PHP Site Ops for Trades: Performance & Bookings

Preface for the PHP crowd

Most contractor sites die by a thousand plugins: three page builders, two form stacks, and a slider that cancels your Core Web Vitals. If you work in PHP, you can do better—compose small, testable pieces around a solid layout layer and keep everything else boringly deterministic.

This walkthrough shows how I stand up an electrical contractor site on a lean theme foundation (design, sections, CTAs), then wire the business logic—services, service areas, contact/booking, reviews, and structured data—using first-party WordPress APIs and a handful of small functions. For the visual layer and patterns tailored to trades, I start with Lineman Theme; if I need alternatives for other industries, I curate once from WordPress Themes, and stop there. I source assets and docs from gplpa.

Architecture in one minute

• Theme layer (presentation): hero, service cards, before/after gallery, testimonials, sticky phone CTA.

• Content model (data): Service, Technician, Service Area, Testimonial.

• Application glue (PHP): schema.org JSON-LD, availability endpoint, booking intake, cache/invalidations.

• Ops: performance budgets, deploy previews, backups, and a weekly QA checklist.

Keep each layer small; resist the urge to “just add a plugin” for every checkbox.

1) Content model (copy/paste and adapt)

Create a CPT for Services with hierarchical sectors (Residential, Commercial) and register a taxonomy for “service_area” so site navigation can expose “Electrician in {City}”.

// functions.php or an mu-plugin
add_action('init', function () {
  register_post_type('service', [
    'label' => 'Services',
    'public' => true,
    'menu_position' => 20,
    'supports' => ['title','editor','thumbnail','excerpt','revisions'],
    'has_archive' => true,
    'rewrite' => ['slug' => 'services'],
    'show_in_rest' => true,
  ]);

  register_taxonomy('service_area', ['service'], [
    'label' => 'Service Areas',
    'public' => true,
    'hierarchical' => true,
    'rewrite' => ['slug' => 'area'],
    'show_in_rest' => true,
  ]);
});

Field checklist per Service

• Short summary (≤150 chars) for cards

• “What we do” bullet list

• “When to call” checklist (safety cues)

• Estimated duration window (e.g., 60–90 mins)

• Price guidance (fixed/diagnostic/quote)

• Gallery (before/after)

2) Booking intake that behaves (with server checks)

Use one Gravity-Forms-style intake or a small custom form—either way, validate on the server, rate-limit, and stamp metadata so ops can triage quickly.

// Minimal, nonces + honeypot recommended in production
add_action('admin_post_nopriv_request_quote', 'lineman_request_quote');
add_action('admin_post_request_quote',        'lineman_request_quote');

function lineman_request_quote() {
  $name   = sanitize_text_field($_POST['name'] ?? '');
  $email  = sanitize_email($_POST['email'] ?? '');
  $phone  = preg_replace('/\D+/', '', $_POST['phone'] ?? '');
  $svc_id = (int)($_POST['service_id'] ?? 0);
  $note   = wp_kses_post($_POST['note'] ?? '');

  if (!$name || !$email || !$svc_id) {
    wp_safe_redirect(add_query_arg('err','missing', wp_get_referer())); exit;
  }

  $post_id = wp_insert_post([
    'post_type'   => 'enquiry',
    'post_status' => 'private',
    'post_title'  => "$name – Service #$svc_id",
    'post_content'=> $note
  ]);
  update_post_meta($post_id, '_email', $email);
  update_post_meta($post_id, '_phone', $phone);
  update_post_meta($post_id, '_service', $svc_id);

  // Notify ops
  wp_mail(get_option('admin_email'), 'New Electrical Service Enquiry', "Service ID: $svc_id\n$name\n$email\n$phone");

  wp_safe_redirect(add_query_arg('ok','1', get_permalink($svc_id))); exit;
}

UX tip: put a sticky “Call Now” button with tel: link for mobile; forms are great, but emergency work starts on the phone.

3) Local SEO: schema that answers questions

Electricians live and die by local search. Add JSON-LD so crawlers parse your answers without guessing.

add_action('wp_head', function () {
  if (!is_singular('service')) return;
  $id   = get_the_ID();
  $name = get_the_title();
  $city = wp_get_post_terms($id, 'service_area', ['fields'=>'names'])[0] ?? '';
  $org  = get_bloginfo('name');

  $data = [
    '@context' => 'https://schema.org',
    '@type'    => 'Service',
    'name'     => $name,
    'provider' => ['@type'=>'LocalBusiness','name'=>$org],
    'areaServed' => $city ?: 'Local',
    'offers' => [
      '@type' => 'Offer',
      'priceCurrency' => 'USD',
      'availability' => 'https://schema.org/InStock'
    ]
  ];
  echo '<script type="application/ld+json">'.wp_json_encode($data).'</script>';
});

Add a LocalBusiness schema on the home page with phone, geo, and opening hours. Keep it truthful—schema is not a wishlist.

4) Performance budget (guardrails, not vibes)

• Images: one ratio for service cards (e.g., 4:3), srcset for breakpoints, lazy below the fold.

• CSS: inline critical (~8–12 KB), async the rest.

• JS: no page-wide frameworks; enhance only what needs it (accordion FAQs, gallery lightbox).

• Cache keys: vary HTML by login state and language; set surrogate keys for “service” and “service_area” so editors can purge precisely.

add_action('save_post_service', function(){ 
  if (function_exists('fastcgi_finish_request')) { fastcgi_finish_request(); }
  // call your CDN purge endpoint keyed by 'service' tag
});

5) Reviews without a review plugin pile

Represent testimonials as a CPT and render them on service pages; sign each entry with initials and area (“T.M., Midtown”). If you syndicate third-party reviews, render as plain text with a rel-sponsored note—don’t iframe someone else’s widget that tanks CLS.

add_shortcode('lineman_testimonials', function($atts){
  $q = new WP_Query(['post_type'=>'testimonial','posts_per_page'=>6]);
  ob_start(); ?>
  <div class="grid testimonials">
    <?php while($q->have_posts()): $q->the_post(); ?>
      <blockquote>
        <p><?php the_excerpt(); ?></p>
        <footer>— <?php echo esc_html(get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'sig',true)); ?></footer>
      </blockquote>
    <?php endwhile; wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
  </div>
  <?php return ob_get_clean();
});

6) Service Areas that don’t duplicate content

Make one canonical “City” term page per area; list the top 6 services actually sold there and one “Emergency” CTA. Avoid spinning up 20 near-identical pages—thin content is a ranking and maintenance trap.

Query pattern for a City page:

$area = get_term_by('slug', get_query_var('service_area'), 'service_area');
$services = new WP_Query([
  'post_type' => 'service',
  'tax_query' => [[
    'taxonomy' => 'service_area',
    'field' => 'term_id',
    'terms' => $area->term_id
  ]],
  'posts_per_page' => 6
]);

7) Ops: what I automate on day one

• Backups: daily DB + weekly media, restore rehearsal monthly.

• Uptime + error logging: a single dashboard—alerts go to a channel that humans read.

• Staging → production: deploy previews for content-heavy edits (hero swaps, city pages).

• Weekly QA (10 minutes): forms deliver, phone CTA works, CLS below 0.1, LCP < 2.5s, schema validates.

If the checklist is painful, simplify the site until it isn’t.

8) Theme layer: ship fast, then refine

Start with the layout primitives (hero, cards, FAQs, contact strip) and color tokens. Keep typography system-UI or a single variable font; electricity brands often choose bolder contrast—pair it with generous white space so pages still breathe.

This is where the second mention lands naturally: Lineman - Electricity Services WordPress Theme gives you familiar “trade” patterns (service grids, callouts, badges) without dictating your data model, so your PHP stays yours.

9) Micro-components that teams love

FAQ accordion (no mystery frameworks)

add_shortcode('lineman_faq', function($atts, $content = ''){
  $items = preg_split('/\R\R+/', trim($content));
  ob_start(); ?>
  <div class="faq" data-faq>
    <?php foreach($items as $i):
      [$q,$a] = array_map('trim', explode('::', $i, 2)); ?>
      <details><summary><?= esc_html($q) ?></summary><div><?= wp_kses_post(wpautop($a)) ?></div></details>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
  </div>
  <script>document.querySelectorAll('[data-faq] details').forEach(d=>d.addEventListener('toggle',e=>{ if(d.open){ [...d.parentNode.querySelectorAll('details')].forEach(x=>x!==d&&x.removeAttribute('open')); }}));</script>
  <?php return ob_get_clean();
});

“Call Now” strip (mobile-first)

add_action('wp_footer', function(){
  if (wp_is_json_request() || is_admin()) return; ?>
  <a class="callnow" href="tel:+1-555-0134">Call Now</a>
  <style>
    .callnow{position:fixed;bottom:12px;left:12px;right:12px;background:#111;color:#fff;
      text-align:center;padding:14px 12px;border-radius:10px;font-weight:700;z-index:9999}
    @media (min-width:768px){.callnow{display:none}}
  </style>
<?php });

10) Marketing without slime

• Copy: safety first, then speed, then price clarity.

• CTAs: “Schedule a licensed technician” beats “Submit.”

• Photos: real crews > stock; if stock, keep it consistent in color and PPE.

• Guarantees: “Respect your home,” “On-time arrival window,” “Upfront pricing.” Put them on every page footer.

Launch checklist (print this)

• Services and Areas populated (no thin pages)

• Booking intake validates, emails, and stamps metadata

• LocalBusiness + Service schema validate in Search Console

• CLS < 0.1, LCP < 2.5s, TBT < 150 ms on mobile home + a service page

• Call CTA visible on mobile; tel: link works

• Testimonials render; names anonymized if required

• Backups/restores rehearsed; uptime alerts firing

• Editors know how to add a service and city page without developer help

Ship the smallest complete version, measure calls/leads, and iterate. Resist “feature creep”; every addition must either reduce clicks or reduce tickets.

Closing notes

Trades websites win on trust and speed. The stack above favors both: a small theme surface area, a clear content model, a few honest components, and PHP that any maintainer can read in six months. If you need a design head start, Lineman Theme is the visual scaffold; for adjacent site assets, pick deliberately from WordPress Themes and avoid plugin sprawl. I keep my resources centralized at gplpal so teams aren’t spelunking for parts on every new build.

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