A kitchen fitter website is competing in a sector where the manufacturer trade desks (Howdens, Magnet, Wickes, B&Q, Wren) are doing most of the customer acquisition by default, and the fitter takes the work at whatever margin the manufacturer’s trade scheme allows. Independent fitters who build direct organic search presence shift a meaningful share of their work from manufacturer-introduced to customer-direct, which lifts margin per job by 15-35% without any change to the actual labour delivered. The website is the lever.
What is different about kitchen fitter websites
Three things make kitchen-fitter web design distinct from other trades. First, the project gallery is the product — customers buy on visual evidence of completed installations far more than on copy. Second, the fit-only vs supply-and-fit split is operationally important — different price tier (£1,500-£3,500 for fit-only against pre-bought goods, £6,000-£25,000+ for supply-and-fit), different customer mindset, different schema treatment. Third, the manufacturer relationship is structural — fitters typically trade with one or two of the major manufacturers (Howdens, Magnet, Wickes, B&Q, Wren) and the relationship needs to be surfaced honestly without overclaiming "approved" status the manufacturer does not formally award.
What we ship for a kitchen fitter
A bespoke kitchen fitter website with the project gallery as the homepage hero, individual project landing pages for the 12-30 most representative installations, the fit-only and supply-and-fit service entities as separate landings with their respective price-band transparency, the manufacturer-relationship panel rendered accurately (with formal accreditation badges where applicable, with the trade-relationship description where the manufacturer does not run a formal program), the worktop and appliance pricing tiers, the lead-time commitment, the standard contact and service-area block, and the full HomeAndConstructionBusiness + LocalBusiness + Service schema graph.
The fit-only vs supply-and-fit split
Fit-only work — the customer has bought the kitchen (typically from Howdens with their trade discount, or from one of the high-street showrooms) and needs the fitter to install it. The job is labour-only, typically £1,500-£3,500 depending on cabinet count and complexity, completed in 5-10 days. Supply-and-fit work — the customer engages the fitter to source the kitchen as well as install it. The job is project-managed, typically £6,000-£25,000+ depending on cabinetry tier and worktop choice, completed over 3-6 weeks from order to handover. Templates that conflate the two lose both audiences; the site we ship treats them as structurally separate workflows with separate enquiry forms.
The project gallery as the conversion path
A kitchen install is a 1-6 week commitment in the customer’s home costing £6,000-£25,000+ for supply-and-fit work. The customer reads the website carefully and looks for visual evidence that the fitter has delivered comparable work. A project gallery with 12-30 named real installations (location, manufacturer brand, worktop, date) converts at materially higher rates than the same fitter with a generic three-image grid. Each project gets its own URL so the page ranks for the specific manufacturer-plus-location query the customer often searches ("Howdens kitchen fitter [city]" — and the city-specific Howdens project page is the landing that answers).
The manufacturer-relationship honesty
Several manufacturers do not run formal "Approved Installer" programs even though the marketing copy of some fitter websites implies they do. Howdens specifically: the trade relationship lets the fitter buy kitchens at trade prices, but Howdens does not formally accredit individual fitters. Magnet runs a "Independent Specialist" program that is closer to a formal accreditation. Wren and Wickes vary. We render the relationship correctly on the site — the formal-accreditation badge where it exists, the trade-relationship description where the manufacturer does not run a formal program. Overclaiming this relationship is a meaningful customer-trust failure when the customer checks with the manufacturer and finds the claim does not match.
What we deliberately do not build
No bespoke project-management software — Buildertrend, CoConstruct, ServiceM8 and Tradify all handle kitchen-project workflow better than anything we would build. No "AI kitchen design" tool — the manufacturers (Howdens, Magnet, Wren) have their own showroom design software and there is no compelling reason to replicate it on a fitter’s marketing site. No 3D walkthrough plugin — load weight is severe and conversion impact is negligible compared to a strong project gallery.
Pricing for a kitchen fitter website
Most independent single-fitter operations land on Launch (£499) — the gallery-led architecture with the service-line split, manufacturer relationship panel, worktop pricing tiers and schema. Multi-fitter teams with two-plus installers move to Growth (£899) for the multi-installer architecture with individual fitter profiles. Pro (£1,499) is for premium bespoke-kitchen specialists working at the £30,000+ project tier where the content depth (kitchen-designer profiles, supplier ecosystem detail, after-sales support narrative) justifies the deeper architecture.