Why your artisan business still needs a website in 2025

Meet Thomas, carpenter in Nantes

Thomas has been making custom kitchens and staircases for 12 years. Great work, loyal clients, a Facebook page with 800 followers. Last spring, he did the math: out of 20 people who called him, only 6 booked. The other 14? They googled him, found nothing serious, and called someone else.

That's the story of most artisans in 2025. Your future customer no longer asks the neighbour — they type "menuisier Nantes" into their phone at 9pm on the sofa. If you're not there, you don't exist.

So let's talk about what a website really needs to do for you, what it costs, and where people waste money.

What a good artisan website actually does

Forget "having a presence online." A website has one job: turn a stranger who googled you into a phone call or a quote request.

That means it must answer, in under 10 seconds:

• What do you do exactly? (kitchens, staircases, terrasses...)
• Where do you work? (Nantes + 30 km around)
• Can I see your previous work? (photos, real ones)
• Are you legit? (reviews, SIRET, years in business)
• How do I contact you? (phone visible, one-click on mobile)

That's it. No fancy animations, no video intro, no "our vision" page nobody reads.

The 7 things every artisan homepage must have

1. Your trade + city in the first line ("Menuisier à Nantes depuis 2013")
2. A phone number you can tap on mobile — 70% of visitors are on a phone
3. 8 to 15 photos of your actual work (not stock photos of someone else's kitchen)
4. 3 to 5 Google reviews copy-pasted right on the page
5. The zones you cover (Nantes, Rezé, Saint-Herblain, Vertou...)
6. A short contact form — name, phone, 2-line message. Nothing else.
7. Your SIRET and insurance at the bottom — this reassures serious clients

The real cost: three honest options

Here's what Thomas looked at before deciding:

| Option | Upfront cost | Monthly cost | Time to set up | Who it fits | |---|---|---|---|---| | Do it yourself on Wix or Hostinger | 0 € | 12–20 €/month | 2 full weekends | Comfortable with a computer, patient | | Freelance web designer (local) | 800–1 800 € | 10–15 €/month | 3–4 weeks | Wants it done right, one time | | Agency "premium" site | 3 500–8 000 € | 40–80 €/month | 2–3 months | Overkill for most artisans |

Wix and Hostinger are tools that let you build a website by dragging blocks around, like moving furniture in a room. No code. Wix starts at 13 €/month, Hostinger Website Builder at 2,99 €/month the first year (then around 11 €). That's roughly the price of one baguette per week for a full year.

Thomas went with a freelance found on Malt (a website where you can hire independent professionals by the day). He paid 1 200 € to a designer in Nantes, plus 12 €/month for hosting. To put that in perspective: 1 200 € = one custom bookshelf he builds in 3 days. One extra job per year and the site pays for itself forever.

The classic traps to avoid

Trap 1: Paying 4 000 € for a beautiful site nobody finds

A gorgeous site that doesn't appear on Google is a business card printed once and locked in a drawer. Before spending big, ask the person building it: "Will I appear when someone types 'menuisier Nantes' on Google?" If they can't explain how, walk away.

Trap 2: Skipping local SEO

SEO means "showing up on Google." Local SEO means "showing up when someone nearby searches." Two free actions matter more than any fancy site:

• Create a Google Business Profile (free). This is the little card with your photo, hours and reviews that appears on the right when someone googles you. Artisans who fill it out properly get 2 to 5 extra calls per week.
• Ask every happy client for a Google review. Send a text: "Hi Mrs. Martin, if you have 30 seconds, a review here would help me a lot: [link]." Aim for 20 reviews in your first year.

Trap 3: Bad photos

This is where 80% of artisan sites fail. Blurry photos taken with a dirty phone in bad light kill trust in 2 seconds. Two options:

• Do it yourself: shoot near a window, in the morning, no flash, wipe your lens first. 30 minutes per finished job.
• Hire a local photographer for half a day: 250–400 €. You'll get 40 clean photos usable for 3 years.

Trap 4: The endless site

Five pages is enough: Home, Services, Realisations (photo gallery), About, Contact. Every extra page is a page you'll never update.

Thomas's before/after

Before the site (Facebook only): 20 calls/month → 6 jobs → around 4 800 € revenue.

After the site + Google Business Profile filled + 18 reviews collected in 4 months: 34 calls/month → 12 jobs → around 9 600 € revenue.

The website itself cost him 1 200 € once and 12 €/month. He earned that back in 8 days. He also saves roughly 45 minutes a day because half the callers now say "I saw your photos, I already know what I want, can you come measure?" — no more explaining the basics on the phone.

Over a year: +60 000 € in extra revenue and about 180 hours saved answering repetitive questions.

Your action plan for next week

1. Monday: Create your Google Business Profile. Free, 45 minutes. Add 10 photos.
2. Tuesday: List the 5 questions clients always ask you on the phone. Those are your homepage content.
3. Wednesday: Take (or book) proper photos of 3 recent jobs.
4. Thursday: Get 3 quotes — one from Malt, one from a local freelance, one from an agency. Compare.
5. Friday: Text your last 10 happy clients asking for a Google review.

Key takeaways

• A working artisan website costs 800–1 500 € once + 12 €/month — not 5 000 €. Anything more expensive needs to justify itself.
• The website alone does nothing: pair it with a Google Business Profile (free) and 20 real reviews to actually get calls.
• Real photos of your real work beat any design. Budget 250–400 € for a photographer if you can't shoot decent pictures yourself.
• Expected gain for a solo artisan: +6 to +10 extra jobs per month and 30–45 minutes/day saved on the phone.
• Bottom line: for the price of one custom job, you build a machine that brings you jobs for the next 5 years.