Websites, SEO and social media for growing businesses

Directly, always. HR Website Design is me, Hayden Ross. Nothing goes to a freelancer or an overseas agency, so the person you speak to on the first call is the one building the site and the one who answers the phone a year later.

Yes, right across the UK. I'm based in Poole and happy to meet in person if you're local, but most of the process happens by phone and email and it makes no difference to the work or the price where you are.

A conversation, either on the phone or in person. I ask what you do, who you're after and what you want the site to achieve. There's no charge and no obligation, and if I don't think I'm the right fit I'll say so.

Less than you'd think. An hour or so at the start, some photos, and then a look through the site before it goes live. I do the heavy lifting — the main thing that slows a build down is waiting on content, so I write it if you'd rather not.

That's normal, and it's most people. I'll ask questions until I understand the business well enough to write it, then show you a draft to correct. You'll always recognise the words as yours by the time it goes live.

Whatever suits you — phone, email or WhatsApp. You get a private link to the site as it comes together, so you're never waiting until the end to see what you've paid for.

It gets submitted to Google and added to Search Console so it starts being indexed. After that it's either aftercare, where I keep it updated and looked after, or you take it from there and come back to me as and when.

Photos of your work, your contact details, and a conversation. If you've got existing branding or a logo, that too. If you haven't got photos yet I'll tell you honestly what's worth taking on a phone before you spend money on a photographer.

Not usually. Good phone photos of real work beat stock images every time, and customers can tell the difference. There are sectors where proper photography earns its cost, and I'll say so if yours is one of them.

Usually yes. I'll look at what's there and tell you honestly whether it's worth keeping and improving or worth rebuilding, and price both so you can decide rather than being pushed.

WordPress or Next.js, depending on what the site needs to do. A straightforward brochure site and a platform with logins and payments want different tools, and I'd rather pick the right one than force everything down the same route.

Yes, and it's built phone-first rather than adapted afterwards. Most trade and local service sites get well over half their visitors on mobile, so if it doesn't work there it doesn't work.

Revisions during the build are expected and included. I'd far rather spend an extra afternoon getting it right than hand over something you're not happy with. It's only a change of scope — new pages or new features — that would ever be quoted separately.

Yes. Booking systems, recurring payments, job tracking, customer logins, product listings and connections to other software are all possible. That work is quoted individually rather than sold as a package, because it depends entirely on what you need.

Rarely. The underlying work is much the same across trades: explain what you do, prove you're trustworthy, make it easy to get in touch. Tell me what you do and I'll be straight with you about whether I'm a good fit.

Every site listed on this page is live and every one was built by me. Have a look at them properly — they're real businesses rather than mockups, and you can judge the work directly.

Yes. Window Cleaners Emporium is a full platform — classified ads, supplier and cleaner directories, reviews, a blog and an integrated shop. If your project needs more than pages, that's the one to look at.

Yes. Funeral services, cremations and celebrant work are all on the list above. Those sites need tone handled carefully and pricing presented in line with the rules that apply to them, and I've built for them before.

Yes, from a handful of products up to a full catalogue with categories and checkout. Shops sit outside the standard packages and get quoted individually once I know how many products and what payment and delivery setup you need.

Then I'll say so rather than pretend otherwise. What I won't do is claim to understand your trade from the inside when I don't — I'll ask you a lot of questions instead, because you're the one who knows how your customers think.

Mostly, and by choice. Sole traders and small teams get a level of attention from me that they wouldn't get from an agency. Larger projects are welcome too — the Will Case rebuild is one — they're just quoted individually.

No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. A new site starts with no history. What a well-built site does is remove the things holding you back — slow loading, missing page titles, no structure — so the work you do afterwards actually counts.

It's the listing that appears in the map results when someone searches for a service near them. For local trades it's often worth more than the website itself, it's free, and it's usually the first thing I'd sort out.

Because Google matches pages to searches, not businesses to searches. A single page listing eight services will rarely rank for any of them, whereas a page devoted to one service in one area stands a real chance.

That's what area pages are for, and it's the main reason to go beyond a small site. It takes a page per area with genuinely different content on each — copies of the same page with the town swapped tend to get ignored.

No. Google doesn't sell placement and doesn't publish how it ranks pages, so any guarantee is either a guess or aimed at a search term nobody types. I'll tell you what's realistic for your trade and area before you spend anything.

Then it's harder, and I'd tell you that upfront rather than take your money and hope. Often the answer is to go after narrower searches first — specific services, specific towns — rather than fight for the most obvious term.

Usually not. For most local businesses, service pages and area pages do far more than a blog nobody reads. If your sector genuinely rewards it, I'll say so, but it's not something I'd push.

Not necessarily. For a lot of trades it does less than people assume, and the website plus a Google Business Profile does the heavy lifting. Where it earns its place is credibility — someone checking you out finds something recent rather than an account abandoned two years ago.

Depends who buys from you. Visual trades do well on Facebook and Instagram; anything selling to other businesses tends to do better on LinkedIn. There's no point me posting to a platform your customers don't use.

Yes, as a monthly service covering posting, replies and actively getting your work in front of local businesses. It's priced separately from web design because it's ongoing work rather than a one-off project.

Consistency matters more than volume. A steady eight posts a month beats twenty in one week then nothing for two months. What actually moves things is reaching new people, not posting more often to the same small audience.

Very common and not a problem. Accounts get audited, profiles brought up to date and posting restarted. Followers you already have are worth more than starting again from nothing.

Sometimes, but rarely quickly, and I'd be wary of anyone promising otherwise. The first few months are about building an audience worth posting to. If you need enquiries this month, Google Business Profile and search work are the better place to spend.