The problem
The challenge
F.W.S Builders is Fletcher's company, based in Rainham and working across Havering and south Essex. Extensions, loft conversions, kitchens, bathrooms, the whole job run by one team from the first visit to the final walk-round.
Fletcher gets the same emails every builder gets. Web designers, SEO agencies, a dozen a month, and he ignores nearly all of them. We got a reply because we got him on the phone, explained what we do, and sent him a personalised video on how we work and what it costs, nothing hidden.
His site at the time was five pages on IONOS's MyWebsite builder: home, about, gallery, a video page and contact. The homepage had the logo over a stock brick wall, "Building Your Dream Home" in a serif, and four blocks of copy about extensions, renovations, lofts and consultation, all on the one page. No page for an extension, no page for a loft, no page for Hornchurch or Upminster or any of the towns his vans are parked in every week. Someone typing loft conversion Rainham into Google was never going to land on it.
Our approach
What we did
Nineteen pages, ready to go live six days after his payment cleared. The last two days were waiting on the photos.
Five service pages: house extensions, loft conversions, kitchens, bathrooms, garden rooms. Each one explains what the job actually involves, where planning and building control come in, and what living in the house while it happens is like, with its own FAQs and its own quote form.
Seven area pages: Rainham, Hornchurch, Upminster, Havering, Grays, Basildon and Benfleet. Written about the houses in those towns, because a 1930s semi in Rainham and a larger family house in Upminster want different things from a builder, and Google can tell when seven pages are one page with the name swapped.
The photos are the part we're proudest of. Fletcher sent over 539 WhatsApp photos from his jobs. We went through every one, sorted them into before, during and after, and built the galleries from them. Where a set of photos was one house from start to finish, it became a build story on the service page: the first dig, the footings, the brickwork, the roof, the finished room. A homeowner can see what week three looks like before they sign anything, which is the question they actually have.
The homepage pulls his Google reviews in and keeps them current. Every review on the site is a real one from his listing, and the site checks for new ones each morning.
On the practical side: stage payments spelled out on every page because that's how he works, a free site visit form that goes to his inbox with spam screened out, an admin page where he can see every enquiry, and the old site's URLs redirected so nothing anyone had bookmarked breaks.
