Big jobs, careful customers
An extension, a loft conversion or a new roof is one of the biggest things most people ever pay for. They want to see jobs like theirs, check you belong to a proper trade body and understand how the job will run from first visit to handover. They also want to know what happens when something urgent comes up, like a slipped slate after a storm.
A builder's site has two jobs at once. It has to reassure someone planning a £40,000 extension and catch someone with a leaking roof who needs you this week.
What a builder's website needs
- Finished jobs by type: extensions, re-roofs, knock-throughs and conversions, each with a caption.
- Your trade bodies and numbers: FMB, NFRC or TrustMark. Link to each body's directory so people can check.
- How the job runs: visit, quote, building control, the build, then handover.
- Fixed written quotes, if you give them. Costs creeping up is one of the things people worry about most.
- A line that you sort building control sign-off where it's needed. People don't always know it's required.
- Roof repairs as well as re-roofs, with a Call button that stays on screen for urgent calls.
- The towns you cover.
What adds to the cost
Page count again. Extensions, loft conversions, roofing, repairs and renovations are all separate searches, so a builder's site often runs to eight or ten pages. Ask any web firm exactly how many pages the price includes. With us, Growth covers up to 10 pages plus up to 6 town pages. Extra pages are £50 each.
Case studies are the other cost. A proper write-up of a big job, with photos from start to finish, is worth having, but it takes time to put together. If you send us the photos and a few notes, we write it. Beyond your monthly time, extra work is £45 an hour in 15-minute blocks.
What adds a lot and is rarely needed: a client portal to track progress, a project cost calculator or a 3D visualiser. Those are agency projects. They make sense for a large firm, not for most builders.
How many pages does a builder need?
A common layout: home, extensions, loft and garage conversions, roofing, repairs, how we work, gallery or case studies, about, then contact. That's nine, which fits our Growth plan or our one-off site at £995 for up to 10 pages. A roofer who only does roofing can usually manage with five on Standard.
What it costs over three years
Totals for an eight to ten page builder's site, at the time of writing (October 2026). Freelancer and agency figures are from a published UK cost guide for smaller sites, so a larger build may cost more.
| Option | 12 months | 24 months | 36 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer, plus upkeep | £900 to £3,300 | £1,000 to £3,600 | £1,100 to £3,900 |
| Agency | £2,500 to £10,000 plus support | plus hosting and support | plus hosting and support |
| Onside Growth, up to 10 pages plus 6 town pages | £1,387 | £2,575 | £3,763 |
| Onside one-off up to 10 pages (£995, then £20 a month) | £1,235 | £1,475 | £1,715 |
| Onside Standard, roofer with 5 pages | £1,027 | £1,855 | £2,683 |
Check whether VAT is added to any quote. Agency hosting and support are usually priced separately.
What a builder can skip
- A news page you won't update. It looks abandoned after six months.
- Drone video on the home page. Use it in a case study instead.
- Logos of every supplier you've used.
- Generic photos of hard hats and cranes. Your own jobs, even half-finished, are better.
- Anyone promising you the top of Google. Nobody can.
Booked up for months?
Many builders are. A website still helps. It can show your lead times, so you get fewer calls you can't take. It can lead with the work you want more of and list only the areas you want to travel to. It also gives people a proper place to check you out after a recommendation, which a Facebook page doesn't always do.
Case studies sell big jobs
For a builder, one good case study is worth ten gallery photos. Pick a job you're proud of and tell it start to finish: what the customer wanted, what you found when you opened it up, how long it took and how it looks now. Include the dull bits, like building control visits and how you kept the house usable while you worked.
It doesn't need to be long. Four or five photos and a few short paragraphs are enough. Send us the photos and some notes and we write it up. Only use real jobs and real customers' words, with their permission.
What to ask before you sign
- Exactly how many pages are included?
- Can you link my trade body memberships to their directories?
- Who writes the case studies?
- Is the domain in my name and can I take the site if I leave?