DIY Marketing vs Agency
If your Google listing is half-empty, your website is from 2014, and you're losing jobs to people with worse work and fewer reviews, keep reading.
7 paying UK clients · all in the trades · all on monthly plans
What's Actually Going On
DIY vs Agency is one of the questions we get asked most often by trades and small business owners. Rather than write a generic answer, here is the specific version of DIY Marketing vs Agency we run for our paying clients. The honest truth: most local businesses lose more work to bad Google visibility than to bad service. Your skill is fine. Your work is fine. Your prices are fine. Your problem is that Google can't find you.
Every page on the SwiftLead site that mentions DIY vs Agency is grounded in the work we are already doing for paying clients. The DIY vs Agency bit is included in the £199/month management fee and we do it weekly without you having to ask.
What We Do About It
The version of DIY vs Agency that we run is opinionated. DIY Marketing vs Agency is not a long list of features. It is doing the same five things every week and reporting on what changed. It is an everything-in package, not an a-la-carte menu. Website, Google profile, reviews, SEO, missed-call recovery, all bundled. Removing things does not make it cheaper because the system only works as a system.
Real Clients, Not Stock Photos
DIY vs Agency is one of the questions we get asked most often by trades and small business owners. Rather than write a generic answer, here is the specific version of DIY Marketing vs Agency we run for our paying clients. The honest version: we have seven paying clients. That is why we can give every one of them a phone number and answer it. When we have seventy, we will still give you a phone number, but a different one.
Next Step: A Free Audit
If you want to know whether any of this would actually work for your business, the fastest answer is a free audit. We pull your Google listing, look at your site, check who's ranking above you locally, and tell you what we'd fix. No sales pitch attached. No commitment.
The Three Things That Move the Needle
Local SEO and Google Business Profile
The SEO work includes weekly Google Business Profile posts, a monthly fresh photo upload, citation consistency checks across the 30 directories Google watches, on-page optimisation tweaks based on what is ranking, and weekly position tracking. No copy-paste reports.
Missed-Call Text-Back
Every missed call gets an automatic text within seconds. The script is plain and human (we wrote it ourselves, it does not say 'this is an automated message'). Most callers reply within minutes and book a callback.
Review Automation
The reviews bit is fully automated: a text goes out after each job with a direct link to your Google review page. Customers tap once and they are typing the review. About one in three actually leaves one, which is roughly five times the industry average.
What It Costs
Right then, the money. £199 setup (covers your website, yours to keep), £199 a month for management. Less than £6.70 a day. One job from Google pays for the month. Three months, then you decide.
Setup
£199
One-off. Covers your website. Yours to keep forever.
Monthly
£199/mo
Less than £6.70 a day. One job from Google pays for the month.
What's included every month
- Website (included in setup fee)
- SEO management
- AEO management
- Google Business Profile management
- Website updates included
- Monthly performance report
- 4 blog posts per month
- Missed call text back
- Quote follow-up automation
- Review automation
Frequently Asked
What does it actually cost?
Standard price is £199 once and £199 every month after. The website is included in the setup fee and you own it forever. Three months minimum, then rolling.
What do you actually do every month?
Specifically: build and host your website, run your Google Business Profile weekly, set up review automation, set up missed-call text-back, write four blog posts a month, send a monthly report. That is the full list.
Do I need to do anything technical?
No tech skills needed. We built this for trades and small business owners who do not want to mess with WordPress or Wix or Google Search Console. We do all of that. You run your business.
What if I already have a website?
No problem. We can keep your existing site and improve it, or rebuild it from scratch, your call. Your domain stays the same. Your old URLs keep working. Nothing breaks for your existing customers.
How long until I see results?
We cannot promise specific numbers because nobody honest can. What we can promise is that the work gets done every week, you get a real monthly report, and most clients see their first new enquiry from Google within four to six weeks.
Can I cancel?
Three months in, then cancel any time. The website is yours forever. We hand over the domain and the codebase if you want them, or we leave the site running and just stop the management work.
Get a Free Audit
Send us your business name and town. We'll send back a real audit of your Google listing, your website, and your top three local competitors. Same day, no sales call.