A new website and Microsoft 365 for a London building firm

A fresh start

Parakeet Building is a London firm covering roofing, building work and property maintenance. Unlike many of our projects, there was no old website to replace. This was a greenfield project: a chance to set up the business’s online presence properly from day one.

That meant two things: a website that brings in work, and the everyday tools a growing business needs, starting with professional email.

A website built to make the phone ring

For a building firm, most customers want to talk to someone. They have a leaking roof or a job in mind, and they want to know who can help and when. So the site was designed call-first:

• A phone number that’s always in reach, at the top of every page and tappable on mobile
• Clear pages for each service (roofing, building and maintenance) so customers can quickly check the firm does what they need
• A project gallery showing real work, which builds the trust people need before inviting a builder into their home
• Google Business Profile set-up, so the business appears in local map results when people nearby search for its services

The site is fast, simple and works well on mobile, where most people search for a local tradesperson.

A content management system made for the business

Behind the site is a custom content management system built on Sanity. The team can add new projects to the gallery, update services and change contact details themselves, without a developer and without worrying about breaking the design.

Because it’s built around Parakeet’s own content rather than a generic template, the editing screens only show what’s relevant: a project has photos, a description and a location, and nothing else to get in the way.

Microsoft 365 from day one

A new business is the best time to set up email and apps properly, before habits and workarounds set in. We set Parakeet up with Microsoft 365, choosing licences to match how the team works:

• Business email on their own domain, so every message carries the Parakeet name rather than a free email address
• Microsoft 365 Apps for business, giving the team the desktop versions of Word, Excel and Outlook, plus OneDrive for storing and sharing files

Everything sits in one account that the business owns and controls, with room to add people and upgrade plans as the firm grows. Our guide to choosing the right Microsoft 365 plan explains how we approach these choices.

The result

Parakeet Building started with a complete, professional online set-up: a website designed to bring in calls, a content management system the team can run themselves, and email and apps that will scale with the business.

Starting a new business or launching a new brand? Our website design and development service and Microsoft 365 licensing service can get you set up properly from the start.