or quality mark without authorisation and publishing fake or concealed-incentive reviews.
Section 1: The header and hero
The first screen has one job: tell a homeowner in five seconds what you do, where, and how to reach you.
Build list:
- Trade and area in plain words ("Boiler repairs and installs in Leeds and Wakefield")
- Phone number as a tap-to-call button on mobile
- A "Get a quote" button that goes to the form, not a contact page
- One accreditation strip below the fold-line, not a wall of twenty logos
Skip the slider. A single good photo of you or your van at a job tells people more than five stock images of smiling families.
Section 2: Accreditations, done properly
This is where trade sites most often get into trouble, usually by copying a logo from Google Images or leaving one up after membership lapses.
Gas Safe Register
Gas Safe Register's Brand Enforcement Policy (version 10, February 2026) says that only registered gas businesses may display the Gas Safe brand and/or a Gas Safe registration number, and only in association with their registered trading name. Registered businesses receive a licence to use the brand under its Brand Guidelines, which sit behind the engineer login in the Resource Hub.
For your website that means:
- Use the artwork from your Gas Safe account, not a copied image
- Show your registration number next to the trading name it belongs to
- If you trade under several names, only the registered one gets the badge
- Encourage visitors to check you on the Gas Safe Register; it builds more trust than the logo alone
NICEIC and other electrical schemes
NICEIC's Approved Contractor Scheme Rules define "Scheme Brandmarks" as the logo combined with the specific scheme you're certified for, used under its brandmark guidelines. The rules also say that if certification is suspended, the business must stop using the brandmarks on websites and promotional materials. Put a reminder in your diary for renewal; a lapsed badge left online is your problem, not the web designer's.
Show the logo that matches your actual scheme. Domestic Installer and Approved Contractor aren't interchangeable.
TrustMark
TrustMark describes itself as the Government Endorsed Quality Scheme for work in and around the home, and registered businesses get a listing in its Find a Business directory. Display the logo only while you're registered, and link to your directory listing.
The legal backstop
Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, in force since 6 April 2025, lists commercial practices that are always unfair. Two apply directly:
- Displaying a trust mark, quality mark or equivalent without the necessary authorisation
- Claiming you're approved or endorsed by a body when that's false or you aren't complying with its terms
That second point catches the "lapsed but still on the van and website" situation.
Section 3: Services and areas
Service pages
One page per main job type: boiler installation, boiler repair, power flushing, fuse board upgrades, EV charger installs. On each:
- What the job involves, in your words
- What affects the price (without inventing figures you can't stand behind)
- Photos of your own work
- Which accreditation covers that work
Area pages
Only create a page for a town if you genuinely work there and can say something specific: parking for vans on terraced streets, older housing stock, typical call-out times. Fifty near-identical "Plumber in [Town]" pages read as spam to people and to Google.
Section 4: Reviews
Reviews do more selling than anything you write yourself. The rules on them got stricter in April 2025. Schedule 20 of the DMCC Act bans:
- Submitting or commissioning fake consumer reviews
- Reviews that hide the fact they were incentivised
- Publishing reviews in a misleading way
- Publishing reviews without reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and remove fake or misleading ones
For a trade site that means:
- Embed or link to reviews from where they actually live (Google, Checkatrade, TrustMark, Trustpilot) rather than retyping hand-picked quotes
- Don't delete or hide all the three-star ones
- If you offer anything for a review, the review must say so, and it shouldn't depend on the review being positive
- Keep a simple note of how you check and handle suspect reviews
Section 5: The quote form
A good trade quote form saves a site visit or at least makes the visit worthwhile.
| Field | Why |
|---|---|
| Postcode | Tells you instantly if it's in your area |
| Job type (dropdown) | Routes to the right person and pricing |
| Short description | In the customer's words |
| Photo upload (2–5 images) | Boiler model plate, consumer unit, the leak |
| Urgency (emergency / this week / planning) | Lets you prioritise |
| Best contact method and time | Fewer missed calls |
Keep it to one screen on mobile. Send an instant confirmation that says when you'll reply, and make sure the enquiry lands somewhere you check from the van, such as a WhatsApp or SMS alert.
Section 6: Directories vs your own site
Directories like Checkatrade or TrustMark's Find a Business are lead sources and trust signals. They're worth having. But you don't control their layout, their pricing or the competitors shown next to you. Your own site is where those directory reviews, your accreditations and your photos come together under your name, and where repeat customers find you without going through a middleman.
Most successful trade businesses use both: directories for discovery, their own site for conversion and repeat work.
Section 7: Basics that quietly cost jobs
- Mobile speed: compress photos; most of your traffic is people on phones, often in a hurry
- Business name, address and phone identical across the site, Google profile and directories
- A privacy notice that covers the quote form and photo uploads
- Opening hours and whether you do emergency call-outs
FAQ
Can I show the Gas Safe logo if my employee is registered but my business isn't?
Gas Safe's policy says only registered gas businesses may display the brand or a registration number, tied to the registered trading name. Sort out the business registration first.
Is it illegal to keep a lapsed TrustMark or NICEIC logo on my website?
Displaying a trust mark without authorisation is on the DMCC Act's list of banned practices, and NICEIC's scheme rules require suspended businesses to remove its brandmarks. Take it down the day membership lapses.
Can I copy my best Google reviews onto my homepage?
You can quote genuine reviews, but picking only the glowing ones and presenting them as typical risks being "misleading" under the new rules. Linking or embedding your full review profile is safer.
Do I need a separate page for every town I cover?
No. A few genuine area pages beat dozens of thin ones.
Should you want a hand turning these sections into a site that brings in quote requests, a short description of your trade is all we need.