Blackmore Plumbing case study: a website he actually wantedThe plumber who never wanted a website.
Elliott at Blackmore Plumbing never wanted a website, but he knew he needed to get online. He was also fed up with sales calls telling him he had no website, or that his old one was too slow and no good for SEO. We built him a custom PHP website with its own callback inbox, a cartoon style that's all his own and Cloudflare Turnstile spam protection. It scores 100 for SEO in Google's PageSpeed test, and his customers often comment on how good it is.
The results, at a glance.
Google PageSpeed Insights (Lighthouse) tests of the homepage, October 2026. The mobile test was re-run after we optimised the images, and scored 100 for accessibility, best practices and SEO too.
Who they are
About Blackmore Plumbing.
Blackmore Plumbing is Elliott: one man, one van and more than 20 years' experience, based in Weston-super-Mare. He's a small-job plumber, so taps, toilets, leaks and pipes, showers and hot water, kitchen plumbing and drains are all welcome. He doesn't do gas or boiler work.
He works Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm, across Weston-super-Mare, Worle, Uphill, Banwell, Axbridge, Hewish, Hutton, Locking, Winscombe, Cheddar, Nailsea, Backwell and Clevedon, and has a 5.0 rating from 19 Google reviews.
Summarised from their own website (opens in a new tab), October 2026.
The problem
He didn't want a website. The sales calls didn't stop.
Elliott is Blackmore Plumbing: a one-man, one-van, small-job plumber in Weston-super-Mare. He never wanted a website, but he knew he needed to update and get online.
What really wore him down was the phone. He kept getting sales calls about not having a website, or about his old one not being fast enough or its SEO being no good. Every one of those calls was time away from his customers.
So the brief was simple: a website that feels like him, loads fast, is set up properly for Google, and turns visitors into callbacks without giving him another thing to manage.
What we did.
A custom PHP website with a unique cartoon style, pages for each plumbing job and area, a private callback inbox, and Cloudflare Turnstile spam protection.
- 1. ListenBuilt around ElliottOne man, one van, small jobs welcome. We kept the website about him, the jobs he does and the places he covers, in plain words.
- 2. DrawA cartoon style of his ownA unique illustrated look, with Elliott waving from his van on the seafront, so the site feels friendly and nothing like a template.
- 3. BuildCustom PHP, nothing extraA hand-built PHP website with no page builder or plugins to slow it down, with pages for each plumbing job and the areas he covers.
- 4. LeadsHis own callback inboxCallback requests go into a private office on the site, where each one can be marked as contacted, booked or completed.
- 5. ProtectTurnstile on every formCloudflare Turnstile checks the callback form and sign-ins for bots, and analytics only runs once a visitor accepts cookies.
Fast, findable and his own.
Elliott didn't need a big website. He needed one that loads quickly, that Google can read properly, and that makes calling or asking for a callback easy on a phone. Building it by hand, rather than on a page builder, is what keeps it light.
From the horse's mouth
Don't just take our word for it.
Elliott didn't believe a new website would bring in extra work. He only wanted one so people would stop calling him to say he needed a new website. So we wanted to share his first response when the first callback request came in.
Trades have always won most of their work from phone calls, word of mouth and their Google Business Profile, and that doesn't change. A good website adds to it, catching the people who'd rather leave their details and get a call back than pick up the phone.
The scores
Desktop and mobile, side by side.
We show the mobile scores too, because the mobile test is the tougher one. It simulates a mid-range phone on a slower connection, so performance scores are almost always lower than on desktop.
| Performance Mobile: 94 | 98 |
|---|---|
| Accessibility Mobile: 100 | 100 |
| Best practices Mobile: 100 | 100 |
| SEO Mobile: 100 | 100 |
| Largest content shown Mobile: 3.1s | 1.2s |
| Layout shift Desktop and mobile | 0 |
Why it matters.
For a one-man business, time on the phone with salespeople is time not spent on jobs. A fast, well-built website gives those calls nothing to point at, gives customers an easy way to ask for a callback, and his customers often comment on how good it looks.
About these numbers: Scores are from Google PageSpeed Insights (Lighthouse) tests of the homepage in October 2026, with the mobile test re-run after an image update. Lab scores vary a little between runs, and they measure how the website is built, not enquiries or sales.
Questions we get asked.
Related: Trades & home services · Web design · SEO
Why custom PHP rather than WordPress?
For a small trades website, a hand-built PHP site has nothing extra to load and no plugins to keep patching. That's a big part of why it's fast. Elliott still has a private office for his callbacks.
What is Cloudflare Turnstile?
A spam check from Cloudflare that runs on forms, usually without making people solve a puzzle. The website checks the result on the server too, so bots can't simply skip it.
Why is the mobile score lower than desktop?
Google's mobile test simulates a mid-range phone on a slower connection, so performance scores are almost always lower than on desktop. Accessibility, best practices and SEO still scored 100 on mobile.
Do I need a website if my work comes from word of mouth?
Even people who were recommended to you usually look you up before they call. A simple, fast website with your reviews, the jobs you do and the areas you cover backs up that recommendation.
Fed up with "your website" sales calls?
Let's build you something fast, set up properly for Google and genuinely yours, so the next call is a customer.