Project
AC4U Air Conditioning
A one page website for a Geelong air conditioning business, built to answer every question a homeowner asks before they ring
AC4U is an owner operated air conditioning business working out of Geelong and the surrounding towns. It supplies and installs heating and cooling, and services and repairs what is already there. The website was a single page. Everything a customer needed sat on it, one section after another, and the menu across the top slid you down to whichever part you were after. I built it from designs by Jade Young, and then looked after it across several years as the business changed.
The screens on this page are the site as it ran in 2016. It has since been replaced with something else, so what you see here is the work, not the current site.
Project Scope
- Built the website from the designs provided
- Enquiry form and callback requests
- Works on phones and tablets
- Changes and maintenance over several years
- Design by Jade Young
The challenge
Someone shopping for air conditioning is comparing a handful of businesses, and they are not reading carefully. They want to know four things fast: do you do the thing I need, do you come to where I live, are you actually qualified, and how do I get hold of you. A website that makes them hunt for any one of those loses to the one that does not.
A business this size also cannot carry a website that needs looking after. It had to keep working without anyone having to tend to it. A business this size is out on jobs, not sitting at a desk keeping a website fed. Whatever got built had to keep working on its own.
What I built
One page, six sections, in the order a customer actually thinks in. Who this is, what they do, where they go, what they install, why you can trust them, and how to get in touch. Nobody had to click through to a second page to find any of it.
Everything on one screen
The whole business fitted on a single page. The menu across the top slid you straight down to the part you wanted, so nobody ever waited for a page to open or lost their place going back.
The suburbs they cover, named
Torquay, Anglesea, Bannockburn and the surrounding area, written out plainly. Someone in Torquay could see in a second that this was a business that would come to them, which is a question a lot of local trade websites leave you guessing at.
Credentials in the open
A whole section of the page was given over to licences and certifications, with the licence numbers written out. Refrigerant handling, electrical, plumbing, and manufacturer accreditation. It is the sort of thing that often ends up in the small print, and it is exactly what a cautious customer wants before they let someone into the house.
Easy to get hold of
A request a callback form for people who would rather be rung back, and the phone number sitting at the top of the page for people who want to ring now. The email address was written so a customer could read it easily without it becoming a source of spam.
Across the site
Services, and the suburbs they cover
Asking for a callback, on a phone
The result
The site ran for years without needing anything done to it to keep working, which was the point. There was no software sitting behind it that needed updating, and nothing stored that was worth stealing, so there was very little to go wrong while nobody was looking. It was quick on a phone standing in someone's lounge room, and cheap to keep online.
It did change when the business needed it to. At one point the enquiry form came out and was replaced with a direct email link. That is the advantage of a small site: a change like that is a short job rather than a project.
If you run a trade or a local service business and your website is doing less than this one did, that is fixable. Have a look at how I approach websites for trades and web design in Geelong, read the Suncoast Express project, or get in touch.
Common questions about this project
Often, yes. A homeowner ringing around for a split system wants to know what you install, whether you come to their suburb, whether you are licensed, and how to reach you. AC4U answered all four without the visitor ever loading a second page. Extra pages are worth adding when there is a real reason for them, not because a website is supposed to have them.
Because letting a stranger into your house to work on electrical and refrigeration gear is a trust decision, and the licences are the evidence. AC4U listed its plumbing, electrical and refrigerant handling licences openly on the page. It costs nothing and it answers the question the careful customer was already asking.
Very little. There is no software behind it that needs updating and nothing stored that is worth stealing, so there is very little to go wrong and hosting costs almost nothing. That is the right trade for a business whose website does not change much. The trade off is that when you do want a change, it comes through me rather than you editing it yourself.
You ask, and it gets done. AC4U changed several times over the years it ran, including swapping the enquiry form for a direct email link. Small sites are quick to change precisely because there is so little to them.
Yes. Geelong is where I am, and trades are a good fit for a small, direct site: a clear list of services, the areas you cover, your credentials, and an easy way to be contacted. If your website is doing less than that, it is worth a conversation.
