Websites for kitchen and bathroom renovators

A kitchen or bathroom renovation is one of the biggest things most households spend on, and it comes with weeks of noise and no working sink. People read a renovator's site slowly, and they read it for reassurance. They want finished rooms that look like their own, and they want to know who will be in the house each morning and what happens when something turns up behind a wall.

Most renovators coordinate plumbers, electricians, tilers and cabinet makers, so the site should explain who does what and who the customer deals with. Before and after photos matter more here than anywhere, and they need to come from your own jobs. Give kitchens and bathrooms their own pages, put your licence number on every one, and say plainly how variations and payments are handled.

What the site carries

• Before and after photos from your own jobs, with the room type and the size of the space noted.
• Kitchens and bathrooms on separate pages, since the questions and the trades are different.
• The licence number beside the business name on every page.
• A plain account of who is on site each day and who the customer rings with a question.
• What you do about surprises behind walls and under floors, and how a change to the price is agreed in writing.
• How living in the house during the job works, including the days with no water or no kitchen.
• Which trades are your own staff and which are regular subcontractors you manage.
• How payments are staged, in a short paragraph and without the small print hidden.
• A way to send photos and a rough layout, so the first conversation is about the actual room.
• A gallery that shows small, awkward rooms as well as the big open ones.
• What the customer is left with at handover, such as care instructions and warranty details.

The work your customers look for

• bathroom renovations
• kitchen renovations
• ensuite renovations
• bath to shower conversions
• walk-in showers
• laundry renovations
• powder rooms
• accessible bathrooms
• kitchen and living area rebuilds
• second bathrooms
• wet rooms

What they type

• "bathroom renovations"
• "kitchen renovation"
• "bathroom renovators near me"
• "ensuite renovation"
• "bath to shower conversion"
• "kitchen renovation cost"
• "kitchen and bathroom renovators"
• "small bathroom renovation"

The licence or registration number belongs in your advertising in most states, so put it beside the business name on every page.

A from price for a bathroom has to include the compulsory charges, and the ACCC single price rule puts the total at least as prominent as any part price.

Before and after photos must be of jobs you did, because Australian Consumer Law treats a borrowed photo as misleading.

Reviews on the site should be real customers' own words, and the set you show shouldn't paint a picture the full set doesn't support.

How the rules differ across Australia for kitchen and bathroom renovators

New South Wales	In New South Wales, Building Commission NSW looks after building licences, and advertising for licensed residential work carries the licensee's name, the licence number with its category of work, and a phone number, and the rule reaches the internet.
Victoria	In Victoria, the Building and Plumbing Commission looks after building licences, and domestic building advertising carries the practitioner's name and registration number, print and online, social media included.
Queensland	In Queensland, the QBCC looks after building licences, and websites head its list of advertising that carries the licensee's name and number, and the name has to match the licence, so a trading name alone can fall short.
Western Australia	In Western Australia, Building and Energy looks after building licences, and the Building Services (Registration) Act asks for the registration number in any advertising.
South Australia	In South Australia, Consumer and Business Services looks after building licences, and building work advertising carries the name and the licence number.
Tasmania	In Tasmania, building licences sit with CBOS. Your number goes on every page whatever the rule says.
ACT	In the ACT, building licences sit with Access Canberra. Your number goes on every page whatever the rule says.
Northern Territory	In the Northern Territory, building licences sit with the Building Practitioners Board. Your number goes on every page whatever the rule says.

Rules change. Have your licence and wording checked against your regulator before the site goes live.

• After photos with no before, so a buyer can't see what you actually changed.
• Showroom-style pictures of rooms that are clearly not yours.
• Kitchens and bathrooms squashed into one gallery with no way to filter.
• A quote form that asks for a budget but says nothing about how the price is set.
• No word on the mess and the disruption, which is the first thing a household worries about.
• A licence number that appears on the home page and nowhere else.