The boiler stays quiet. The radiators stay cold. A service sticker says the check is overdue before the first frost. Someone searches for a heating engineer near them, opens your site, and decides in a few seconds whether they can call without guessing. Soft boiler stock and a number buried under three menus do not count. They open the next firm that already says what to do next.
A heating website is not a brochure for people who already know your van. It is the front desk when the heat has already failed — or when winter will not wait for a vague “we’ll get back to you”.
That first screen has to answer:
- What you do — emergency call-outs, boiler repair and replacement, annual service, or all of that — in the first sentence.
- The brands or systems you work on, if that matters for the call, without a wall of jargon.
- The area you cover, named towns, not “we serve the region”.
- How to reach you now: a number that works on a phone, and whether you take messages when you are on a job.
- Hours, including evenings and weekends if you answer then — and what happens when you are closed.
- A little proof you are real — your name, the town, a job from this season, not a stock handshake next to a boiler.
You do not need a long essay about every valve. You need a page that lets a cold hallway finish the call without hunting.
If your current site still makes them hunt for that, write to hello@merkwell.com. Say what a first enquiry must answer on the first screen. We can put the desk where they can find it.