Guide · Builders
A website for builders: winning bigger jobs with proof of your work
Nobody hires a builder from a phone number alone. An extension is the biggest purchase most families make after the house itself, and they will research you thoroughly before they ring.
Builders are judged online more carefully than almost any other trade. The jobs are big, the money is serious, and everyone has heard a story about a builder who took a deposit and vanished. That makes your website less of an advert and more of an interview. This guide explains what a builder's website needs to pass that interview, how to present your work so it wins the extension rather than the shed, and how to be found in the towns you actually want to work in.
Why builders are judged more carefully online
A homeowner planning a £40,000 extension will typically get three quotes, read every review they can find, look at your photos, check Companies House, and ask around. They are looking for reasons to rule you out as much as reasons to choose you. A website with stock photos, no company details and a Hotmail address gives them one. A website with real projects, a company number, insurance details, live Google reviews and a clear explanation of how you work removes their reasons to worry before you have spoken to them.
What customers search for
- builders near me and builders Chester
- house extension Chester and single storey extension cost
- loft conversion Wrexham
- garage conversion Northwich
- house renovation builders Crewe
- builders Chester reviews (they are checking you)
Notice how project-specific these are. Someone searching "loft conversion Wrexham" wants a page about loft conversions in Wrexham, with photos of loft conversions and answers to loft conversion questions. A general "building services" page is a weak answer to that search.
The pages a builder website needs
Beyond the home and contact pages, each type of project you want more of deserves its own page. A general builder might choose from:
- House extensions (single and double storey)
- Loft conversions
- Garage conversions
- Full house renovations and refurbishments
- Kitchen and bathroom project management
- Structural work: steel beams, knock-throughs, open-plan conversions
- Groundworks and foundations
- Brickwork, blockwork and stonework
- Garden rooms and outbuildings
- New builds and self-build support
- Commercial building work
- Property maintenance and repairs
Each page should explain what the project involves, how long it typically takes, what affects the cost, how planning and building control fit in, and what the customer needs to decide before you start. That last part is where good builders win: a page that calmly explains the process reads like someone who has done it many times.
Show your work: photos that win projects
Your photos do most of the selling. Some rules that make a difference:
- Before, during and after for each project. The "during" shots prove it was you and show the standard of the site.
- A caption for each project: the town, the scope ("single storey rear extension with bi-fold doors and a new kitchen"), the duration, and any problem you solved.
- Tidy sites. A photo of a clean, well-organised site with proper welfare and signage tells a customer more about you than a finished kitchen does.
- Daylight, landscape orientation, phone is fine. Skip anything blurry.
- Ask before you identify a customer's home, and never use stock imagery. Customers can tell, and it suggests you have nothing of your own to show.
Trust signals for builders
- Memberships and schemes such as the Federation of Master Builders, TrustMark or a competent person scheme, but only where you currently hold them.
- Insurance: public liability, employers' liability if you have staff, and contractors' all-risks where you carry it.
- Company details: registered company name and number, registered office, years trading. Customers check Companies House; make the numbers match.
- How you work: written quotes, a written contract, staged payments rather than large deposits, and what happens if the customer changes their mind.
- Guarantees and warranties you genuinely provide, including any insurance-backed guarantee.
- Live Google reviews from your Google Business Profile, ideally ones that mention communication, tidiness and finishing on time.
- Who you work with: architects, structural engineers and building control, named where they are happy to be.
Our tradesman website checklist covers everything else that belongs on each page.
Service-area pages for builders
Builders usually cover a wider patch than emergency trades, which makes area coverage more important, not less. "House extension Chester" and "house extension Wrexham" are different searches with different competitors, and a single "areas we cover" list competes for neither. A page for each project type in each area you cover, with genuinely local detail (the kind of housing, typical extension styles, your travel time), gives you a page that can compete for each one. Twelve project types across twenty areas is up to 240 pages, and it is why tradesmen with this structure pick up work in towns they never advertised in. Our guide to getting found on Google locally explains it in detail; the live demo website shows it working.
What a builder website costs
You can build one yourself for a small monthly fee and a lot of evenings, pay a freelancer a one-off fee commonly in the hundreds to low thousands, pay an agency considerably more, or take a subscription. Tradesmen's Websites is £59 a month with a £0 setup fee, no long-term contract, and hosting, SSL and a .co.uk domain included if you need one. The tradesman website cost guide compares the routes, including the costs that are not on the quote.
Frequently asked questions
Should I put extension prices on my website? +
A guide price band per square metre, with a clear statement of what it does and does not include, helps customers budget and saves you quoting jobs that were never affordable. Fixed prices for extensions are not realistic, and customers know that.
Do I need a portfolio or projects page? +
Yes, but put the photos on the page for that type of project first. Someone reading about loft conversions wants loft conversion photos there, not on a separate gallery three clicks away.
How do I show customers I am not a cowboy builder? +
Company number, insurance, memberships you hold, live Google reviews, real project photos with captions, and a plain explanation of how you quote, contract and take payment. The combination is what reassures people, not any single badge.
Should I explain planning permission and building regulations? +
Briefly, yes. A short section on when planning is needed, what permitted development covers and how building control inspections work makes you look like the experienced builder you are, and it answers questions customers would otherwise ring five firms to ask.
Will a website get me to the top of Google for "builders near me"? +
No ethical provider can guarantee rankings. A site with a page for each project type in each area gives you far more opportunities to appear in local search than a brochure site, but results depend on competition, reviews and time.
Next step
Have a look at the live demo website, then enter your project types and the areas you cover, see a preview of your own website, and pay £59 for your first month only if you are happy to go ahead. £0 setup fee, no long-term contract.
Ready when you are
See a preview of your own website before you pay anything.
Tell us your trade, the services you offer and the areas you cover. We build a preview you can look at first, then you pay £59 for your first month only if you are happy to go ahead. £0 setup fee, no long-term contract and you can cancel at any time.