Websites for drainage companies: stop renting your leads
Drainage is the most ad-saturated corner of the trade. 'Blocked drain' clicks routinely cost £10-15, national franchises dominate the paid results, and a one-van drainage business bidding against them is spending real money to rent visitors the franchise gets cheaper at scale. I'll say it plainly: £15-a-click emergency drainage ads are a losing game for a one-van operation.
The alternative isn't 'no marketing' - it's owning the asset instead of renting the click. A drainage site built for local organic search plus a Google Business Profile that's actually maintained wins the same emergency visitor without the per-click tax.
Why the ads maths doesn't work for one van
A £15 click is only rational if you convert clicks at franchise rates with franchise capacity. One van means every hour you're on a job, your ad spend buys clicks that ring a phone nobody answers. The franchises solve this with call centres; you can't, so you're paying premium prices for leads you structurally miss.
The same budget - two or three months of a modest ads spend - buys a website you own outright, working every month after, for years. That's not a marketing slogan, it's just the arithmetic.
What wins drainage work organically
Drainage searches are emergency-shaped, so the site borrows the emergency playbook - near-instant loading, tap-to-call first - and adds drainage specifics:
- Service pages that match how people search: blocked drains, CCTV surveys, drain repairs, root ingress - named, not lumped together
- Your equipment stated plainly: jetting, CCTV rig - it separates you from the bloke with rods
- Coverage areas spelled out, because drainage searches are strongly local
- Honest pricing signals: 'no callout fee' or a from-price beats vagueness against franchise small print
- A maintained Google Business Profile pointing at the site - for emergency searches the map pack is half the battle
The owned-asset stack
The build is our standard trade discipline at fixed prices - £595 one-off, managed from £795 - with the drainage structure above. If after-hours calls matter (they do, in drainage), the triage tier sorts the 2am genuine emergency from the Saturday survey request.
One more owned channel worth knowing about: Planning Leads. Extensions and new builds routinely involve drainage alterations and connections, and every one sits in a public planning portal before any contractor is chosen. The weekly digest with letter templates puts you in front of that work first.
Three ways to get your site built.
Fixed prices, agreed in writing before any work starts. No VAT added.
One-off build
We build it, you own it. No monthly fee, no strings. Hosting set up in your name.
Get a quote →Managed
We build it, host it, maintain it and make your edits. You never touch a dashboard.
Get a quote →Managed + triage
Everything in Managed, plus an after-hours triage system that sorts urgent enquiries from ones that can wait.
Get a quote →Full details, add-ons and what's included: the plumbing websites service
The only web designer who also finds you the jobs.
Your site is built by the same person who runs Planning Leads - a weekly email digest of approved planning applications in your area, filtered for plumbing work, with a ready-to-personalise letter template for every lead.
Questions plumbers ask us.
Are Google Ads worth it for a drainage company?+
For a one-van business, usually not - emergency drainage clicks cost £10-15 and the national franchises out-bid and out-answer you. Organic local search plus a maintained Google Business Profile wins the same visitor without the per-click tax.
What should a drainage company website include?+
Separate pages for blocked drains, CCTV surveys and repairs, your equipment, clear coverage areas, honest pricing signals and tap-to-call contact that loads instantly. Emergency-shaped searches need emergency-grade speed.
How do I compete with national drainage franchises?+
Locally and honestly. You can't out-spend them, but their weaknesses are fixed: call centres, subcontractors and opaque pricing. A fast local site with a real person, real equipment and straight pricing wins the customers the franchise experience burns.
How much does a drainage company website cost?+
£595 one-off with full ownership, £795 plus £49 a month managed, or £1,195 plus £49 a month including after-hours enquiry triage - which suits drainage well, given how much of the work arrives outside office hours.
Tell us about your business.
Your trade, your area, the jobs you want more of. You'll have a scope and a fixed price within one working day - no calls unless you want one, no obligation.