Conveyancing Website Design for UK Firms
What I build when a conveyancing firm or licensed conveyancer asks me for a new website, including fee pages and quote calculators that follow the SRA and CLC rules. It also compares working with a specialised studio with building the site yourself or hiring a larger agency.
Key points on conveyancing website design
- Residential conveyancing is one of the services where the SRA Transparency Rules require a firm to publish its prices and what they cover in a prominent place on its website.
- The SRA and the CLC both say an online quote calculator must show a figure without asking for contact details first.
- The SRA's guidance asks firms to include disbursements in the total they quote, apart from Stamp Duty Land Tax or Land Transaction Tax.
- Licensed conveyancers follow the CLC's Informed Choice rules, which ask for cost, service, regulatory and complaints information on the practice website.
- Conveyancing fees change, so your team should be able to update the fees page without waiting for a developer.
- At Proxima I plan, design and build every conveyancing website myself, and the finished site belongs to your firm.
Conveyancing website design starts with the fees page. People buying or selling a home can compare conveyancing fees online before they speak to anyone, because residential conveyancing is one of the services where the SRA requires a firm to publish its prices, what they include and who will do the work.
I'm Neda Yavari, and I run Proxima, an independent web design studio in East London. I design and build websites for solicitors and law firms across the UK, and conveyancing is a practice area where the website does a lot of the selling. It carries your fees, your quote, the people who will handle the file and your regulatory information, so a client has usually formed a view of your firm before they call. Below I've set out what I build for conveyancing firms and licensed conveyancers, and how working with a specialised studio compares with building the site yourself or hiring a larger agency.
What conveyancing website design with Proxima includes
Every conveyancing website I build is designed for your firm, so its structure follows the work you do and the way your clients look for it. These are the parts that matter most on a conveyancing site.
- A conveyancing fees page. Your prices for each type of transaction, with what each price includes and what it leaves out, set out the way the SRA's guidance describes. It is linked from the main menu and from every conveyancing page, so nobody has to look for it.
- A quote calculator, if you want one. A client enters the price and type of property and sees a figure straight away, worked out from your own fee scale.
- A page for each type of work. Sales, purchases, remortgages, leasehold, new builds, shared ownership and transfers of equity can each have a page, so a client who searches for that work lands on the page that answers their question.
- Profiles for the people who handle the file. The transparency rules ask you to publish the experience and qualifications of the people doing the work and their supervisors, and clients like to see who will be handling their matter.
- An enquiry form built for property matters. It asks for the details your team needs to send a tailored quote, and your phone number stays easy to find on a phone.
- Your regulatory information. Your SRA number and digital badge, your complaints procedure, and for licensed conveyancers the information the CLC asks for, placed where the rules expect it.
- A page for each office. Each one has its address and the towns it serves, and it links to the office's Google Business Profile.
The site is built on a visual editor, so your team can change a fee, add a conveyancer or update a leasehold supplement without a developer, and you get a walkthrough of the new site at launch. My guide to website design for solicitors covers the rest of a law firm website, and if you'd like to see how other firms set out their pages, I've picked out UK law firm websites worth learning from.
Conveyancing fees pages that meet the SRA Transparency Rules
The SRA Transparency Rules cover residential conveyancing, which the rules describe as freehold or leasehold sales or purchases, and mortgages or remortgages. For those services, a firm must publish cost information that is "clear and accessible and in a prominent place" on its website. The SRA's price transparency guidance adds detail on how to set it out. When I build your fees page, each requirement has its own place on it.
| What the SRA asks for | Where it goes on your website |
|---|---|
| The total cost, or an average cost or range of costs where a total isn't practical | Prices for each type of transaction and property value, in a table that is easy to read on a phone |
| The basis for your charges, such as fixed fees or hourly rates | A short line under each price saying how it is worked out |
| Disbursements, such as HM Land Registry fees | Included in the total, as the SRA's guidance asks, with Stamp Duty Land Tax or Land Transaction Tax explained separately |
| Whether VAT applies to fees and disbursements, and how much | VAT shown against each fee and disbursement |
| What the price includes, with the key stages of the matter | The stages of a sale or purchase, and what your team does at each one |
| The likely timescales for each stage | Timescales your team can update from the editor |
| Services a client might expect that the price doesn't include | A list of the extras, such as a leasehold supplement |
| The experience and qualifications of the people doing the work and their supervisors | A profile for each conveyancer, linked from the fees page |
The rules also ask for your complaints procedure, including how and when a client can complain to the Legal Ombudsman and to the SRA, and for your SRA number and the SRA's digital badge in a prominent place. I put the badge in the footer of every page and link the complaints page from the footer as well.
Leasehold purchases need their own care. The SRA's guidance expects a firm to explain costs set by the management company, such as the fee for a deed of covenant, and to tell buyers that ground rent and service charges are likely to apply for as long as they own the property. I give leasehold its own section on the fees page, so someone buying a flat sees the costs that apply to them.
You and your compliance officer check every regulatory page before the site goes live. I build the pages to the rules, and the figures and statements on them stay your firm's to confirm.
A conveyancing quote calculator that follows the rules
An instant conveyancing quote is useful to clients, and it is also where the regulators' guidance is most specific. The SRA's guidance says an online quote generator "must produce a quote without requiring any additional contact at that stage". The CLC's Informed Choice FAQ says the same for licensed conveyancers, that the calculator "must be capable of producing a quote without the need for the consumer to provide any contact details".
Many websites ask for an email address before they show a price, because it collects leads. On a conveyancing website, that goes against what both regulators have said.
The calculators I build show the figure first, worked out from your fee scale, with the disbursements and VAT listed underneath. The client can then ask for a tailored quote, and that form is where you ask for their name and contact details. The CLC's FAQ accepts a two-stage approach like this as long as the website has already given an indication of your costs. A calculator is quoted as part of your proposal, because the work depends on how your fee scale is structured. A clear fee table meets the rules too, if you'd prefer to start with one.
Licensed conveyancer websites and the CLC's Informed Choice rules
Licensed conveyancers are regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, and its Informed Choice rules have required price and service information on practice websites since December 2018. The CLC groups what a practice must publish into cost information, service information, regulatory information and complaints information. Its FAQ asks for that information to be "accessible, clearly signposted and easy for visitors to find", and says a practice can show fixed fee examples for different property values if it doesn't want a calculator.
I build licensed conveyancer websites in the same way as a solicitors' firm's site. The fees page, the quote calculator and the service pages work the same way, and the regulatory pages are set out for the CLC.
Pages that help conveyancing clients find you on Google
Many clients search for the work and the place together, such as "conveyancing solicitors Chelmsford" or "remortgage solicitor near me", and Google shows them firms with a page for that work in that area. That is why your site has a page for each type of conveyancing you do and for each office you work from, each one written around the questions a buyer, seller or remortgaging client asks before they instruct anyone.
A firm with a high street office also appears in Google's map results through its Google Business Profile, so the profile and the office page on your website need to agree with each other. Setting the profile up properly can be part of your proposal, along with monthly SEO if you want it. My guide to law firm SEO explains that work, and my guide to law firm marketing covers the other places new instructions come from.
Reviews help here too. The SRA's guidance notes that an online review service "can showcase the quality of your work", and your reviews can sit on the fees and quote pages, where clients are making up their minds. If your firm holds the Law Society's Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation, its mark belongs on those pages as well. The wording around it needs care, because in 2017 the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that a Law Society advert had exaggerated what CQS accreditation involves, and the Law Society told members to change any marketing that repeated the claim. I describe the scheme as what it is, the Law Society's accreditation for residential conveyancing, and leave out claims about the checks behind it.
Building a conveyancing website yourself, using an agency, or working with a specialised studio
A conveyancing firm usually gets a new website in one of three ways, and they compare quite differently once the regulatory pages come into it.
Building it yourself on a website builder
A website builder gives you a template and a monthly subscription, and someone at the firm does everything else. In a conveyancing practice that person is usually a partner or the practice manager, fitting the work around files with completion dates. The template knows nothing about the Transparency Rules, so working out what the fees page has to say and where the badge and complaints information go falls to you. So does checking that a quote plugin doesn't ask for an email address before it shows a price. A site made on a builder usually can't be moved to another host later, which means a future rebuild starts again. I've compared the main builders in Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress if you want to look at that route in more detail.
Hiring a larger agency
A larger agency has more people, and on a website project that often means an account manager sits between you and the designer, passing your brief along at each stage. Some agencies specialise in law firms. Many build sites for every kind of business.
Working with me at Proxima
- You work with me throughout. I plan, design, write and build every conveyancing website myself, so the person you brief on the first call is the person who builds your fees page and answers your emails after launch.
- I know the rules before we start. I work to the SRA Transparency Rules and the CLC's Informed Choice rules on every conveyancing site, so our first call can be about your firm and your clients.
- You get a fixed price in writing. Before any work starts you receive a written proposal with the scope, the timeline, what you own at the end and a fixed price, and nothing is added later without your agreement.
- The website is yours. The site, the domain and the content belong to your firm, and you can take full ownership whenever you choose, with no requirement to keep working with me.
- You can follow every stage. Your own client portal shows each stage of the project, lets you comment on the designs at phone, tablet and desktop sizes, and records your approval as we go.
- I reply within 24 hours. You can call or email me whenever you need to, during the project and after launch.
- You get honest advice. If your current site only needs a better fees page, I'll tell you that on the call. I won't promise first page rankings either, because nobody can honestly promise them.
How a conveyancing website project runs with me
It starts with a free discovery call by video. Before we speak, I look at your current website and how your firm appears on Google, so the call can go straight to your fees, your offices and the work you want more of. After the call you receive the written proposal.
Once you're happy with the proposal, we plan the pages and the fee structure together, and I design and build the site while you review each stage in the portal. The fees page, the complaints page and the other regulatory pages go to you and your compliance officer before launch. If you already have a website, every page that ranks on Google keeps its address or is redirected to its new page, so the rankings your firm has built up come across to the new site. I've written about this in my guide to website redesign and SEO.
After launch you get a walkthrough of the editor, so your team can change fees and timescales themselves. Monthly SEO and care plans are available if you want them, and they're optional.
Conveyancing website questions
How much does a conveyancing website cost?
Every conveyancing website is quoted on enquiry, because the price depends on how many types of work and offices the site covers, whether you want a quote calculator and whether I write the copy. After the discovery call you get a written proposal with a fixed price. My guide to what a website costs in the UK sets out the yearly running costs that sit on top of any build.
Can you add an instant conveyancing quote calculator to our website?
Yes. I build calculators that work from your own fee scale and show the figure before they ask for any contact details, which is what the SRA's and the CLC's guidance expects. The client can then ask for a tailored quote through a form.
Do you build websites for licensed conveyancers?
Yes. Licensed conveyancers are regulated by the CLC, so the regulatory pages follow its Informed Choice rules. The fees page, the quote calculator and the service pages are built the same way as they are for a solicitors' firm.
Can our team change our fees on the website?
Yes. The site is built on a visual editor, so your team can change a fee, a timescale or a conveyancer's profile without a developer, and you get a walkthrough at launch. A monthly care plan can cover small updates if you would prefer not to make them yourselves.
Will we lose our Google rankings if you rebuild our website?
You shouldn't. Before the new site launches, I list the pages that bring in visitors now, and each one keeps its address or is redirected to its new page. Rankings can move for a short time while Google reads the new site, and nobody can guarantee a position on Google before a rebuild or after one.
Do you write the conveyancing pages as well?
Yes, if you'd like me to. Copywriting can be part of your proposal, for the fees page, each service page and the profiles. You and your compliance officer check every page before it goes live.
Do you work with conveyancing firms outside London?
Yes. I'm based in East London and run every project by video, phone and email, so it makes no difference where your firm is. I design law firm websites in London, solicitor websites in Essex and law firm websites in Kent, and I work with firms anywhere else in the UK.
Getting a quote for your conveyancing website
If your fees page is hard to find, or your quote asks for an email address before it shows a price, I can put both right as part of a new conveyancing website. You can book a free discovery call or send me a message through the contact form. I'll look at your current site and how your firm shows up on Google before we speak, and after the call you'll get a written proposal with a fixed price.
