Where things stand, and what we can do

01What we found

The review habit already exists, it's just landing on platforms most homeowners don't check before calling someone. And the one site that actually ranks for the searches that matter has no working HTTPS, which browsers increasingly flag hard.

02What a proper website costs a competitor

Worth knowing: Wiltshire Windows and DL Windows are built on the exact same template — same bespoke theme, same forms, same plugins, and both sites credit the same agency (ICAAL, trading 15 years) directly in their own footers. One agency built it once and sold it twice into the same postcode with different colours.

Both sites were rebuilt onto this current template in spring 2024, and both are still being actively updated now — DL Windows posted new content this month. So this isn't a one-off spend that's since gone quiet: it's sustained, ongoing investment, and it's the standard we've built MPB's concept designs to match, or beat.

03Suggested actions

Roughly in order of effort.

• Fix HTTPS on the legacy Swindon site — it's the only page ranking for the main search term Free
• Add a WhatsApp click-to-chat button — every close competitor has one, MPB doesn't 10 min
• Add a postcode field to the quote form — filters out-of-area leads first Free
• Ask for more Google reviews specifically — template included Free
• Fix the LocalBusiness schema — blank country field, missing hours Free
• Confirm Certass scope directly — listing is ambiguous Domestic/Non-Domestic Call

04Website design concepts

Five genuinely different directions, built from MPB's real content and accreditations — different layouts, not just different colours. Click any of the boxes below to open it.

If none of these quite fit — a different colour, a specific logo treatment, anything particular you've got in mind — just say. These are starting points, not the only options; we can build to whatever MPB actually needs.

05Office tools, already built

06Two things we can likely take off your plate

07Worth a tally

What's currently going out every month. Before we plan anything, if you don't mind — a full list of what MPB pays for online would help: subscriptions, tools, hosting, the visualiser, anything with a monthly or annual charge, and roughly what each one costs. From what we already know about:

• Webgloss — believed to be around £30/month for the old legacy site
• Search4local — built the current site; not clear if there's an ongoing fee
• The visualiser tool for the front-of-house colour previews

If there's anything else — domain renewals, another hosting account, a CRM — worth listing it all in one place. Once we can see the whole picture, we'll come back with a straight answer on what's worth keeping and what could come off the overheads.

08What's not decided yet

Whether Elegant Windows gets merged into MPB, kept separate, or wound down. Whether to offer finance — no local independent does; Emerald in Swindon publishes 0% APR and nobody else competes on it. All genuinely open — none of this assumes an answer, and none of it needs deciding before we next speak.

09What we'd need back from you

Nothing urgent, nothing here commits you to anything — just what would let us actually move on any of this when you're ready.

• A rough list of what MPB pays for online each month, and roughly how much
• Whether the competitor you mentioned is one we should specifically look at, and its name
• Which of the five design directions, if any, is closest to what you'd want
• Any brochures, product ranges or photos you'd like reflected on the site — happy to use your own material rather than us guessing what to put on there
• Any other domains or businesses under MPB, and what (if anything) you've got planned for them — so we can be realistic about what fits in and what doesn't
• A decision, whenever you're ready, on Elegant Windows and on offering finance
• Confirmation from Certass on the domestic/non-domestic scope — worth doing regardless

I'm not doing this for anyone else, and I'm not charging for the work. Good for you, and honestly good for me too — I get to put it in our portfolio, and it's a decent thing to show if we're ever pitching bigger clients later. So there's something in it for both of us, no pretending otherwise. (Donations always accepted, though. Ha.)

You can take all of this and build it yourself, or get someone else to do it — there's a fair bit of work in it either way. Or you can give me the chance to do it. I don't want anything beyond what we've actually talked about. That's it. Let me know.

Given what happened with the previous consultant, security's worth doing properly rather than as an afterthought:

• Every password and API key gets rotated — domains, hosting, email, social media, Google Business Profile, analytics. Anything they ever touched.
• Their access gets removed everywhere, not just changed — old logins, admin users, connected apps, anything still lingering.
• Two-factor authentication on everything that supports it — the single biggest thing that stops someone getting back in even if they still have an old password.
• Domains and hosting confirmed in MPB's name, not a personal or agency account — so ownership is never in question again.
• A check for anything hidden — email forwarding rules routing copies elsewhere, unexpected DNS records, admin users you didn't add yourself.
• You keep the master keys — I'd help set it up, but everything ends up owned by you, not held by me or anyone else.

There's a lot more we can do beyond what's listed above — just ask. A few more examples:

• Automated review requests sent a few days after each job, timed automatically — no more relying on remembering to ask
• A proper blog — competitors publishing regularly rank for searches MPB currently doesn't show up for at all, and the bar locally is genuinely low
• A simple survey-request form with calendar sync, so a customer can pick a slot rather than just phoning and hoping
• Google Ads and Facebook tracking set up properly, so if you ever do want to run ads, the groundwork's already there
• Product pages for each window and door style separately, rather than one page trying to cover everything
• If MPB, Elegant Windows and any other sites you run should really be one system rather than several — everything managed in one place, with separate area or brand-specific pages sitting on top where you need them, all pointing back to the same core site