TL;DR: A DIY website costs £0-30/month. A freelancer-built site costs £500-3,000. An agency site costs £3,000-15,000+. For tradespeople, a well-built site in the £500-1,500 range is usually the sweet spot – anything less cuts corners that hurt your SEO.
“How much does a website cost?” is one of those questions where the honest answer is “it depends.” But that’s not very helpful when you’re trying to budget. So here are real numbers.
The options and what they cost
Option 1: DIY website builder (£0-30/month)
Platforms like Wix, WordPress.com, or Squarespace let you build a website yourself using templates and drag-and-drop editors.
| Free tier | Paid tier | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | £0/month | £13-30/month |
| Custom domain | No (yourname.wixsite.com) | Yes |
| Branding removed | No (shows platform branding) | Yes |
| Storage | Limited | Adequate |
| SEO capability | Basic | Basic-moderate |
What you get: A functional website that you built yourself. Template-based design, basic pages, contact form. Good enough for “I just need something online.”
What you don’t get: Custom design, proper SEO structure, fast loading times, or a site that’s built to convert visitors into calls. DIY sites consistently underperform on Google compared to professionally built alternatives.
Best for: Tradespeople who need a basic online presence and genuinely can’t invest in a proper site yet.
Option 2: Freelance web designer (£500-3,000)
A freelancer designs and builds your site to a brief. Typically WordPress or a modern framework.
| Budget freelancer | Experienced freelancer | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | £500-1,000 | £1,500-3,000 |
| Design | Template-based | Custom design |
| Pages | 3-5 | 5-15 |
| SEO | Basic on-page | Proper SEO structure |
| Timeline | 1-3 weeks | 3-6 weeks |
| Ongoing support | Minimal | Usually included |
What you get: A professional-looking website with a custom feel. Proper page structure, mobile responsiveness, and decent speed. A good freelancer will also set up basic SEO.
What you don’t get: At the budget end, you might get a tweaked template rather than a true custom design. Content writing is often not included – you’ll need to provide the text.
Best for: Most tradespeople. This is the sweet spot of cost vs quality.
Option 3: Web agency (£3,000-15,000+)
An agency provides a full-service package: design, development, content writing, photography, and ongoing support.
| Small agency | Large agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | £3,000-8,000 | £8,000-15,000+ |
| Design | Fully custom | Fully custom |
| Pages | 10-20 | 15-50 |
| Content | Often included | Included |
| SEO | Comprehensive | Comprehensive |
| Photography | Sometimes | Usually |
| Timeline | 4-8 weeks | 6-12 weeks |
What you get: Everything done for you to a high standard. Custom design, professional copywriting, proper SEO from the ground up, and ongoing support.
What you don’t get: Value for money, in many cases. For a local trade business, a £10,000 website doesn’t generate 10x more leads than a £1,500 one. The difference is diminishing returns.
Best for: Larger trade businesses, multi-location companies, or businesses where the website is a core sales tool.
What affects the price
Number of pages
More pages = higher cost. A 5-page brochure site costs less than a 20-page site with individual service pages, area pages, and a blog.
For tradespeople, having dedicated pages for each service is important for SEO. A plumber should have separate pages for boiler installation, boiler repair, emergency plumbing, etc. – not one page listing everything.
Custom design vs templates
Template-based sites are cheaper but look generic. Custom designs cost more but are built around your business. For most tradespeople, a well-customised template strikes the right balance.
Content writing
Some web designers include content writing; many don’t. If you need someone to write your page content, expect to pay £50-150 per page. Good content isn’t optional – it directly affects whether you rank on Google.
Photography
Professional photos of your work make a huge difference but add £200-500 to the project. At minimum, use good photos from your phone rather than stock images.
Ongoing costs
Every website has running costs:
| Cost | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | – | £10-15 |
| Hosting | £5-30 | £60-360 |
| SSL certificate | Often included | Often included |
| Maintenance/updates | £0-50 | £0-600 |
| Total | £5-80/month | £70-975/year |
DIY builders include hosting in their monthly fee. Self-hosted WordPress sites need separate hosting.
What matters more than price
Speed
A slow website kills your Google ranking and drives away visitors. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load on mobile, half your visitors leave before seeing anything. Cheap hosting and bloated themes are the usual culprits.
Mobile experience
Over 60% of local searches happen on phones. If your website isn’t easy to use on mobile – readable text, tappable buttons, fast loading – you’re losing customers.
SEO structure
A website that’s built for SEO from the start will save you thousands in the long run. This means:
- Proper heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3)
- Clean, descriptive URLs
- Meta titles and descriptions on every page
- Schema markup for local business
- Fast loading times
- Individual pages for each service
Bolting SEO onto a poorly built website later costs more than doing it right the first time.
Conversion focus
A website’s job is to make the phone ring. That means:
- Phone number visible on every page
- Clear calls to action
- Trust signals (reviews, accreditations, photos of work)
- Easy-to-find contact information
A beautiful website that doesn’t generate enquiries is an expensive ornament.
What tradespeople should spend
For most trade businesses, the sweet spot is:
- Website build: £800-2,000 (freelancer or small specialist)
- Ongoing hosting/maintenance: £10-30/month
- SEO (optional but recommended): £200-400/month
This gets you a professional, fast, mobile-friendly website that’s built to rank on Google and convert visitors into calls. It’s the foundation that every other marketing channel – Google Ads, social media, directories – builds on.
Red flags when hiring a web designer
Watch out for:
- “We’ll build it for £200” – you’ll get a template with your logo slapped on it
- Owning the website – some designers retain ownership and charge you monthly to “rent” it. Make sure you own your site.
- No mention of SEO – a website that nobody can find on Google is useless
- No portfolio – if they can’t show you examples of sites they’ve built for tradesmen, they’re learning on your dime
- Long-term contracts – you shouldn’t be locked into a 24-month hosting contract
- No mobile preview – if they don’t show you what it looks like on a phone, they haven’t prioritised it
What to spend
A website is an investment, not a cost. The right website pays for itself within months through the leads it generates. The wrong website – whether it’s a £50/year DIY site that doesn’t rank or a £10,000 agency site that’s overbuilt for your needs – wastes money.
For most tradespeople, spending £800-1,500 on a properly built site and then investing in ongoing SEO is the strategy that delivers the best return.
Want to know what a website and SEO package would run for your trade? Book a free call – we’ll give you a fixed quote, not a range.