Website
Most trade businesses do not need a twenty-page site. They need something that loads fast on a phone, says what you do and where you do it, and makes the number tappable. We build to the size your business actually is, not the size an agency would like to invoice for.
The problem with how websites usually get sold
Trade businesses tend to get one of two bad outcomes. Either nothing — a Facebook page and a mobile number, which loses you the customer who searches your name before they call. Or an oversized build: a content management system with pages nobody will ever update, sold on a retainer that assumes ongoing marketing work you did not ask for.
Neither matches what most one-to-six-person trade businesses need, which is a small number of accurate pages that work properly, for a price that is clear before you commit.
What you get, in three sizes
We size a site by the number of addresses on it, not the number of pages, because that is what search engines actually see. Your About page, each service you offer and your contact details all want their own address. Below, “1” means everything on the homepage; “1 + 4” means the homepage plus four pages of their own.
| # | Site type | What’s on it | Build |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Presence | 1 page. Hero, opener, about, services, contact details (tappable, no form), socials, legal | $495 |
| 2 | Business | 1 + 4 pages. About, plus a page for each of three services. Enquiry form, spam protection, routed mail, testimonials | $1,089 |
| 3 | Multi-page | 1 + 8 pages. About ×2, a page for each of five services, and a “where we work” page. Project gallery of five jobs, service area set up | $1,881 |
| 4 | Transferring an existing site | Added to whichever of the three above your site matches | +$396 |
| 5 | Complex | More than the above — bookings, content that changes weekly | Quoted |
Then there is the monthly, because hosting and looking after the site is a care plan — $32 a month on Essential, or $164 if you want us updating content and reporting each quarter. Every site we build is on one; which one you are on is settled when the site goes live rather than signed before you have seen it. What the care plans cover is below.
Prices include GST. Everything is invoiced twelve months in advance, minimum twelve-month term — the monthly figure is there to make the number legible, not because there is a direct debit. Your domain name is billed separately: $61 for the first year, $28 a year after that. It is registered in your name and we do not hold it hostage.
Straight up, before you choose. A one-page site will not outrank a competitor who has fifteen, no matter how well it is built. If turning up on Google matters to your business, start at Business. Presence is for trades who get their work by word of mouth and just need somewhere credible to point people.
Transferring in is a surcharge, not a bargain rebuild. The $396 covers content extraction, URL mapping, redirects so you keep the rankings you have earned, and a DNS cutover done without dropping your email. We rebuild you on our template using your existing content. We do not replicate your old site.
Most people buy it bundled
A website on its own is half the job. The other half is the Google Business Profile that turns up before your website does, and the reviews that decide whether anyone bothers ringing. The bundles put those together for less than the sum of the parts.
| What’s in it | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Get Found | The one-address site above, your Google Business Profile set up properly, your Google reviews shown on your own site, and your domain for the first year | $985 |
| Get Calls | The five-address site, everything in Get Found, an enquiry form, your Instagram feed pulled onto the site, and a pack of ten licensed photos | $1,969 |
| Get Chosen | The nine-address site, everything in Get Calls, a project gallery, and a report on where the building work is actually happening, suburb by suburb | $3,289 |
Bought as separate pieces those come to $1,106, $2,239 and $3,790, so the bundles save you $121, $270 and $501. Each price is the build. The care plan, $32 or $164 a month, is chosen when the site goes live; Get Chosen includes Managed. The full breakdown, line by line, is on the price list.
What’s included at every tier
This is the same on a $495 build as on a $1,881 one, and it is the honest answer to “why are you more than a DIY builder”: most of this does not happen on one unless you know to set it up.
- Hosting, SSL and a www redirect, monitored from launch, with no separate hosting bill
- A mobile-first build that loads fast on the connection your customers actually have
- Unique page titles and meta descriptions on every address, and a self-referencing canonical tag
- The structured data that tells Google what your business is and where it works, plus a page identifying you as the owner
- An XML sitemap, a robots file with a stated AI-crawler policy, and submission to Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow when you publish
- Social share images, so a link to your site does not look broken when someone sends it on
- Every image resized, converted and dimensioned properly, with the main image tuned for speed
- A privacy policy that matches what your site actually collects
- Your business name, address and phone number identical to what is on your Google Business Profile
- A preview site to look at before anything goes live
Copy is in the build fee. We draft the words for the pages your tier includes, you read them and tell us what is wrong, we fix it. Pages beyond your tier’s allowance are $319 each (see adding to it later).
Up to three external links in the navigation at any tier, at no charge — it is only an address. Two honest notes rather than a restriction: a link in the nav sends a visitor off the site that is meant to get you called, so the footer is usually the better spot; and any external link is a maintenance liability that fails quietly, which is why the care plan sweeps them.
We put a small “Site provided by Embolster Services” credit in the footer. If you would rather your site carried only your name, taking it off is $66 a year, billed with your care plan.
Keeping it running
| Essential — $32 a month | Managed — $164 a month | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting, SSL, backups, platform kept current | ✓ | ✓ |
| Domain and DNS managed, renewals handled and reminded | ✓ | ✓ |
| Enquiry form, spam protection and mail routing kept working | ✓ | ✓ |
| Uptime monitoring — we hear about an outage before you do, and you hear about it from us | ✓ | ✓ |
| External and resource links checked monthly | ✓ | ✓ |
| Small changes | 2 a year, up to 30 min each | replaced by content updates below |
| Annual Site Health Snapshot — speed, our SEO score, search coverage, uptime, a form test, in plain English | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content updates | — | 4 a year, one a quarter, up to an hour each |
| A report every quarter on search and performance, with what to do about it | — | ✓ |
| Reviews refreshed into testimonials on your site | — | ✓ |
| Priority response | — | ✓ |
Billed annually: $384 a year for Essential, $1,968 for Managed. Which plan you are on is settled when your site goes live rather than sold alongside the build — but every site is on one, because the care plan is the hosting.
There is no uptime guarantee, on any plan. What you get is that we find out first and tell you, then fix it. Nobody who promises you a percentage is going to hand your money back over it, and we would rather say what we actually do.
Keeping your Google Business Profile current is a separate service at $506 a year — see Google Business Profile.
What a content update is: adding a job to the gallery from photos you send · rewriting one service page · refreshing the testimonials · a seasonal copy or hours change · adding a service to the list. What it is not: a new page, a new suburb page, an article, a redesign, or a new feature. Those are quoted, or come out of a change block ($429 for three hours, 12-month expiry).
There is no ongoing SEO fee. The technical groundwork above is in every build, and the search work worth doing after launch is what Managed is for.
Adding to it later
Not now. These are the things clients add once the site is earning its keep.
| What | Why you’d bother | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Articles that bring you work | Six researched pieces answering what your customers actually Google, or one a month, ongoing | $1,639 or $319 a month |
| Another service page | You have added a service, or you want to be found for one you do not rank for yet | $319 |
| A job worth showing off | One real job, in one real suburb, with your photos. It is how people in that suburb find you | $209 |
| Service Area Setup: a “where we work” page | Backed by travel-time analysis rather than a list of suburbs you have never worked in | $209 |
| Where your next jobs are | Free government data mapped against your service area, ranked by where the demand is | $759 |
| We keep your Google profile current | Hours, holidays, services, photos, a post each quarter | $506 a year |
| Rewrite a page you already have | When a page is out of date, or was never written to bring in work | $209 |
| Five more jobs in the gallery | Your best recent work, where customers look before they ring | $374 |
| Your Instagram feed on your site | Your Instagram posts shown on your own site, with no third-party script slowing it down | $220 |
| A photo pack | Ten licensed images matched to your trade, for when you do not have your own yet | $319 |
| Only your name in the footer | Takes the “Site provided by Embolster Services” credit off your site, billed with your care plan | $66 a year |
What we do not do
We do not build content management platforms with a login you will never use, and we do not sell a marketing retainer bolted onto a website project. We do not run your social media, we do not do Google Ads, we do not build online shops, and we do not do link building — the cheap end of that trade carries real penalty risk and we will not put your domain near it.
We also cannot promise you a position on Google. Anyone who does is guessing. We build the site so it can rank and we show you the numbers.
What changes for your business
You get a site that answers the two questions a prospective customer actually has: do you do what I need, and do you do it near me. It is fast enough that people do not give up on it, and every number and address on it matches what is on your Google Business Profile, which is part of what gets you found in the first place.
How we work
We start with what the site needs to say: the services, the area you cover, and anything that sets you apart. You get a Starter Pack with the quote listing everything we need from you — the photos worth taking, your Google Business Profile access, your domain details — with a date against the photos. If they are not in by then, we build on licensed stock so nothing stalls, and swap them later.
Presence and Business builds are usually live within a week. Multi-page takes two to three weeks, mostly waiting on content and photos rather than build time.
Who this suits
Any trade business that needs a professional web presence and does not want to manage a website as an ongoing project. It particularly suits a business replacing a site built years ago by someone who can no longer be reached, or a business with no site at all that has been relying on Facebook and word of mouth.
Common questions
Can I move up a tier later? Yes. Most businesses start at Presence or Business and move up once they know what content is worth adding. You pay the difference in build cost, not a second full build.
Who owns the domain? You do, always, registered in your business’s name. If you leave, it comes with you and we will not make it difficult.
Why is it billed a year at a time? Because that is how the underlying costs are billed, and because one invoice a year is less admin for both of us than a direct debit you forget about. The monthly figure is just the annual number divided by twelve.
What happens if I cancel? After the first twelve months it rolls on and you can leave whenever. You keep the domain and we hand over the content.
Do I need a Google Business Profile as well? Usually, yes. The website is one part of getting found; the profile and its reviews are the other, and for most trade businesses they matter more. See Google Business Profile for how the two work together.
How do I know whether my current site does any of this? Send us the address. We will run our scorecard over it and tell you what is missing, free, whether or not you end up working with us.
Next step
If you want a straight answer on which size fits your business, see the full price list or book a 20-minute technology conversation. Already have a site? Tell us where it lives and we will run our scorecard over it and tell you what is wrong with it, free, whether or not you end up working with us.