Hartley and Sons Builders: brand, website and digital growth strategy

01 / SEO

Be found before the competition.

Search is where most extension and loft conversion jobs start. A homeowner in Reigate types "extension builders Surrey" or "loft conversion Guildford" and clicks one of the first three results. If Hartley and Sons are not there, the job goes elsewhere.

We built the SEO strategy around four pillars:

Keyword architecture. We mapped every service Hartley's offers against the actual search terms Surrey homeowners use. Not generic terms like "builders", but specific, high-intent phrases: "double storey extension Guildford", "hip to gable loft conversion Surrey", "kitchen extension cost Surrey". Each phrase became the target for a dedicated page.

Location pages. Surrey is not one market. Guildford, Reigate, Dorking, Farnham, Woking, Cobham, each town has its own search behaviour. We built a location page for each area Hartley's operates in, written with genuine local context rather than spun generic content. Google rewards specificity.

Technical foundation. Page speed under two seconds. Mobile-first. Structured data for local business, services and reviews. Canonical URLs. XML sitemap. Clean internal linking. The kind of technical groundwork that most trades websites never have.

Google Business Profile. Fully optimised listing with services, photos, posts and a review generation strategy. The map pack drives enormous call volume for trades. Getting into it needs consistent signals: reviews, proximity, category relevance and on-page alignment.

Expected outcomes: page one visibility for primary service and location terms within four to six months, map pack presence for Guildford and surrounding towns within three months, organic enquiry rate increasing month on month as content compounds.

02 / Email

Stay front of mind. Turn past clients into referrals.

Most builders do one job for a client and never contact them again. That is a wasted opportunity. A homeowner who had their extension done by Hartley's in 2022 likely knows three other people who are thinking about the same thing.

We built a simple, automated email programme with three goals: stay front of mind, generate referrals and win repeat work.

The sequences we built:

Post-project follow-up (automated, sent seven days after handover): a short, personal email from the Hartley's team thanking the client, asking for a Google review, and inviting them to send anyone their way. Conversion rate on review requests sent within seven days of a positive job is far higher than cold requests sent weeks later.

Seasonal campaign (four times per year): a short email to the full client list timed around natural decision moments. Early spring for extensions and landscaping. Autumn for loft conversions. Each email is one idea, one image, one clear call to action.

Referral programme email (sent at three months post-project): a direct, friendly ask. If anyone you know is thinking about an extension or loft conversion, we would love an introduction. As a thank you, we offer a referral payment for every job that completes. Simple. Direct. Effective.

Platform: GoHighLevel or Mailchimp. Fully templated in Hartley's brand colours. Mobile optimised. Unsubscribe compliant.

Expected outcomes: fifteen to twenty-five percent review capture from the post-project sequence, a referral pipeline generating two to four extra jobs per year from the existing client base, brand recall at the moment a past client's neighbour starts asking about builders.

03 / PPC

Pay for the enquiries SEO has not reached yet.

SEO takes time. Google Ads put Hartley and Sons at the top of search results from day one, targeting the exact searches that indicate buying intent.

For a trades business, PPC is not about volume. It is about precision. We are not trying to reach everyone searching for "builders Surrey". We want the person who has already decided they want an extension and is now comparing quotes.

Campaign structure we built:

Search campaigns by service: separate campaigns for extensions, loft conversions and new builds. Each campaign targets specific keyword groups, geographic areas and match types. Broad match is off. Every click is intentional.

Location targeting: ads served only within the postcodes Hartley's operates in and can realistically travel to. No wasted spend on clicks from areas they cannot serve.

Ad copy and landing pages: each ad links to a dedicated landing page, not the homepage. Extension ads go to the extensions page. Loft ads go to the loft conversions page. The message in the ad matches the message on the page. Quality Score goes up, cost per click goes down.

Negative keywords: a continuously maintained list removes irrelevant traffic. Terms like "builder game", "builder jobs", "how to build" and hundreds of other non-commercial phrases are excluded from day one.

Conversion tracking: every phone call from an ad is tracked. Every form submission is tracked. We know exactly which keywords, ads and landing pages generate real enquiries, and we optimise toward those, cutting spend on everything else.

Budget approach: we recommend starting at £500 to £800 per month for a Surrey builder. At an average extension value of £40,000 to £80,000, a single job won from PPC pays for months of ad spend. The maths work if the targeting is right.

Expected outcomes: enquiries from day one of campaign launch, cost per lead reducing month on month as Quality Score improves and the negative keyword list grows, full attribution via call tracking and GA4, no guessing which clicks converted.