Prices for M1 come straight from the price list, so they’re always current. Outside figures are linked to their sources.
Start with your Google Business Profile
If you’re a plumber, a salon, a physio or a gym, the first thing many local customers see is not your website. It’s your Google Business Profile in the map results: your name, rating, photos, opening hours and a call button.
Google says you can create a profile if your business has a place customers can visit, or if you travel to customers where they are. Google doesn’t charge for it. So before you spend anything on a website, set up and verify your profile, pick the right main category, add real photos and start asking every customer for a review.
One thing has changed. Google used to let you make a simple website inside your profile. Those sites were turned off in March 2024, and the redirect to the profile stopped in June 2024. If you want a website link on your profile now, it has to be a site you have somewhere else.
When a Google profile alone is enough
For some businesses, a well-kept profile does the job on its own for now. That’s usually true when:
- most of your work comes from word of mouth and repeat customers;
- you do one simple, well-understood service, and people call rather than research;
- your diary is already full and you’re not trying to grow yet.
Know the limits, though. You can’t control the layout, you can’t explain your prices or process in any depth, and you can’t add your own enquiry form or booking. Google also decides which features the profile has, and it can change them, as the website tool showed. You’re working on someone else’s page.
When a single page is enough
A lot of small businesses don’t need ten pages. They need one good page that answers the questions people ask before they call. One page is often enough when:
- you have one main service you want more of;
- you want to show rough prices, photos of your work, reviews and answers to common questions;
- you want a proper enquiry form, so jobs don’t only come in by phone while you’re busy;
- you plan to run Google Ads, which need a page to send people to.
That page is a landing page. Link it from your Google profile and it gives people somewhere to go when the profile isn’t enough to decide.
When you need a full website
A full site earns its cost when one page would get crowded or can’t do the job:
- Several services. Someone searching for a boiler service doesn’t want to wade through a page about bathrooms. Each main service needs its own page.
- Several towns. If you cover a wide area, pages for the main places you work help people see you cover them.
- Bookings and deposits. Online booking, payments or a customer login need a proper site around them.
- Bigger jobs. People spending thousands on a kitchen, a roof or a wedding look harder before they call. They want to see past work, your process and who you are.
- Hiring. A careers page helps when you’re recruiting.
If you’re weighing up building it yourself, the guide to a web designer vs Wix or Squarespace covers the trade-offs, and the website cost guide covers prices.
What Checkatrade and Facebook pages do and don’t give you
Directories and social pages are useful, but they aren’t the same as your own site.
Checkatrade and similar sites give you a profile, reviews and, on some plans, enquiries. SwiftLead’s breakdown of Checkatrade’s published pricing, checked this month, lists a £0 profile, an Approved membership at £30 a month, and a Growth plan from £59 a month that’s priced by your trade, your area and how many enquiries you want. What you don’t get is a page to yourself. Your profile sits on the same site as your competitors, and the platform sets the rules and the prices.
A Facebook page is good for photos of recent jobs, updates and messages from people who already follow you. But how many people see your posts is up to Meta, and plenty of customers never look for a local business on Facebook.
Use them as extra places to be found, not instead of a profile or page you control. Whatever you use, keep your business name, address and phone number the same everywhere (your NAP), so every listing points the same way.
How M1 can help, from the profile up
I’d rather you spend the right amount than the most. These are the three steps many local businesses move through, and you can stop at any of them.
- Local Search Fix, £800 fixed: your Google Business Profile filled in properly, key fixes on your website if you have one, schema markup and review requests that ask every customer. Paid £400 to start and £400 at launch, typically 1 to 2 weeks.
- Enquiry Page, £800 fixed: one page for your best service, with the words written for you, an enquiry form and tracking. Typically 1 to 2 weeks. You choose before you buy: your own hosting, or M1 hosts it on the Website Care Plan at £250 a month.
- Foundation Build, from £3,500: a site of up to about 6 pages, with your Google profile, review requests and tracking set up. Paid half to start and half at launch, typically 3 to 4 weeks. No monthly plan is needed after it.
Not sure where you stand? Take the Scorecard. The Enquiry Leak Scorecard is 12 questions and takes about 3 minutes. You don’t need to give an email to see your score. No one can promise you a ranking on Google, and I won’t.
Sources
Directory prices change, so check the provider’s current page before you sign up.
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help, accessed 30 September 2026
- Websites Created With Google Business Profiles To Shut Down In March, Search Engine Journal, accessed 30 September 2026
- Checkatrade Cost for Tradesmen: The Full Breakdown (2026), SwiftLead, accessed 30 September 2026