The honest guide · August 2026
Tradesman website design: what installers need to know before paying for one
Straight answers to the questions installers actually ask — costs with sources, what a site must include, and the Checkatrade question settled with a verdict.
What does a tradesman website cost in the UK?
What does a tradesman website cost in the UK?
Managed template sites advertise from around £19–£30 a month. Specialist trade builders run from £100 a month, or from £799 as a one-off. Custom agency builds run into the thousands. My Installer Growth System is £2,750 set-up plus £295 a month — the difference is what's behind it: the job is surveyed and set out before it's built, search and AI-search set-up is done on day one, and you get a monthly report in plain English showing exactly where you stand. Simpler sites are priced on what you actually need — I'd rather quote you right than quote you low.
Source: Market prices from the sellers' own pages, checked 16 Aug 2026
What should a tradesman website include?
I look at installer websites every week. The same five things are missing almost every time — and they're the difference between a site that brings enquiries and a site that just exists:
- The towns you work in, written on every page — if your area isn't on the page, Google can't tell where you work.
- One trade per page. One page trying to sell six trades gets found for none of them.
- Your real jobs and your real van — not stock photos. Customers can tell, and so can AI search.
- Tap-to-call and one obvious next step on mobile, because that's where trade customers actually look.
- The set-up behind the scenes: your Google listing linked, structured labels on every page, and measurement wired in — so you can tell whether it's working.
Do you need your own website if you're on Checkatrade?
Do you need your own website if you're on Checkatrade or MyBuilder?
Directories rent you visibility: you pay, you appear, you stop paying, you disappear — and you're listed next to your competitors on a page you don't control. Your own website is an asset you own: every job photo, review and page you add compounds. My verdict: if you're new and need this month's leads, a directory fills the gap. If you want enquiries that don't stop when the subscription does, you need your own site. Most established installers should run both — then let the numbers decide.
How long does a proper build take?
How long does a tradesman website take to build?
One to two weeks from first message to live, worst case. Message me and I reply the same day. The working demo homepage usually lands the same day, three days at the outside. Then we snag it together — widgets, features, tightening the words until they sound like you — and it goes live as soon as the invoice is paid and hosting is connected.
Will it actually get you found?
I won't promise you a position on Google — nobody honest can. What I can promise is the work, and what you get for it: everything Google and the AI assistants need, set up from day one: structured labels that tell them exactly what each page is, your Google Business Profile linked, your service areas written where they can read them, and measurement wired in. Then every month the search (SEO) and AI-search (GEO) work continues — new pages, updates and fixes, published once you've approved them — and you get a report in plain English: where you stand, what changed, what I did about it. The starting point is a free live report showing where Google and AI search mention you today. A new site takes time to earn its place — the report is how you watch it happen instead of taking my word for it.
Why one person and not an agency or a template?
Because the person who surveys your job is the person who builds it and the person who answers your messages. No account managers, no handoffs, no ticket queue. I speak trade, not agency.
My first paying client was Toner Mechanical & Electrical. They came to me with a super-basic site that sold them short. I took it to a modern, tasteful build with a proper showcase of the high-end projects they'd already done — positioning them to the world as the established business they are. Surveyed, set out, built, handed over working.
The proof, honestly
I'm not going to show you invented case studies or 'top of Google in a week' screenshots. Toner M&E was the first build. This website is the second — and it's the first Installer Growth System site being measured in public. The same monthly report my clients get is being run on harveyswebsites.co.uk itself, starting from zero. What you're reading is the case study, published as it happens.
Quick answers
Is the demo really free?
Yes. A live link on your brand, no obligation. If you don't go ahead, you've lost nothing and I've lost an afternoon.
Whose hosting does it run on?
Yours if you have it — Squarespace or whatever you already use. If you don't, I buy the domain, set up hosting and hand over the keys.
Do you write the words too?
Yes — we tighten the copy together at the snag stage so it sounds like you, not like a brochure.
Which trades do you build for?
Installer trades first: glazing, solar, windows and doors, plastering, groundworks, electrics. Based in Plymouth, working across Devon and Cornwall, and remotely across the UK.
Start with the free live report
Send your website address. You'll get a live report showing where Google and AI search mention you today, and the three things to fix first. I run it personally and reply within one working day. No site yet? Ring 07578 663335 and I'll build you a working homepage to look at instead.
Get my free live report