Sandbanks DigitalThe carpenter and joiner website checklist
Carpentry sells on evidence. Nobody commissions a fitted wardrobe or a staircase from a website that cannot show them one. Work through this list against your own site: every gap is a job somebody gave to a joiner whose photographs were better than yours.
By Elliot · Last updated 22 August 2026 · 7 min read
Show the work, properly
This is the whole ballgame, and it is where most joinery sites fall down. A visitor is buying something they cannot picture yet, so the portfolio is not decoration. It is the product.
- ✓A real gallery, not four thumbnails at the bottom of the homepage
- ✓Photographs of your own finished jobs, never a stock kitchen
- ✓Wide shots that show the room, plus close-ups of joints, grain and hardware
- ✓Before-and-after pairs on renovation and fitted work
- ✓A short line of context under each project: what it was, what timber, roughly what it cost
- ✓Images sized and compressed properly, so a gallery-heavy page still loads fast
- ✓Work grouped by job type, so someone after a staircase is not scrolling past decking
A page per job you actually want
Most carpentry sites list twelve services on one page and rank for none of them. The high-value commissions each have their own search demand and deserve their own page.
- ✓Fitted wardrobes and built-in storage
- ✓Bespoke kitchens and cabinetry
- ✓Staircases: new builds, renovations and balustrades
- ✓Garden rooms, home offices and outbuildings
- ✓Decking, pergolas and outdoor structures
- ✓Second fix: doors, skirting, architrave and window boards
- ✓First fix and structural carpentry, including loft conversions
- ✓Sash window and period joinery repair, if you take it on
Proof you can be trusted in someone's home
Carpentry is weeks of someone living around your work, not a two-hour call-out. The trust bar is higher, and the site has to clear it before the phone rings.
- ✓Trade membership shown up front: Guild of Master Craftsmen, the Institute of Carpenters, BWF or TrustMark
- ✓Public liability insurance stated, with the cover level
- ✓CSCS card status where you work on commercial or new-build sites
- ✓Recent Google reviews pulled onto the page, not hidden behind a link
- ✓Named, human about section with a photograph of you, not a silhouette
- ✓How long you have been trading, and where you are based
- ✓Written guarantee on workmanship, and what it actually covers
Turning an admirer into an enquiry
A bespoke job is a considered purchase. Nobody rings on impulse, so the site's job is to make the slow decision easy rather than to force a fast one.
- ✓An enquiry form that lets people attach their own photographs or sketches
- ✓Realistic indicative pricing, or at least a from-figure per job type, so enquiries self-qualify
- ✓Your current lead time stated honestly, because it is the second question everyone asks
- ✓A plain description of how a commission runs: consultation, drawings, deposit, fit
- ✓Email and WhatsApp as well as a phone number, since most of this trade is arranged in writing
- ✓A single clear action per page, and the same one on mobile
Being found in the first place
The groundwork that puts you in the map pack and in front of local searches.
- ✓A page for each town you genuinely cover, written differently rather than find-and-replaced
- ✓Google Business Profile claimed, categorised as a carpenter or joiner, and populated with job photos
- ✓LocalBusiness schema in the markup, with your service area
- ✓Identical business name, address and phone everywhere you appear online
- ✓Titles and headings naming the job and the place, not just the word carpentry
- ✓Photographs uploaded to the profile regularly, because it is an activity signal as well as proof
Common questions
How many photographs does a joinery website actually need?
Enough to cover every job type you want to be commissioned for, with at least three or four images each. One superb project shot beats twenty phone snaps taken in bad light, but a gallery with no fitted wardrobes in it will not win you fitted-wardrobe work no matter how good the rest is. If you only do one thing after reading this, spend an afternoon photographing your last five finished jobs properly.
Should I put prices on a bespoke carpentry site?
Put ranges on, not quotes. Bespoke work genuinely varies, but a site with no numbers at all attracts a lot of enquiries from people whose budget was never close, and you spend your evenings quoting them. A from-figure per job type filters those out before they reach you and costs you almost nothing in genuine leads.
Is a carpenter's website really different from an electrician's?
Yes, and building one like the other is the common mistake. Electrical work is often urgent, so that site is built around tap-to-call. Carpentry is a considered, visual purchase made over weeks, so yours is built around the portfolio and the enquiry form. Same trade sector, opposite conversion mechanics.
Will you audit my current site against this list?
Yes. Send us the URL and we will go through it honestly, tell you which boxes you tick, and say plainly whether the gaps are worth fixing on what you have or whether you would get more back from rebuilding. If the answer is that your site is fine and you just need better photographs, we will tell you that too.