In short and in plain language
This article is about the website of a tiler. The topic is a bathroom for older people, with a shower that has no step.
Often the family helps to choose. They have little time. So this work needs a page of its own.
The care insurance can pay a grant. The page may say so, but must not promise money.
Say honestly how long the work takes. Also say how long the bathroom cannot be used.
Ask in the form about the care level. Also ask if a claim has been made yet.
We build websites for tilers at a fixed price.
A tiling contractor is searched for by two very different people, and the two have almost nothing in common. One is planning a new build, has a tile format in mind and wants to see reference projects. The other is sitting at the kitchen table in the evening with the notice about her mother's care level in front of her, looking for someone who will take out the bathtub and fit a step-free shower - ideally before her father comes back from short-term care. In December 2023 just under 5.7 million people in Germany were in need of long-term care, and 86 percent of them were looked after at home (Federal Statistical Office). At home means: in a flat that was never built for this, and almost always with a bathroom that becomes the first problem. For that second search, a keyword on the bathroom page is not enough. It needs a service page of its own, a form that asks about the care level, and a section that states the construction time honestly. This article describes how that page is built, which questions it has to answer and how a business notices that it is missing.
Key takeaways
- The age-appropriate conversion is a service of its own with an audience of its own: relatives take part in the decision, search with different words and are under time pressure. That belongs on a separate page, not in a paragraph of the bathroom page.
- Just under 5.7 million people were in need of long-term care in December 2023, and 86 percent of them were looked after at home (Federal Statistical Office). The demand arises in flats that were never built for it.
- For measures to improve the living environment, Section 40(4) SGB XI provides for a subsidy of up to 4,180 euros per measure. The page may state that framework, but must not suggest that approval is certain.
- In these enquiries the construction time decides more often than the price. On the page, separate the length of the job from the time the bathroom is actually out of use.
- Two yes/no fields in the enquiry form - care level in place, application already filed - sort incoming enquiries more than any other field.
Two audiences, one business
The client in a new build and the relative in an existing bathroom are not looking for the same service, and they are not using the same words either. The client types in the trade and the town. The relative types in what she wants to achieve: bath out, shower in, no step, with a grab rail. She is not looking for a tiler, she is looking for an answer for a bathroom her mother can no longer climb into. A business that wants to win that search mirrors it on the website in the same language - and does so under an address of its own, not in half a sentence under bathroom refurbishment.
The numbers behind that second search are quiet but large. According to the Federal Statistical Office, just under 5.7 million people were in need of long-term care in December 2023; 3.1 million of them received care allowance only and were looked after mainly by relatives. That is the group living in your catchment area - and it is not the people in need of care themselves who search for a business at half past ten at night.
At the end of 2023, 78 percent of those in need of care were 65 or older and roughly a third were at least 85 (Federal Statistical Office). In that age group the conversion is almost never planned; it follows an event - a fall, a stay in hospital, a newly assessed care level. That is where the time pressure in every enquiry of this kind comes from, and that is why three pieces of information have to sit in the first screen: that you do these conversions, within which radius, and how quickly you can come out to measure up.
| Element of the page | Client in a new build | Relative in an existing bathroom |
|---|---|---|
| Entry point | Reference projects, formats, laying patterns | Bath out, shower without a step, grab rail |
| First question | What will it look like afterwards? | How long will the bathroom be unusable? |
| Second question | What does a square metre cost? | Does the care insurance fund pay towards it? |
| Who decides | The client, often with an architect | A daughter or son, often from another town |
| Time frame | Months, with a construction schedule | Weeks, triggered by an event |
| What convinces | A project gallery with areas | Process, construction time, close-up photos, a name to call |
Putting both on one page costs you both enquiries: the client skips the care section, the relative never finds hers. That is why the age-appropriate conversion belongs on a service page of its own, with its own address, its own heading and its own form. Why separate pages carry more than one combined page is set out in the article on service pages instead of one combined page.
The care insurance subsidy belongs on the page
For measures to improve a person's individual living environment, the care insurance funds may grant subsidies on a subsidiary basis; converting a bathroom to a step-free shower normally falls under this. The upper limit is written into the law, and it is the reason the relative keeps searching at all:
The subsidies may not exceed an amount of 4,180 euros per measure.
4,180 euros per measure are neither a discount nor a commitment by your business - they are a benefit of the care insurance fund, and the fund decides. That is precisely why the wording on the page needs care. You may explain that the subsidy exists, which provision it rests on and which documents the fund usually wants to see. You may not suggest that it will be approved. A sentence such as we file the application and the fund pays is both factually wrong and legally exposed.
Two details are missing from nearly every conversion page and fit into two sentences. First: where several eligible people live together, the subsidies are pooled, and the total amount per measure is capped at 16,720 euros (Section 40 SGB XI). Second: entitlement to these subsidies also exists at care level 1; the law lists them explicitly among the benefits at care level 1 (Section 28a SGB XI). A business that mentions this answers two follow-up questions before they are asked.
The wording that holds up
What sits under the tile belongs in the text
The visible work of a tiling contractor is the surface. The work that is argued about in an age-appropriate bathroom sits underneath it: build-up height, fall, drain, bonded waterproofing, the junction with the wall and the door frame. A page that only hints at this produces enquiries that fall apart when you measure up, because the customer expected a different service.
This does not mean the page should turn into a technical paper. It means that every point which later costs money is named once beforehand - in your words, with your build-up, for the bathrooms you actually find on site. Three to five sentences per point are enough. The gain is not completeness; the gain is that the relative already knows what you are talking about when she calls.
These sections have a second benefit that shows up faster than any visibility effect: they answer the questions that would otherwise fill the first phone call. A business that writes down its standard answers once has shorter calls and receives enquiries that are already prepared.
- Build-up height: what sits under the tile and how much height the conversion needs in an existing building - the point that decides whether the screed is opened up.
- Fall and drain: point drain or channel, where it sits in the room, how it connects to the existing stack.
- Bonded waterproofing: what is sealed, up to which line, and why the layer under the tile is the actual work.
- The junction with the adjoining room: door frame, threshold, connection to the floor covering in the hallway.
- Fixing points: where the grab rail and the seat are anchored and what has to be prepared in the wall for them.
- What you do not cover: drylining, electrical work, plumbing - named, so it is clear who else is involved.
The last point is left out most often and is the most valuable. An age-appropriate conversion is rarely one trade alone. If your page says which part you take on and who you usually work with, it does not read as a limitation but as order. What the same conversion looks like from the perspective of a plumbing and heating business is covered in the article on websites for plumbing and heating.
Construction time is the real question
How long the bathroom is out of use decides these enquiries more often than the price. In a household with someone in need of care, a bathroom out of action is not a comfort issue but an organisational one: it has to be settled where the person showers in the meantime and who helps. A business that answers this on the page takes half the uncertainty out of the enquiry.
So do not quote a marketing figure; describe your process. A section with day-by-day stages carries more weight than a number that rarely holds in an existing building anyway. What matters is that the section separates two things: the total length of the job and the time the bathroom is actually closed off. Those are rarely the same period, and the question is about the second.
- The process section names stages rather than a fixed commitment: strip-out, substrate, waterproofing, tiling, grout and silicone, handover.
- For each stage it says whether the bathroom can be used during that phase.
- Drying and waiting times are included - they are the reason a single number misleads.
- One sentence on dust control and access: how the flat is protected while the work runs.
- One sentence on availability: who in the business can be reached during the job, and when.
- One sentence on the unexpected: what happens if the substrate turns out differently than assumed.
Why construction time belongs on the page, not in the phone call
Slip resistance, turning space, fixing points
Relatives research with words they brought back from the hospital or from a care adviser: slip-resistant, threshold-free, wheelchair-accessible, turning space. If those words do not appear on your page, the search does not find you. If they appear without you explaining what you mean by them, the page reads like a catalogue.
A table carries further here than a paragraph. It assigns to every term the decision that is actually taken in the bathroom and turns search words into advice. Name the classes and dimensions you really use in your bathrooms rather than general statements: the page is meant to describe your work, not to summarise a body of standards.
| Word from the search | Why it is searched for | What your page says about it |
|---|---|---|
| slip-resistant | Fear of the next fall | Which rating group you use in the shower area and why |
| threshold-free | Walking frame, shower stool, wheelchair | How the junction is executed and what that means in an existing bathroom |
| turning space | Room for a second person | Which dimensions your typical floor plan allows and where it gets tight |
| grab rail | Support when standing up | Where it is anchored and what has to be prepared in the wall |
| shower seat | Washing while seated | Folding seat or stool, load capacity, fixing point |
| grout | Cleaning, mould, upkeep | Joint width, material, care instructions after handover |
That table is also your word list for visibility. Every row on the left is a word someone searches with; every row on the right is the reason they stay on your page. How to find the right words for your own catchment area is described in the article on finding local search terms.
Three sentences that must not appear on this page
The form decides whether the enquiry is usable
The standard form of name, e-mail and message produces enquiries nobody can work with on this subject. What is missing is exactly the information that decides whether an appointment makes sense at all: where the bathroom is, how big it is, whether a care level has been assessed and whether anything has already been applied for with the funding body.
A form with eight to ten fields is not too long for this audience; it takes weight off them, because it shows that you know the questions. Two yes/no fields carry most of the sorting - care level in place, application already filed. They change nothing about your offer, but everything about the order in which you call back.
{
"town": "Hildesheim",
"property": "flat in an existing building, built 1968",
"existing": "bathtub with shower curtain",
"wanted": "step-free shower, grab rail, shower seat",
"bathroomAreaSqm": 6.5,
"careLevel": "yes, care level 3",
"applicationFiled": false,
"residentOnSite": "yes, staying in the flat during the work",
"timeFrame": "within about eight weeks if possible",
"contactPerson": "daughter, lives 120 km away",
"callBackWindow": "weekdays from 5 pm",
"photosUploaded": 4
}The example is not a catalogue of mandatory fields but a target picture: this is what an enquiry looks like when you no longer have to ask back. Which fields a trade form generally needs and which ones leave it empty is covered in the article on enquiry form fields.
Property and location
Town, type of building, approximate year of construction and bathroom size. From this you can tell whether the trip is worth it and what awaits you when measuring up.
Care level and application
Two yes/no fields plus a field for the fund. They decide which documents you bring along to the appointment.
Time frame and residents
When the conversion should be finished and whether someone stays in the flat while the work runs. Both change the process considerably.
Photos of the bathroom today
A field for four to six images often saves the first site visit and makes the first assessment far more reliable.
A data protection note belongs next to it, not in a footnote: the care level is health data. Ask for it as a selection rather than a free text field, explain in one sentence what you need it for, and keep the field optional. That costs you no enquiry and saves an awkward discussion.
Photographs: the junction, the drain, the fixing
The usual bathroom photographs show the finished room from the door corner. For this audience those are the least useful images, because they leave out exactly the places where the decision is made. More important than the wide shot are three close-ups - and every business already has them; they are simply rarely filed.
A business that gets into the habit of taking the same three shots on every conversion has, after six months, a set of images no catalogue photograph can replace. The effort is about two minutes per site; the difference on the page is the difference between a brochure and a record.
- The junction: the floor from the hallway into the shower, in one shot that really shows the absence of a step.
- The drain: channel or point drain in the installed state, with the fall visible in the picture.
- The fixing: the grab rail on the wall, plus a second image of the substrate before tiling.
- The bathroom before: without tidying up, because the previous state is what makes the work visible.
- One shot with a scale: a folding rule or a shower stool in frame so the size can be read.
- No people in the picture unless the person shown has given written consent.
How before-and-after shots turn into a set that carries is described in the article on before-and-after photos for trade websites. How the shots taken with a phone become usable is covered in the article on phone photos and on our page on photos for trade websites.
Being found: different words than for a splashback
According to Bitkom, 94 percent of trade businesses run a website of their own and 88 percent also use online directories. So the website alone is no longer a difference; the difference appears where it answers a question nobody else answers. With the age-appropriate bathroom that is easier than in almost any other area, because most tiling websites do not carry the subject at all.
On top of that comes an expectation from the same survey: 89 percent of businesses report that customers increasingly expect offers tailored to their situation (Bitkom). For the website that means not more choice but better matching: someone searching for a shower without a step should land on a page about exactly that, and not on the home page.
- One address for the subject, not three paragraphs at the end of the bathroom page.
- The heading names the thing the way it is searched for, not the way it is called in your costing.
- The town appears in the text, not only in the imprint - together with the radius you really travel.
- A short question-and-answer set at the foot of the page, filled with the questions from your own phone calls.
- Links to the bathroom page and to the contact page, with anchor texts that name the content.
- An entry in the business profile that names the same service as the page.
After that the page is no longer a one-off project but a small recurring routine. Four steps are enough, and the first one costs nothing but attention.
Collect the questions
For two weeks, note down what people ask on the phone. That list is the structure of the page, and it is more accurate than any desk research.
Create the page
An address of its own, a heading in the language of the people searching, sections in the order of the questions, a form in the middle and at the end.
Add the photographs
Use the three close-ups from the next conversion, each with a caption explaining what can be seen.
Review and improve
After two months, check which questions still come up on the phone and put those answers on the page.
For two weeks, note down what people ask on the phone. That list is the structure of the page, and it is more accurate than any desk research.
An address of its own, a heading in the language of the people searching, sections in the order of the questions, a form in the middle and at the end.
Use the three close-ups from the next conversion, each with a caption explaining what can be seen.
After two months, check which questions still come up on the phone and put those answers on the page.
What it costs and what comes afterwards
A service page like this is not a project of its own but one building block of the website. With us it is part of the fixed price: from 1,490 euros net to build the website, then from 49 euros per month for support and upkeep, with hosting in Germany from 15 euros per month. Both are cancellable monthly and there is no minimum term. Prices as of September 2026.
What comes afterwards is worth planning for: a conversion page lives on photographs and on questions that shift over time. Once a quarter a look at the page, two new shots, one added question - it is no more than that, but it is not less either.
- The service page itself: structure, copy, form, internal links.
- The form with the two yes/no fields and the field for photographs.
- A process section that states the length of the job and the closure of the bathroom separately.
- A question-and-answer set taken from your real phone calls, not from a template.
- Image slots for the three close-ups, prepared and captioned.
- A quarterly look: add photographs, add questions, check the radius.
If you would like to see what this page would look like for your business, have a look at our pages for tiling contractors and at the scope of our services. The question we usually start with is not the one about colour, but: which three questions does every caller ask you?
Sources for this article
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