Straightforward answers about how I work, what projects typically cost, how long things take, and what to expect from working with MARS. If what you need is not here, the contact page is the fastest route to an honest answer.
The Short Answer
The last site I built for a local business got them 48% more clicks within three months. The one before that tripled their Google visibility. Here's what that kind of website actually costs, and what a cheap one costs you.
A professional website in the UK costs between £1,500 and £15,000. Where you land in that range depends on three things: how many pages you need, what the site has to do, and who builds it.
Here's how I price projects at MARS:
| Project type | Price range |
|---|---|
| Single page | £1,500 to £2,000 |
| Small site, 5 to 8 pages | £3,000 to £4,000 |
| Larger site, 8 to 15 pages | £5,000 to £11,000 |
| Ecommerce or complex builds | £8,000 to £15,000 |
Ranges overlap because complexity varies. A simple ecommerce shop can be more straightforward to build than a large brochure site with custom functionality.
These are build prices. Hosting, maintenance, and ongoing marketing are separate.
A brochure site with a contact form is straightforward. A site that takes bookings, processes payments, integrates with a CRM, or operates in two languages takes significantly more time.
If you arrive with everything written, photographed, and organised, the build moves faster. If content needs creating from scratch, that's extra work, and it matters more than most people think. A well-written, well-structured site outperforms a visually polished one with weak copy every time.
Template-based builds can look sharp and work well. Custom design built around your brand takes longer and costs more, but it gives you something no one else has.
You can get a website for £500. Fiverr, a DIY builder, a junior freelancer. These are real options and they suit certain situations.
What they don't give you is strategy. A cheap site might look fine. It probably won't be built around how people search for you, what they need to see before they trust you, or what action you want them to take. It won't be set up for Google properly, or load fast enough to keep people on the page.
The cost of a website is rarely the website. It's what happens, or doesn't happen, because of it.
SJ Feist runs a plumbing and heating business in Hastings, just along the coast from my base in Eastbourne. Their old site wasn't quite pulling its weight as a lead generating tool. After a rebuild and some Google work, he saw 48% more clicks and three times the visibility on search.
Golden State Box Factory in San Diego came to me with a site that wasn't generating interest from prospective clients. After a full rebuild and search strategy, they had 83% more clicks and 170% more impressions. That's a US client finding a solo operator in East Sussex because the work speaks for itself.
IMP Sports Therapy, in Hailsham, needed more people booking appointments. The new site delivered 60% more form submissions 3 months post launch.
None of these were the most expensive projects I've ever done. They were well-briefed, well-built, and set up to be found. You can read more about how I work on the about page.
Before you sign anything, ask the person building your site:
That last one matters most. If there's no plan to measure performance, there's no way to know whether the investment was worth it. A website audit is often the fastest way to find out what's working and what isn't, whether you're building new or improving what you have.
Start with a free SEO audit. I'll look at how your current site performs on search, what's holding it back, and what the opportunity looks like.
A small site typically takes four to six weeks from brief to launch. Larger or more complex builds run eight to twelve weeks. The single biggest factor is how quickly content and feedback come in.
Sometimes a full rebuild is the right call. Sometimes targeted improvements to an existing site deliver most of the uplift at a fraction of the cost. A website audit is usually the fastest way to find out which situation you're in.
Hosting, security, plugin updates, and performance monitoring are ongoing. MARS offers monthly maintenance plans from £500 per month, which covers all of the above plus priority support.
Every site I build is set up for search from day one. That means proper technical foundations, page structure, metadata, and speed. Ranking for competitive terms takes longer and usually involves ongoing SEO work, but the build gives you the right starting point.
Yes. MARS is based in Eastbourne, East Sussex, but current clients also include businesses in California and France. Most of the work happens remotely, and the results travel.
MARS is a digital marketing consultancy based in Eastbourne, East Sussex. I work with a small number of clients at a time, which means every project gets my full attention. If you're thinking about a new website or want to know what your current one is missing, the free SEO audit is the place to start.
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