Straight advice on websites, Google & leads
No jargon, no agency waffle. Honest guides on getting found, what a site really costs, and whether the lead platforms are worth it, written by the bloke who builds the sites.
How do I cancel a website contract in the UK? The three sentences that decide it, and the 14 days you do not have
A tradesman who bought a website for his business is not a consumer, so the 14-day cooling-off period does not apply and the way out is written in the contract. We read the published exit terms of six UK trade website providers: notice runs from none to 30 days in writing, and one charges 80% of the outstanding charges to leave early. What that costs worked through, why stopping the Direct Debit is not cancelling, and the notice to send.How do I cancel a website contract in the UK?
No 14 days for a trade business. Six providers' exit terms side by side, and the notice to send.
Recovery guideCan I transfer my domain if my designer won't reply?
Usually yes, and not through him. The Nominet and ICANN routes, and why a .co.uk lookup will not name the owner.
Recovery guideHow do I get my website files from my designer?
Of 198 readable UK trade sites, 51 run on a builder with no export at any price. What to ask for, and what does not exist.
Handover protocolHow do I move my website to a new designer?
Eight assets, in the order they have to move. Get the domain first: about one in six UK trade domains sits in somebody else's account.
Cost mathsIs it cheaper to pay once or monthly for a trade site?
The cheapest published one-off build is £750. The crossover lands near month 17, but the date the site becomes yours matters more.
Task splitCan I do my own SEO, or should I pay someone?
Eight jobs, 134 hours, and the honest number: paying somebody buys back about 70 of them. Four you should never hand over.
Break-even modelIs £300 every four weeks for SEO worth it on one van?
£3,900 a year, sixteen billed days, and it clears in year one only above an average job of about £800. The full arithmetic, against my own price.
Annotated teardownWhat should a monthly SEO report show a tradesman?
Thirteen lines from a real report, graded signal, context or filler, and the five lines I would insist on instead.
Buyer's auditHow do I know if my SEO company is doing anything?
Stop judging it on rankings. Seven free checks, about twenty minutes, and six of them give you a screenshot you can attach to the email.
Field dataHow long does SEO take to get trade jobs?
Four stages, four different lags. On this domain, 92 days moved average position from 64 to 43 and produced 24 clicks. Impressions is the number that lies.
Cost mathsIs SEO or Google Ads cheaper for a tradesman?
Ads cost about £200 a booked job at the floor budget and never get cheaper. SEO costs £3,900 a year and gets cheaper every year. The three-year gap is £17,100.
Price auditHow much does local SEO cost a UK tradesman?
Ten live UK prices converted into one annual figure: £864 to £10,387. Weekly, monthly and four-weekly quotes do not rank in the order they look.
Buyer checklistWhat should a trade website quote itemise?
Eleven lines, scored against nine UK sellers' own pricing pages. None of them publishes a year-one total, and only one tells you whether VAT is coming.
Buyer teardownIs a £99 trade website ever worth buying?
£99 buys the build and nothing that keeps it alive. What the published spec includes, what it leaves out, and the real first-year cost of about £342.
Price anatomyWhy do trade website quotes range £100 to £10,000?
Because one word covers five products: a marketplace gig, a managed plan, a studio build, an agency project and a bundled ad package. Priced from the sellers' own pages.
Pricing explainerAre monthly website plans cheaper for a tradesman?
No. Over three years a plan costs about £840 more than a one-off build, and that sum is run against my own price. What the minimum term has to give back to be worth it.
Terms auditDoes Checkatrade give you a website you own?
Checkatrade's free TradeSite, scored against its own clauses. The design, the domain and the site are theirs, the enquiries come out of your lead plan, and it is switched off when you go.
Price auditHow much does Yell charge for a trade website?
From £299 a month, because Yell will not sell you a website on its own. The 30-page site is bundled, the initial period is twelve months, and the Design Fee is not published.
Price auditWhat does Digital Tradies cost a tradesman?
£49 a month advertised, £588 a year, and two clauses in their own Terms of Service that take year one to £764.40. Where the terms and the pricing page disagree.
Market auditWho builds websites for UK tradesmen?
Nine UK companies compared on published price, the year one total once setup fees are counted, and what happens to your files if you leave. Two of them publish no price at all.
CarpentryWhy does my joinery website get no enquiries?
Eight faults ranked across 14 audited UK joinery sites, the two minute check that tells you whether it is traffic or the page, and the order to fix them in.
CarpentryHow much should a carpenter pay for a website?
Nine real UK prices, £360 to £10,000 for the same brief, with the year one totals worked out once the setup fees are counted. Plus the band a fair quote sits in.
CarpentryHow long does a joiner's website take to build?
Eight working days, split by phase, and the reason a build drifts to three months is almost never the builder. Four routes compared on elapsed time, not just price.
CarpentryWix vs Squarespace for a small carpentry business
The template you can never change, the photographs you cannot export, and the storage number that quietly picks your Wix plan for you.
CarpentryBest website builder for a self-employed carpenter
Nine routes priced off the live checkout pages, the renewal traps that make the advertised figure a fiction, and which builders survive a forty photograph gallery.
CarpentryHow to make a carpenter website: 7 steps
The order that works: photographs first, then a seven-page site map, the towns in plain words, and the build route priced against your own evenings.
CarpentryDo carpenters need a website in 2026?
Twelve of 36 audited UK joiners had no site at all. When you genuinely do not need one, when you do, and what a carpentry gallery has to prove.
Local searchHow do people in Sussex search for a tradesman?
Why "near me" resolves differently in Hove than in Horsham, the five query shapes customers actually use, and what twenty audited Sussex trade sites reveal.
ContractsWhat should be in a web design contract?
The five clauses that decide ownership, term, domain, content licence and exit, and the version of each that should stop you signing.
OwnershipWho owns my domain name?
What a .co.uk record does and does not prove, the Nominet login that settles it, and what it costs to put your name back on.
RatesGardener hourly rate UK 2026
Why maintenance, landscaping and tree work need three different rates, and the waste disposal cost most quotes leave out.
RatesPainter and decorator day rate UK 2026
What to charge by region, why a flat room price loses money on high ceilings, and the per metre rate that fixes it.
RatesCarpenter day rate UK 2026
What to charge by region, why kitchens should never be priced by the day, and the days a chippy never invoices.
MarkedCheckatrade's advice for tradespeople
What their guidance gets right, the one comparison it never makes, and why that is structural rather than dishonest.
The mathsPay monthly, or pay once?
The three-year sum on published prices, the crossover month, and the cases where paying monthly is genuinely right.
Local ratesWhat tradesmen charge in Sussex
South East bands by trade, and why housing stock rather than affluence drives the gap between towns.
RatesPlumber hourly rate UK 2026
What to charge per hour, per call-out and out of hours, plus the travel cost most plumbers absorb for free.
RatesElectrician day rate UK 2026
What to charge by region, experience and work type, and why 200 billed days matters more than the headline rate.
OwnershipWhat happens when you stop paying
The cancellation terms of six UK trade website providers: who keeps the files, the domain and the content.
ComparisonUK trade website companies compared
Seven done-for-you providers on price, contract length and who keeps the files. Checked against their own live pricing pages.
SeasonalThe quiet months are coming
Enquiries thin out weeks before the diary does, and everything that produces work takes weeks to start. The August-to-January plan.
SetupA professional email address for your trade
Quotes that land in junk are not being ignored, they are not arriving. The three routes compared, and the records that fix it.
CraftHow to photograph your own work
Ten habits, a phone, and ninety seconds a job. The five shots worth having, and the one nobody takes that proves the most.
The numbersCost per job in 2026: every channel ranked
The same £300 into seven channels, converted into what a booked job actually costs. The ordering barely moves when you change the assumptions.
Driveways & patiosDriveway and patio website design
Six matched before-and-after pairs beat sixty photos. What each shot has to prove, plus the drainage answer nobody publishes.
Bathrooms & tilingBathroom fitter and tiler website design
Whole projects beat fifty tile photos. What to publish, which registrations to name, and how to handle price before the first call.
Google GuaranteedGoogle Local Services Ads for UK trades
The slot above the map and above the ads. What the vetting involves, how the per-lead charging behaves, and the two numbers that decide it.
Head to headFacebook ads vs a website
A year of ads at £150 a month leaves you owning nothing. The same money buys the thing that keeps working. When each one is the right call.
OwnershipDo you actually own your trade website?
Seven questions on the domain, the files and the hosting. Any answer that is not a clear yes is a piece of your business someone else is holding.
Getting it backYour web designer has gone quiet
Chasing harder is the wrong first move. What to check before you chase, and a real recovery that took under three weeks once it started.
Paid leadsAre Google Ads worth it for tradesmen?
Cost per click is the wrong number. Here is the cost per booked job, worked through with UK figures, and the point where ads stop paying.
VerdictIs Bark worth it for tradesmen?
You buy credits to contact a lead, not to win one. A real month from a joiner, the sum that tells you if it pays, and who it suits.
Website examplesBest tradesman websites in the UK: 2026 examples
What the good sites do differently, with practical examples of proof, portfolios, local pages and contact routes that work.
How it worksWhat happens when you order a trade website?
The real day-by-day process: brief, job photos, build, approval, launch and the small updates that keep the site useful.
Getting workYour website is live. Here is how to get the first 10 jobs.
The practical first-90-days plan for Google, reviews, referrals and follow-up, so a new site earns conversations before it ranks everywhere.
AI website buildersAI website builders for tradesmen: the honest 2026 verdict
What AI can genuinely do, the trade-business facts it cannot know, and when DIY is enough versus having the site handled for you.
Case studyFacebook page to booked out: a real case study
What actually changed, month by month, when a Facebook-only trade got a proper site: the timeline, the numbers, and why it worked.
Cost per jobWebsite vs van signwriting vs local ads
Three ways a trade pays to get found, compared on the only fair metric: cost per job. The maths on a website, a van wrap and paid ads.
The dataThe 5-minute window: why fast response wins jobs
The first tradesman to answer usually wins the emergency job. What the lead-response data says, and how your site makes sure it is you.
The dataWe audited 100 UK trade websites: 5 ways they fail
The same five faults on nearly every trade site: invisible on Google, no tap-to-call, no proof, too slow, abandoned. The numbers, and a five-minute self-check.
TeardownAnatomy of a trade website that converts
A section-by-section teardown of a site that wins jobs: hero, proof strip, named services, gallery and the contact close, and why each part works.
Trades explainedJoiner vs carpenter vs kitchen fitter
What each trade actually does, the jobs customers really search for, and which one to call, with why the portfolio settles it, not the job title.
CarpenterWhat a carpenter's website needs to win bespoke work
What a carpenter and joiner site must include to win fitted wardrobes, kitchens and staircases, and how the routes compare on real money.
Getting workHow carpenters get more work in 2026
Where carpentry jobs actually come from, the channels that pay, and the ones that waste money, without a monthly lead fee.
Build optionsFree vs paid website builder for tradesmen
A free builder is £0 but pays you back in ads, a shabby subdomain and your own time. The honest free vs paid vs done-for-you for UK trades.
Payback mathsWhat's a trade website actually worth?
The break-even sum for a sole trader: what it costs a year, what one extra job returns, and how fast it pays for itself.
Trust signalsShould you show Gas Safe & NICEIC on your website?
Accreditations win work when shown right: the registrations customers recognise, where to place them, and why the number beats the badge.
ConversionWhy your trade website gets visits but no calls
The four conversion leaks that quietly cost you enquiries, a hidden contact route, no proof, a slow phone page and no clear next step, and how to fix each.
Prep checklistWhat to send your web designer: a tradesman's prep checklist
The photos, reviews, business facts and logins to gather in one evening so the build is fast and the site looks like your business.
Buyer's guideThe 2026 tradesman website buyer's checklist
The 25 checks across content, tech, getting found and terms that decide whether a trade site wins work or just sits there.
HiringHow to choose a website designer for tradesmen
The seven questions to ask, the red flags to avoid, and what you must own before you pay anyone to build your site.
AI searchHow do I get my trade business into AI answers?
Why ChatGPT and Google's AI answers skip most trades, how they decide who to name, and the plain steps to get cited.
Local rankingHow to rank your trade website in your town
The service and area pages, on-page signals and reviews that put your own site in front of nearby customers.
Winning better workHow a website wins higher-value trade jobs
Why a site raises the quality of the customer, not just the count of enquiries, filters out tyre-kickers, and gets you paid faster.
Getting workHow long before a new website gets you jobs?
Direct enquiries in week one, Google rankings in one to three months. The real timeline, and the levers that make it faster.
Decorator websitesPainter & decorator website design: what wins jobs
Why the gallery does the selling, what the site should cost, and how one landed repaint pays for a year of it.
Landscaper websitesGardener & landscaper website design in 2026
The portfolio that wins patio-sized jobs, the local search legs that keep February alive, and the routes compared on real money.
Plumber websitesPlumber website design: cost & what to include
What a plumber's site should cost, the features that win emergency callouts, and the three routes compared on real first-year money.
Electrician websitesElectrician website design: a 2026 buyer's guide
What a spark's site should cost and include, and why a site you own beats leads you rent once you run the year out on paper.
Done-for-you vs DIYWhy most tradesmen shouldn't build their own site
What done-for-you actually covers, the 60%-done problem that kills DIY sites, and when building your own still makes sense.
CostWhat a tradesman should pay for a website
Four routes priced over two years: £360 DIY, £1,300 done-for-you, £500 to £3,000 freelance. Plus the costs that never make it onto a quote.
DIY vs done-for-youIs it worth paying someone, or should you DIY?
The real cost of both routes on time, quality and upkeep, and how to settle the argument in five minutes.
Getting leadsBest ways to get trade customers in 2026, ranked
A website and Google, reviews, AI search, word of mouth and lead platforms, ranked on real cost and how fast each one pays off.
By tradeDo gardeners & landscapers need a website?
Repeat, seasonal work needs a site the customer can find again next spring. Why a portfolio you own beats a scattered social feed.
Get found on GoogleHow does local SEO work for a tradesman?
Profile, reviews, website, citations, in the order that actually moves the map pack and AI answers, plus a realistic timeline.
Build optionsSquarespace vs a hand-coded website for trades
DIY subscriptions and your evenings, or a done-for-you plan from £50/month. Real prices, speed, responsibility and the three-year sum.
Website essentialsWhat to put on a one-page trade website
The five sections that turn a look into a call, the trust signals that do the heavy lifting, and a plumber's one-pager worked top to bottom.
Build optionsHow long does a trade website take to go live?
About a week done for you, three weeks to three months DIY. Where the days go, the delays to dodge, and how long Google takes after launch.
Getting paid81% of trades chase late payments. How to get paid faster
Written terms, a deposit, stage payments and same-day invoices: the admin that gets the money in, and how a proper site backs it up.
Winning workWhy you lose jobs you already quoted for
You priced it, sent it, heard nothing. The three real reasons quotes go quiet, and how to win more without dropping your price.
TrustHow customers decide you're legit before they call
The silent check a customer runs on their phone before ringing you. What they look for, and how to pass it every time.
By tradeDo plumbers actually need a website in 2026?
Plumbing is urgent, high-intent work. Why a site wins the emergency call-out and the repeat job, Gas Safe and all.
By tradeDo electricians need a website in 2026?
Electrical work is high-value and researched before it's booked. Why a site wins the rewire and the EV charger job, NICEIC and all.
By tradeDo painters & decorators need a website?
Decorating is sold on proof of finish. Why a portfolio you own beats a rented social feed, and what to put on it.
Lead platformsCheckatrade vs MyBuilder vs Rated People
Three lead platforms charged three different ways, plus the option none of them mention: a site that's yours.
Lead platformsWhat Checkatrade costs over 3 years
The real sum: membership plus per-lead fees and renewal hikes, against a flat website. £14,000+ vs about £1,800.
Lead platformsYou don't own your Checkatrade reviews
Leave the platform and your reviews stay behind. Why review ownership matters, and where to build a reputation you keep.
Google reviewsGoogle's 2026 review crackdown
The QR sign, the staff-name ask and the discount-for-a-review are all banned now. What changed and what still works.
Google reviewsHow to ask for Google reviews in 2026
The compliant ask, a script you can use, and the banned tactics that now get reviews deleted.
Get found on GoogleWhy is my Google Business Profile not showing up?
The 30-day inactivity rule, the other reasons you've vanished, and how to get ranking again.
Lead platformsCheckatrade is now inside ChatGPT
Customers can find and book vetted trades without leaving the chat. The catch, and the free way to be named by AI on your own terms.
Get foundHow UK customers actually find trades in 2026
Google, AI answers, reviews and word of mouth, with the numbers behind each channel and what wins the job.
Get found by AIIs your business invisible to AI? A 7-point check
Run this quick self-audit to see if ChatGPT and Google AI can find, read and trust your business, plus the fix for each gap.
Need a websiteIs a website worth it for a small trade business?
One won job pays for a year of having one. The honest 2026 maths on cost, leads and trust.
Need a websiteShould a self-employed tradesman have a website?
When you're a one-man band you are the brand. The plain answer, the word-of-mouth trap, and when you can skip it.
Getting leadsHow to get more local jobs as a tradesman
The free and low-cost moves that fill a diary, in the order that pays back fastest, plus a realistic timeline.
Website vs socialWebsite vs Instagram & TikTok: what trades need
Views aren't jobs. Where social wins, where it fails a trade, and why you don't own the audience you build.
Lead platformsIs MyBuilder worth it for tradesmen in 2026?
No annual fee, but you pay per lead and compete on price. The honest verdict, who it suits, and the cheaper route you own.
Getting leadsHow to get leads without paying Checkatrade
Seven ways UK trades win work without a platform fee, and a realistic timeline to replace rented leads.
Get found by AIHow to get found on AI search as a tradesman
Customers now ask ChatGPT and Google AI for a tradesman. How assistants pick who to recommend in 2026.
Get found on GoogleHow to get more Google reviews as a tradesman
The polite asks, the one-tap link and the systems that build the reviews that win the call.
Get found on GoogleHow to get your trade business on Google Maps
How the local "near me" pack picks its top three, and the 2026 steps that move you up it.
Get found on GoogleHow do I set up a Google Business Profile for my trade?
The free listing behind your Maps presence, set up, filled in and verified, step by step.
Lead platformsCheckatrade vs your own website
Rented leads or an asset you own? The two routes weighed on cost, lead quality and trust.
Lead platformsIs Checkatrade too expensive in 2026?
The real fees, renewal hikes and shared leads, and what each won job actually costs you.
Build optionsWix vs a hand-coded website for tradesmen
Cost, mobile speed, ownership and looks compared, and why a done-for-you plan beats DIY.
Build optionsCheapest trade website: four routes priced
£0, £240 to £600, £420 to £1,620 and £1,300 across two full years. The cheapest number on the list is attached to the worst website.
Website essentialsWhat every tradesman website should include
The handful of sections and trust signals that turn a visitor into a phone call.
Website vs socialWebsite or just a Facebook page?
Why a Facebook page alone leaves you invisible on Google, and how a proper website changes the maths.
Get found on GoogleHow to get your trade business on Google
Setting up a Google Business Profile and website so you show up on Maps and in Search.
Build optionsThe best way to build a tradesman website
Wix, Squarespace, freelancer or hand-coded, every route compared on real 2026 costs.
Getting leadsGet more work without paying for leads
Five ways UK trades fill the diary without Checkatrade or MyBuilder fees.
Lead platformsIs Checkatrade worth it?
An honest 2026 breakdown of the costs, lock-ins, and who Checkatrade actually suits.
Need a websiteDo tradesmen need a website in 2026?
The honest answer, what a website does that no lead platform or Facebook page can.
See your site before you pay a penny
I build a free mockup of your actual business, your trade, your area, your branding. Like it? Done-for-you plans start from £50/month, billed every four weeks, with zero setup fee. Hosting, security and unlimited small edits are included.