SEO for builders
Nobody rings a builder on impulse. An extension starts as an idea, becomes a search for what it might cost, then months of drawings, planning and quotes. The builder who was useful during the reading is the one who gets asked to quote — and most builders are invisible for that entire stretch.
Four different searches
A builder's search demand is not one audience, it is one audience at four stages. The same homeowner searches what an extension costs in January, whether they need planning permission in March, and for builders in their town in June — and by June they have already formed a view about who knows what they are doing.
This is the one trade where writing genuinely useful content pays for itself commercially. A page that honestly explains extension costs, or what Party Wall notices involve, gets read months before the enquiry and remembered when it arrives.
Cost research
The first search, months out, and the one almost every builder ignores as not-a-buyer. It is where the shortlist is quietly formed. Answer it honestly and you are on the list before anyone else is asked.
Feasibility
Nervous, detailed questions where the honest answer builds more trust than any sales page. Also where a national site currently outranks every builder in your county.
Hiring
Commercial intent, decided partly in the map pack and partly on finished-project photographs. If the earlier pages did their job, your name is already familiar by the time this search happens.
Project type
Lower volume, very high value, and almost no competition because most builders have one page called Services. A page per project type is the cheapest advantage available here.
How it works
Building work has the longest buying cycle of any trade on this site, which changes the order. The content that answers questions comes early, because it needs months to rank before the enquiry arrives.
Search Console and the live results for your towns and project types. Most builders rank for their own company name and nothing else, which is a useful thing to have confirmed before spending anything.
Categories, services, service area, and real photographs of completed projects. It is the fastest thing here to move, and it is what a homeowner checks first when your name comes up.
What an extension costs in your area, what changes the number, what the drawings and planning add. These take months to rank and they are read months before the enquiry, so they cannot be left until last.
Single-storey extensions, loft conversions, garage conversions, full renovations — a page each, with the heading matching what people type and real projects on it.
One page per project, with the town named, before and after, what the brief was and what it cost. It is the most persuasive content a builder owns and it usually only exists on somebody's phone.
Local is £495 a month: one area, the searches around it, the Business Profile and the site work. Growth is £995 a month where you want more job types, more towns or the harder terms. If you already have a website worth keeping there is no build to fund, so Growth is £895 a month on a six-month minimum term instead of 12. Prices are the full amount payable; no VAT is added on top.
One extension is worth more than several years of the Local plan, which makes the arithmetic here easier than in any other trade — and also means the thing being sold is patience. The cost pages need months to rank, the enquiry arrives months after that, and the first year is mostly building the asset. If you need work next month, this is the wrong tool and paid advertising is the right one. Full pricing.
SEO for Builders questions
Send us your website, the towns you cover and the projects you want more of. We'll come back with what you currently rank for, who owns the cost searches in your area, and whether this is worth starting.
