Our Flagship Sash Window Website
We started out like most people, thinking if a website looked good, it would do well. So, we shelled out over £1,000 for a smart-looking sash window site. It looked great... but barely showed up on Google.
That’s when we realised the harsh truth: most web developers build fast and move on. It’s a churn-and-burn model. They hand over a decent-looking site, get paid, and disappear. And guess what? Google hates that approach.
At first, the site might rank okay. But give it a few months, and it just... fades. Slips down the rankings. Eventually, it's nowhere to be found. That’s because Google's algorithm isn’t interested in pretty pictures or flashy layouts alone, it wants depth, value, and trust. Google’s algorithm is always evolving, and it rewards websites that stay active, helpful, and trustworthy.
If your site isn’t constantly updated, packed with genuinely useful content, built with strong SEO foundations (on-site and off-site), and tailored to what people are actually searching for — it’s doomed to drift into digital obscurity.
And, well... that’s exactly what happened to our first website. It looked nice. But it had none of what Google actually wants.
To climb to page 1 of Google (without throwing money at ads), your website needs a lot more than a pretty face. It needs:
Regular updates with fresh, useful content
In-depth information that genuinely helps your potential customers
Solid on-site and off-site SEO
And most importantly, it needs to build trust with Google.
Our old site had none of that. It looked nice, but that’s about it... and that’s probably why you’ve ended up here. You’ve realised your current site just isn’t cutting it.
That was the turning point. I knew I had to do things differently. I learned what the algorithm actually values, and built a site from the ground up that ticks every one of those boxes, with one clear goal: get to page 1 of Google organically, without spending a penny on ads.
Once we'd spent a good few hours diving into competitor websites, some patterns started to jump out. Most of the high-ranking sites had light, minimalist designs, all soft tones and stock photos. A few included project examples, but oddly, none of them were dated. Some had blogs, though most hadn’t been updated in years. Customer testimonials were everywhere, but they were all static, there was no way to know if they were real or just nicely written fiction. On average, the sites were between 5 and 10 pages long.
It was clear: we didn’t just want to blend in. We wanted to stand out.
That research shaped a pretty bold decision, rather than follow the crowd, we’d go the other way. While others were keeping things light and polished, we went for a dark design with bold yellow branding. Something memorable. Something a visitor would recall days later and want to return to. Our goal was to build a site that felt alive, up-to-date, and full of personality, not just a brochure buried in Google's index.
What We Wanted Our Site To Do Differently:
1. Weekly Updates That Show Real Work:
One of the most important ideas from the start was to keep things fresh. We committed to posting weekly updates, whether it’s a job we're currently working on or something interesting going on in the yard. This turned out to be one of the best decisions we made. People often message us saying they saw a specific door or balcony we restored and want something similar. These updates also help with SEO, Google loves fresh, dated content and rewards us with better visibility.
2. More (and Better) Ways to Get in Touch:
Our previous site just had a phone number and a basic contact form. That wasn’t cutting it. Now, we’ve added WhatsApp chat and even allow customers to upload photos through our webform. It’s made a massive difference. In fact, nearly half of our enquiries now come via WhatsApp and these aren’t just small fixes. We’ve had major projects worth £20,000 to £50,000 start from a quick message, including full glazing upgrades on farmhouses and even work on listed buildings in Mayfair. If you’re not using WhatsApp for customer enquiries, you're probably missing out.
3. Live Facebook Feed on the Homepage:
To keep our site as active as our business, we embedded our Facebook business feed directly into the homepage. Every time we post, our site updates automatically, meaning it’s always current without needing extra work. It’s a simple trick that gives the site a steady stream of new content for both visitors and search engines.
4. Live Google Reviews Instead of Static Testimonials:
Let’s be honest, anyone can type out a fake testimonial and paste it onto a website. So we scrapped the idea of static quotes and instead integrated a live Google review feed. These reviews come directly from our Google Business Profile and update automatically. For customers, it builds trust. For Google, it’s a big thumbs-up that we’re legitimate and trustworthy, which helps with search rankings too. Forget Trustpilot, Yell, or Checkatrade, Google reviews are what really matter for visibility and credibility, if you're currently using something else, drop it and switch to Google reviews.
5. More Pages, More Depth, More Value:
One thing Google consistently rewards is content-rich websites. After sizing up our competition, we decided to go big and I mean really big. We created pages that were more detailed, better written, and more helpful than anything else we saw out there. We didn’t stop at general pages either. We now have detailed sections on things like window paint, sash horns, hardware comparisons, spring balances vs traditional weights, and more. Currently, we have 47 different service and product pages, and that number keeps growing.
6. Hundreds of Landing Pages – And They're All Unique:
Here’s where things really took off. We realised that location-specific searches for things like “sash window repair in Canterbury” or “wooden doors in Dover” were huge opportunities. So we set out to build a dedicated landing page for every single town, village, and city in Kent and London, each one packed with unique, location-tailored content.
And yes, that means we now have 486 individually written location pages just for sash windows — each with at least 1,000 words of original content. No duplicates, no copy-paste jobs.
But we didn’t stop there. We repeated the process for secondary glazing and again for wooden doors, focusing on the services that generate the most enquiries and revenue. This effort brought our total website page count to well over 1000 pages and growing.
It’s worked so well that we often see multiple listings on Page 1 of Google for a single search, thanks to the variety and volume of our pages. We can even track exactly which page people land on and which one they use to get in touch and many of our best leads start on those location pages.
If you're curious, you can check out the full list here:
👉 https://www.traditionalcarpentry.uk/areas-covered
Every place name links to a custom-built page for that area.
This phase — dreaming up the site and getting it built — was all about doing things differently. And more importantly, doing things better. We’re not interested in just being “one of the options.” We’re building a brand and a site that customers remember, trust, and return to. And judging by the results so far we’re on the right track.
Once the flagship site was live, the real momentum begins in Stage 3.
This phase is all about keeping the site active, improving visibility, and turning traffic into enquiries through regular updates and smart SEO strategy.
A key element is the weekly job journal. Every week, we publish real updates from ongoing and completed projects—complete with photos, short write-ups, and job locations. This not only brings the site to life but also builds credibility and long-term trust with search engines and visitors alike.
In addition to job posts, we roll out regular blog updates focused on topics your target customers are actively searching for. From sash window maintenance advice to comparisons of timber and uPVC, each article is written with SEO in mind and aimed at answering real questions, helping to attract long-tail search traffic.
We also track keyword performance on a weekly basis, keeping a close eye on where your pages rank and how those rankings change over time. In many cases, we’re now seeing flagship location landing pages appear on page one of Google, and in some instances, even two separate pages from the same site ranking on page one for a single search term. These wins are clear signs that the SEO foundations we’ve laid are working.
As part of this stage, we also focus on building backlinks through local listings and directories. By acquiring quality links from trusted business directories and niche sites related to home improvement and joinery, we strengthen your domain authority and support sustained ranking improvement.
Stage 3 is where short-term results turn into long-term success—and by actively feeding the site with fresh content and strategic SEO, we keep pushing it forward every week.
This growth is clearly reflected in our live performance data. Over the last 12 months, the site has generated over 242,000 search impressions, as shown in the graph. What’s particularly impressive is the trajectory—from almost no visibility in early July 2024 to consistent daily impressions in the thousands by spring 2025. This upward trend is a direct result of the site's continuous expansion, strategic internal linking, and regular job and blog updates. Given the large volume of long-tail and location-based content, this is a strong indicator that many of our pages are beginning to break through the early pages of Google.
We've also seen certain local landing pages perform exceptionally well, ranking on page one, and in some cases, even showing up twice for a single search (one for a main service page, the other for a supporting blog or location entry). These kinds of results demonstrate that Google is beginning to recognise the site as an authority in its niche.
