Do a plumber's website prices have to include VAT?
Yes: a price shown to a homeowner has to be the full price, VAT included. We read the boiler-service prices on 220 plumbers' websites, and about one in three showed “+VAT” with no total.
The blog
Notes on building and looking after small business websites.
Opinion, process, craft and case studies on building, hosting and looking after small business websites, written while building ThemeSmith. 21 pieces, newest first.
Written in 2026
SRA transparency rules: what a law firm's website must show
The SRA transparency rules require a law firm's website to show its SRA number and the SRA's digital badge. What the rules ask for, what we saw on 348 firms' sites, and five things to check.
Client money protection, fees and redress: what a letting agent's website must show
In England, a letting agent's website has to show its fees, its redress scheme and its client money protection. We read 400 letting agents' websites; of those naming a client money scheme, 36.5% showed no copy of the certificate.
We read 1,056 plumbers' websites. Most don't say what a call-out costs
In August we read the front pages of 1,056 UK plumbing and heating firms. One in eight showed a price, and about two in a hundred said what an hour or a call-out costs.
Before you launch, try being your own customer
Follow an enquiry from a phone screen to your inbox. Practical checks for booking links, photographs, forms and the details customers need.
A better website starts with the questions customers ask
Give your designer the work you want, the questions customers ask, useful photographs and a clear next step. A practical small-business website brief.
The slow rot: why websites quietly stop working
Three years after launch, half of every freelance designer's portfolio is broken. It isn't malice: it's neglect by design.
Editorial quality, for small business websites
The phrase gets thrown around. Typography, photographs, layout, voice: here's what we hold a site to, and why most builders settle for less.
When sites don't need a homepage
The architecture is the brief. A small dental practice doesn't need a homepage. It needs a booking page, a treatments page, a directions page.
Photography without a shoot
Stock libraries are death; phone-camera shots in the workshop are gold. Honest imagery on a small business site without an art director.
Working notes, May 2026
A quarterly working note. What shipped, what we're working on, what we got wrong, what the first cohort taught us. Honest and short.
On rescuing rather than rebuilding
The case for restoration over from-zero rebuilds: when the brief is still good, the brand is still good, and only the wrapper is failing.
Why we charge by the page, not by the project
Project rates punish small briefs and reward bloated ones. Per-page rates are cleaner, fairer to the customer, and easier to plan around.
The half-hour rule
We could probably make the build faster. We've decided not to. A piece on why half an hour turned out to be exactly the right length.
On naming things
Why "ThemeSmith" and not "ThemeForge" or "Brandly" or "Studio.ai" or one of the thousand other names that were available. A short note on what the name's doing.
Choosing a typeface for a small business
A practical note on what we choose and why. Source Serif vs Geist vs the alternatives, why we never use Helvetica, and the rule for type pairing that takes ten seconds.
Working email, working delivery, working thank-you
A broken contact form is one of the most common faults on small business websites. What makes a form actually work, and the small amount of effort it takes to do it right.
Written in 2025
What "quality" costs
A small business website used to cost £30,000. Then £3,000. Now £29 to build and a small monthly fee. The work is roughly the same; the maths changed underneath.
Voice over volume
Most company blogs publish weekly. Ours publishes quarterly, plus ad-hoc when we have something to say. A short note on why frequency is overrated.
The 60-character rule
The same magic number governs page titles, email subject lines, tweet text and meta descriptions. A short note on the discipline of writing for 60 characters.
A resignation letter from the agency model
Twenty years inside web agencies, the small businesses turned away every year because the maths didn't work. A long-form note on why I resigned from the model and what I'm trying to build instead.
Tell us about your business. We build your website.
Describe your business in a chat, choose a design direction, and see your home page in about twenty minutes. After launch, changes are a message.
£29 for your first page, £15 for each one after. Hosting is free for the first month, then £29 a month. No contract.
£29 a month, and it stays £29 for as long as you're with us. New customers from 1 April 2027 pay £39.