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Nothing to pay up front. 12 month minimum, then it rolls monthly at the same price. After that the site is yours to keep, moved into your own Webflow account for a one off £250.
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Official Website vs Directory Listings: Which Wins?
Should a Suffolk trade pay for Checkatrade, Yell or its own website? Published prices over three years, what Google changed in 2026 and how to split spend.
SEO
May 12, 2026
For most established trades, your own website wins over three years, because a directory profile is rented and stops the day you stop paying. A directory still earns its fee early on, so the usual answer is both, with the money shifting to the site over a year.
Search your own trade and town on your phone, and there's often your Checkatrade or Yell profile, sitting right above your own business website. A directory rep will say the leads are instant, and an agency will say directories are dead. FutureProofs sells website plans, so weigh what follows with that in mind.
Key takeaways
Google's March and May 2026 core updates both shifted visibility from directories toward official and specialist sites.
Checkatrade's Approved tier is £30 a month on a 12 month term, without Growth's enquiry plans.
Lead sites such as Bark can sell one enquiry to several trades, which multiplies your cost per won job.
A FutureProofs plan is from £189 a month with hosting, SEO and content edits included.
Why does a directory outrank my own website?
It's usually because the directory has a page about the exact search and you don't. Checkatrade has a page about electricians in Stowmarket, while your Services page mentions Stowmarket in passing.
The balance also moved twice in 2026. The March core update ran from 27 March to 8 April, and analyses found directories lost visibility while official and specialist sites gained it. The May update, from 21 May to 2 June, went the same way. A reshuffle trackers logged on 11 May was never confirmed by Google, so treat it as a data point. We've covered what those core updates did and how to read a ranking drop. We've also looked at how far Google's new source controls actually apply to a business that is not a publisher.
What does each one actually buy you?
A directory buys speed, borrowed trust and a citation. A new site takes months to earn rankings, while a listing can bring enquiries in days. A homeowner in Bury St Edmunds who has never heard of you sees a badge and forty reviews. That trust is real but rented.
Your own site buys ownership, the whole margin and pages for the jobs you choose. Cancelling a directory usually leaves your reviews behind, while reviews on your Google Business Profile stay yours. A shared lead is an auction, so if you win one in four, a won job costs four lead fees. And if your best margin is underfloor heating in the villages between Bury and Thetford, you can build a page that names them all.
What do directories and a website plan cost over three years?
These are the prices each firm published when we checked on 24 October 2026, multiplied over 36 months.
A Webflow site, the pages, the rankings and your reviews. Leave after the 12 month term and the exit fee is £250
Read honestly, the website isn't the cheap option against an entry listing. Directory spend is rent, which buys visibility only while the standing order runs. A website plan is closer to fitting out a unit you occupy, since by year three your pages bring enquiries with no lead fee. The plan puts hosting, SSL, content edits and monthly SEO into one number, as the website plans page shows.
When is a website the wrong answer?
If you started last month, buy leads while the foundations get built. If your trade lives on the platform, as emergency work and boiler cover often do, keep the profile. A directory is also a tap to turn on for a quiet January or a two month test in Ely.
Whichever you keep, put a separate tracking number on the profile and record jobs won, not enquiries. Review it every quarter, because most subscriptions survive for years on a feeling.
How should you split the budget between them?
Run both and shift the weight over about a year. In months one to three, keep the directory, add tracking, start the site and complete your Google Business Profile. Then publish a written page for each service and town you serve. A new site usually takes three to six months to gain traction locally, and smaller towns like Diss move faster than SEO in Cambridge.
Do I need a website if I have a Checkatrade profile?
Yes, because the profile isn't yours. Your position ends when the subscription does, and you can't rank it for the specific jobs and villages you want.
Is Yell worth it for a small business in Suffolk?
It's rarely worth it for the listing alone, and Yell says its solutions are from £249 a month. Judge any spend on tracked jobs won, since a free listing covers the citation.
Should I cancel my directory listing when the new site launches?
Not straight away, since the site needs three to six months. Run both with separate tracking numbers, then drop to the cheapest tier rather than deleting the profile.
Do paid directory listings help my SEO?
They help only mildly, and through consistency rather than payment. A premium tier buys placement inside the directory. It doesn't buy authority on Google.
Which one gets next month's money?
If you're new and hungry, the directory gets it. If you've traded for five years and still rent your visibility, the answer changed a while ago. A cheap site nobody maintains is worse than a directory, so the real choice is a working site against a directory. Work out what your directory spend produced last quarter, then compare the three website plans and what each includes before renewal.
Written by the FutureProofs team in Suffolk and updated on 24 October 2026.
