Handyman & contracting · Exeter, Devon · 2025

Hembury Contracting. A trades site that ranks locally and converts.

Visit hemburycontracting.co.uk Read the story

01 — Context

The brief

Hembury Contracting is a Devon handyman and contracting business covering everything from a leaky tap to a full bathroom refit. Real trade work, real reviews, no marketing varnish.

When we picked up the site, the business was running on word-of-mouth and a single rented Yell.com listing. Strong reputation locally, almost no organic discovery. Someone searching "handyman Exeter" had to know the name already to find them.

The brief was a site that earns its keep: ranks for the local terms that actually convert, loads instantly on a phone in a van, and reads in the same plain English the team uses on the doorstep.

02 — Approach

Our approach

Local SEO first — proper structured data, individual service pages for the work that actually pays the bills (kitchens, bathrooms, fencing, decking, tiling, general handyman), location pages for the towns that send the most enquiries.

Photography from real jobs, not stock libraries. Honest "before / after" shots, the actual van, the actual team. A trades site that looks fake loses the customer in the first three seconds.

Plain English throughout — no "premium artisan craftsmanship", no five-paragraph service intros. Just what we do, what it costs roughly, and how to get in touch.

03 — Outcome

The outcome

Organic search now drives a meaningful share of new enquiries, with the site ranking on page one for the {{ N }} core "service + Exeter" terms we targeted at the start.

Conversion rate on the contact form sits at {{ rate }} — well above the trades-industry baseline — a direct function of the plain-English service pages doing the qualifying work upfront.

The site is now the central trust signal for every new enquiry. Customers arrive pre-warmed; the team spends less time selling and more time quoting.