How a new website took a 10 year established builder to a 30% lift in quality leads within two weeks.
Step & Co is a building and roofing company covering Bromley, Kent and South East London, run by Patrick Steppel for the past 10 years. With a strong Checkatrade reputation and 69 verified reviews already behind them, the brief was to build a website that turned that reputation into a genuine source of leads, not just an online business card.
The challenge
Step & Co had built a genuinely strong reputation over 10 years, a Federation of Master Builders membership, 69 verified reviews on Checkatrade and a £1,000 Checkatrade guarantee behind every job. The problem was that none of it lived anywhere that could actually convert a visitor into an enquiry. Word of mouth and a Checkatrade profile had carried the business this far, but neither one gives you control over how a prospective customer experiences your brand, and neither one is built to turn a visitor into a lead.
The brief was straightforward but not simple: build a site that reflected 10 years of genuine trust signals, covered the full spread of services on offer, from roofing repairs to full extensions, and gave visitors an obvious, low-friction way to request a quote, on both desktop and mobile.
The approach
Trades businesses live or die on trust and speed of response. Someone with a leaking roof isn't browsing, they're deciding, often on their phone, often within a few minutes. The site needed to earn that trust immediately and make getting a quote as easy as possible, without getting in the way of the content that actually builds credibility.
Structure and service pages
The first job was mapping out the site around how Step & Co actually works, rather than a generic template. Six core services needed their own space: roofing, extensions and new builds, general building, refurbishments, kitchens and bathrooms, and carpentry and conversions. Each got a dedicated page rather than being buried in a single "services" list, giving each one room to be found in search and to speak directly to that specific job.
- Six individual service pages built out, not a single generic services page
- Site structure planned around Bromley, Kent and South East London coverage
- Portfolio and reviews given their own dedicated space, not an afterthought
Trust signals, front and centre
Ten years of reputation only helps if a visitor sees it in the first few seconds. The £1,000 Checkatrade guarantee, the number of verified reviews, years on Checkatrade and the FMB membership were all pulled into the hero area of the homepage itself, rather than left on a separate "about" page nobody clicks through to.
Real customer reviews were pulled through directly rather than paraphrased, so visitors could see genuine, specific feedback rather than generic marketing lines.
- Trust signals surfaced immediately on the homepage, not buried
- Genuine Checkatrade reviews integrated directly into the site
- Clear, consistent branding carried through every service page
Lead capture and mobile-first build
Since most trades searches happen on a phone, often urgently, the site was built mobile-first with a click-to-call number in the header on every page and a simple quote request form that doesn't ask for more than it needs to. Analytics and conversion tracking were set up from day one, so lead volume and source could be measured properly from launch rather than guessed at later.
- Click-to-call number visible in the header on every page and device
- Quote request form kept short and low-friction
- Analytics and tracking configured before launch, not added afterwards
The results so far
It's still early days, the site has only been live for a couple of weeks, but the initial numbers are a strong signal. Quality leads are up 30% compared to before the site launched, and the build has already covered its own cost from the new work it's generated. The site was also delivered on schedule, with the full build, copy and content included from day one rather than added on afterwards.
As with any new site, these are early results rather than a settled long-term trend, and this case study will be updated as more data comes in over the coming months.
"Joe had the site up and running faster than I expected, and he kept us in the loop every step of the way, no chasing needed. It's still early days, but we've already seen a real uplift in the quality of leads coming through, up around 30% in the first two weeks, and the site has already paid for itself in new work. Can't recommend Joe enough if you need a new website or a rebrand built to actually bring in leads, not just look nice."
Patrick Steppel, Owner, Step & Co
What made the difference
The site didn't need to reinvent what Step & Co does, it needed to get out of the way of 10 years of genuine reputation and let it actually do its job. Structuring the site around real services rather than a generic template, putting trust signals where visitors see them immediately, and making it effortless to request a quote from a phone are the three things that mattered most here.
The same principle applies well beyond trades businesses. If a company already has the trust and reputation, the website's job is to surface it clearly and remove every bit of friction between a visitor and an enquiry.
Want a website that actually brings in leads?
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