Detailer’s Guide To Web Design In 2025

This guide is helpful for detailers and automotive service businesses including tuning, remapping, paint repair, wheel repair, garages and more.

Your website is the engine that powers your business online – we’re here to help you supercharge your website, guiding you to build a website that works as hard for your business as you do!

Did you know? 99% of your customers will visit your website, 81% of people will research your business online before buying (1) and it can take just 0.05 seconds for a customer to form a first impression of your business based on your website (2).

Your website works 24/7, day and night, supporting every aspect of your business from marketing and lead generation to sales and customer service.

Investing in your website is one of the smartest things you’ll do as a business owner.

As of October 2024, there was approximately 1.1 billion websites online and 175 websites are created every minute (4)

Choose the right platform for your business

Choosing your website platform or Content Management System (CMS) is an important step, we’ve broken down when and why you might use the most popular platforms. 

Wix and Squarespace – Do-It-Yourself platforms that are suited to businesses just starting up, side-hustles and when you don’t have budget for a web designer. 

WordPress – professional open source platform with full control over the look, feel and technical performance of your website, WordPress is trusted by millions and is the #1 CMS by market share with over 62% of CMS websites built on WordPress (8).

If you’re just starting up, or managing your detailing business at weekends, and want to avoid the upfront costs of a professionally designed and Search Engine Optimised website – it would be worth considering a Do-It-Yourself platform like Wix.

However if you’re ready to invest in a professionally designed web site to support the growth of your car detailing business, we recommend WordPress.

For anyone looking to set up an eCommerce website i.e. an online shop, there’s two choices Shopify or WooCommerce.

Make Search Engine Optimisation a priority from the start

In October 2024, there was over 1.2m searches in the UK (22.2m globally) for services such as ceramic coating, car detailing, paint protection film and car valeting.

40,000 searches are completed daily in the UK making Google one of the single biggest sources of website traffic for detailing businesses.

Free traffic from Google search is earned through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). There’s also paid traffic from Google search in the way of “sponsored” ads managed in Google Ads – we’ll cover that more in a separate blog.

There are 100s of factors that influence your website ranking in Google’s organic search results and maps, Backlinko have a list of 200 ranking factors (6) and SEMRUSH regularly publish their studies on the most influential Google ranking factors (7).

Google search ranking factors can be categorised into 5 key groups

1. Content
2. Backlinks
3. Brand and reputation
4. Customer/user experience
5. Technical optimisation

Create pages for every service

One of the biggest mistakes I see on websites for detailing businesses is not enough pages or content about their services.

80% of the detailing and automotive websites I audited in 2024 had just 1-2 pages about their services with page titles like “Our Packages” and “Our Services”.

The problem: this won’t get your website found in search, it’s unlikely to convert visitors who are researching the services and if visitors don’t find the information they’re looking for early-on in their journey they could avoid your website altogether when they’re ready to book.

How I would structure a basic website for a car detailing business:

• Home
• Car Detailing
• Ceramic Coating
• Paint Protection Film
• Car Valeting
• About
• Contact

If you offer additional complementary services like alloy wheel repair, leather repair, body work, Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) – you should absolutely create pages for these.

All of these pages will help your website to get found by potential customers searching for these services.

What to include on your service pages – for Local SEO and Conversion Rate Optimisation

One of the second biggest mistakes I see on detailing websites, is creating pages with thin content.

Google defines thin content – as pages with little or no value to users which can significantly harm your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Google’s Search Essentials emphasize that content should be “helpful, reliable, [and] people-first.” Pages lacking depth or originality fail to meet these criteria, leading to lower rankings or removal from search results (5).

To put it simply 100-300 words about Ceramic Coating or PPF is thin content, in my opinion.

Key features of a service page:

• Page title – accurately explain the service and location you operate in such as: Paint Protection Film London
• Intro text covering Unique Selling Points (USPs) and location
• Reviews – include your star rating from channels such as Google and Trustpilot as trust signals and feature genuine customer reviews to demonstrate social proof and further build trust
• Calls-to-action – you should include at least 1 form on your service page, your phone number, and email address. Additionally we’re seeing success with Whatsapp business, giving your customers a link to directly open a Whatsapp chat with your business
• Name, Address and Phone number (NAP) which is consistent with your Google Business Profile and other online profiles
• Add a Google Map highlighting your Google Business Profile
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Packages and pricing – all of the information should be easily readable and pricing clear and simple
• Optional extras and upgrades should be featured early on to help you upsell them to customers
• Big suppliers like Gtechniq, Xpel, GYEON, Pyramid Car Care and others usually have strong brand awareness with your potential customers, highlight the suppliers you use, to help build trust
• About section – feature business owners and team members to build trust, and introduce the people your customers will be working with
• Finance options? Shout about these
• Cross selling – link to other service pages to cross sell

Page Speed – Google likes it quick, your customers do too

According to Google’s guidelines, a web page should load in under 2 seconds for good customer experience. For e-commerce sites, Google recommends a load time of under 1 second to minimise bounce rates and maximise conversions.

Key factors that slow down your website:

• Images
• Video
• Animation
• Plugins
• Using the wrong web hosting technology

How can you check your website’s page speed?

• Google’s page speed insights: https://pagespeed.web.dev/
• Pingdom: https://tools.pingdom.com/
• GTmetrix: https://gtmetrix.com/

There are some more advanced metrics we look at when building websites such as Google’s Core Web Vitals, which include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – you can get a Core Web Vitals report here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9205520?hl=en

Picture perfect – professional photography is one of the most effective ways to differentiate your website from competitors

Since your customers are making first impressions within milliseconds it’s important that your website’s visuals positively portray your business.

Professional photography can transform a car detailing website from ordinary to extraordinary, creating a lasting first impression that resonates with potential customers.

High-quality images showcase your craftsmanship, highlighting the meticulous attention to detail that sets your business apart.

Before-and-after shots  can build  trust and demonstrate your expertise.

In an industry where visuals speak louder than words, professional photography also strengthens your brand identity.

Clean, well-lit, and visually appealing photos convey professionalism and credibility, two factors that greatly influence a customer’s decision-making process.

Investing in professional photography is more than just aesthetics—it’s a powerful tool to build trust, attract new customers, and grow your car detailing business.