RentAWeb
The RentAWeb blog

Straight answers about websites,
for people with a business to run.

No jargon and no scare stories. Just what things cost, what they involve, and what we would tell you if you rang up and asked.

Scaffolding on a part-built brick house at dusk, wet ground reflecting the last of the light. TradesLatest Construction website design: what yours should show A builder's website is a credibility check. Here is what to put on it: project galleries with real detail, accreditation proof, lead times and a form that filters the work you want. Read it The counter of a small independent shop after closing, till and card reader, lights low. Buying a website How to pick a small business website package Most small business website packages are sold by page count. That is the wrong place to start. Here is how to work out the size you actually need. Read it A plumber's smartphone on the dashboard of a work van at first light, tools and a flask beside it. Trades Website design for tradesmen: what to buy and what to pay A plain guide to buying a website as a tradesman: realistic UK prices, how many pages you need, and what the site has to do on a phone at seven in the morning. Read it A new business owner's kitchen table with a notebook, a laptop and a mug, a hand written list of page names on the first page. Buying a website Getting your first business website, step by step If you have never done this before, here is the whole thing in order: what you decide, what you supply, what somebody else does, and how long each part takes. Read it A village hall noticeboard with a members list, a fixtures card and a subscription renewal notice pinned to it. Buying a website Membership websites: what drives the cost Adding a members area turns a website into a system with accounts and payments. Here is what that costs, and the simpler route most clubs should consider first. Read it A small recruitment office desk with two monitors showing a list of vacancies, a landline handset and a notepad of names. Your industry What a recruitment website really costs Recruitment website quotes vary wildly because of one thing: the job board. Here is what a small agency actually needs and where the money really goes. Read it Four business cards laid out in a row on a table next to a mug, one turned face down. Buying a website Comparing the four ways to get a website built There is no best website provider for small business, only a best fit. Here is what each of the four routes is good and bad at, and how to check someone out. Read it A small used car forecourt at dusk, six cars under a string of lights with price cards in the windscreens. Your industry What a car dealer website has to handle For a car dealer, the website is the stock list. Everything else is trim. Here is how vehicles get on and off it, and what the enquiry form has to ask. Read it A bank statement on a table with three recurring payments highlighted in yellow marker and a pen resting beside it. Pricing Seven honest ways to spend less on a website Some savings are free and some come back to bite. Here are seven ways to reduce what a website costs you, in order of how little damage each one does. Read it A machine shop office window looking onto the shop floor, a stack of engineering drawings and a vernier gauge on the sill. Your industry What a manufacturing website must show a buyer A technical buyer gives your website about ten seconds to prove you can make their part. Most manufacturing sites spend those ten seconds on a stock photo. Read it A small shop counter at closing time with a till roll, a notepad of sums and the lights half off. Pricing Affordable is not the same as cheap There is a difference between a website that is affordable and one that is cheap. Here is where money can safely come out, and the four cuts that come back to bite. Read it A solicitor's desk with a closed buff file, a fountain pen and a carriage clock, a sash window behind. Your industry What a solicitor's website has to include A law firm site has obligations the rest of us do not, and an enquiry problem most firms handle badly. Here is what has to be on it and what should be. Read it A kitchen table used as a packing bench, brown boxes and tape beside a laptop showing a list of orders. Online shops Pay monthly online shops: how the pricing works Renting an online shop is a different proposition from renting a brochure site. Here is what changes once products, payments and postage are in the picture. Read it Four quotes fanned out on a desk with very different totals circled in pen, a phone face down beside them. Pricing Why UK website quotes vary so much The same brief can come back at £600 and at £6,000. Here are the four UK price bands, who each one is really for, and what actually moves a quote between them. Read it An empty dental practice waiting room in the early morning, chairs against the wall, a water cooler and a quiet reception desk. Your industry What a dental practice website needs A dental website has two jobs: calm a nervous patient down and answer the price question. Most practice sites do neither. Here is what to put on one. Read it Two printed website package sheets clipped to a clipboard on a shop counter, with items ticked and crossed in pen. Buying a website What is in a pay monthly website package? Two pay monthly packages at the same price can be very different deals. Here is what is normally inside, what is normally extra, and how to compare them properly. Read it A small accountancy office desk with a closed laptop, a stack of client files and a framed professional certificate on the wall behind. Your industry What an accountant's website has to prove Nobody picks an accountant because the website is pretty. They pick one because the site answered the two questions they were too polite to ask. Read it A lined notepad on a desk with a hand written list of website pages and rough figures beside it, next to a calculator and a biro. Pricing Work out what your website should cost before you ask You can estimate a website within a couple of hundred pounds before you speak to anybody. Count the pages, count the functions, then check it against UK rates. Read it A plumber's van doors open at the kerb in the rain, pipe offcuts and a torch on the floor of the load bay. Trades What a plumber's website needs to bring in work Most plumbing websites fail at the same three points. Here is the five page shape that works, what goes on each page, and what a plumber can safely ignore. Read it A small workshop office desk with an open laptop showing an update screen, a printed invoice and a cold cup of tea beside it. Pricing What website maintenance actually costs in the UK Maintenance is the bill nobody mentions when they quote for the build. Here is what a year of keeping a small business website alive actually costs in the UK. Read it Two printed website quotes lying side by side on a kitchen table with a mug and a pair of reading glasses on top of them. Pricing Paying monthly for website design: the tradeoffs Monthly website design is a genuinely different deal from a one off build. Here is who owns what, what happens when you want it changed, and when buying outright wins. Read it A single door key and a bunch of keys side by side on dark slate. Buying a website Should you own your website or rent it? You can rent a website monthly or buy it outright. Here is what each path means for cost, control, and your responsibilities. Read it An open notebook of rough wireframe sketches and a pencil on a dark desk. Buying a website How to brief a web designer so you get what you pictured A poor brief produces a poor website. Here is how to gather what you need and communicate it clearly. Read it A hand in a work glove holding a phone showing a blank, half-loaded page. Website performance Why a slow website costs you work A website that takes eight seconds to load doesn't just annoy people. It costs you sales and search ranking. Read it A printed contract and a pen on a dark table beside a pair of reading glasses. Getting it right Ten things to check before you pay a web designer Before you pay a deposit for a website, make sure you know what you are actually buying. Here are ten things to nail down in writing. Read it A British high street at dusk, small shopfronts lit from inside, wet pavement. SEO Getting found on Google when you only work locally Local SEO isn't a trick or a shortcut. It's showing Google and your customers that you're real, you're local, and you're worth ringing. Read it A wall calendar with one date circled, in low evening light in a back office. Pricing Pay monthly websites: how they actually work Pay-monthly websites offer predictable costs and no maintenance headaches, but you do not own the code. Here is what to check before signing up. Read it A notebook covered in crossed-out handwriting beside a laptop, lit by one desk lamp. Getting it right Writing the words for your own website You've commissioned a website design. Now you need to write the copy. Here's how to do it without overthinking. Read it A sign-written trade van parked on a terraced street at night with its headlights on. Trades What a trade business website actually needs A trade website isn't about looking fancy. It's about making it dead easy for someone to find you, check your work, and pick up the phone. Read it A signwriter's bench with brushes, paint tins and a blank hand-painted board. Buying a website Choosing a domain name: what matters and what doesn't You do not need an exact-match keyword domain or a fancy new extension. Here is what actually matters when you choose. Read it A dark server rack with cable runs lit by a few green status lights. Getting it right Website hosting explained without the jargon Web hosting is like renting a computer that runs your website 24/7. Here's what you need to know to choose the right one without getting lost in jargon. Read it A spike of paper receipts and invoices on a dark kitchen table beside a calculator. Pricing The real cost of a 'free' WordPress website WordPress is free, but hosting, premium themes, plugins, and security tools cost £500 to £1,500 per year. Plus your time spent managing updates and fixes. Read it A calculator, a pen and an itemised invoice on a dark desk. Pricing How much should a small business website cost in the UK? Website costs in the UK range from £300 with a freelancer to £15,000+ with an agency. The price depends on what you get, not a magic formula. Read it

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