The person behind Sites Made Local
I'm Rob, the person behind Sites Made Local.
I run an IT support business helping consumers and small businesses with the technology they rely on every day. But building websites is something I first became interested in much earlier, and it's the reason Sites Made Local exists.
Get a website quoteHow it started
A work experience placement that stuck
My school work experience was with a marketing company that designed and built websites. I loved seeing an idea turn into something real, working out how a page should look, what it should say and how everything fitted together.
After that, I did not return to web design properly for several years. While working for another company, I started making small changes to its website. At first it was simple updates, but the work gradually grew. The more involved I became, the more I realised how much I enjoyed improving websites and making them genuinely useful.
The short version
How it actually happened
School work experience
A placement with a marketing company that designed and built websites, and the first time I got properly interested in how a page comes together.
Small website updates
While working for another company, I started making small changes to its website. The work grew, and I rediscovered how much I enjoyed improving websites.
Clocksy
Built a real time tracking and invoicing platform from scratch, and that project properly reignited my interest in building websites and online tools.
Drayton Beaumont
Their previous web designer disappeared and took the website with them. I had it back online within a day, then rebuilt it properly.
Sites Made Local
Founded to combine that IT support experience with practical web design, building websites for trades and local businesses across the UK.
The project that brought it all back
Building Clocksy
Later, I built Clocksy, a time tracking platform that originally started as a project for my partner. It began as a practical way to solve a real business problem.
As the project developed, I found myself enjoying every part of it: planning how people would use it, structuring the pages, designing the interface and turning an idea into something that worked. That project properly reignited my interest in building websites and online tools.
It also reminded me that the best websites are not created simply to look impressive. They need to solve a problem, make life easier and give people a clear next step.
clocksy.co.uk
Then a business lost its website
Recovering a contractor's website
Not long afterwards, Drayton Beaumont Services contacted me after their previous web designer disappeared. Their website was gone, but fortunately they still controlled their domain.
Within a day, I had a website back online so the business was visible again. From there, we gradually rebuilt and developed it into the website it is today, better organised, more professional and capable of properly presenting a multi-discipline mechanical and electrical contractor.
That experience highlighted a problem I have seen repeatedly since. Too many local businesses are left with:
- Websites they cannot update
- Designers who stop responding
- Domains or accounts they do not control
- Generic templates that do not reflect the business
- Sites that look acceptable but do very little to generate enquiries
Sites Made Local was created to offer a better way.
draytonbeaumontservices.comWhy I started Sites Made Local
Two sides of the same experience
Sites Made Local combines the two sides of my experience: technical IT support and practical website design. That means I am not only thinking about colours and layouts. I understand the wider setup behind a business website, including domains, email, hosting, security, contact forms, analytics and how the different parts need to work together.
I build websites for trades and local businesses that need something clear, modern and useful, not an expensive agency process filled with meetings and jargon.
Before I start designing, I want to understand:
- What your business actually does
- Which services matter most
- The customers you want to attract
- The work you would rather do more of
- What is not working with your current website
The website is then planned around those answers.
Not a portfolio of mockups
Real projects, along the way
Every project mentioned on this page is a real, live website you can visit yourself.
You work directly with me
Sites Made Local is founder-led.
There is no salesperson collecting your details before handing the project to someone you never meet. There is no account manager passing messages backwards and forwards. There is no outsourced developer disappearing halfway through the build.
I plan, write, design and build the website myself. The person you speak to at the beginning is still there when the site launches, and still there afterwards, when you need help.
Based in Edinburgh, building across the UK
Local roots, UK-wide reach
I am based in Edinburgh and work with businesses locally and throughout the UK. Some customers want to sit down and talk through the project. Others are happy to handle everything remotely. Either approach works.
The important part is that the finished website feels like it belongs to your business rather than looking like the same template sold to everyone else. I like working with owner-led businesses because decisions are practical, the work is real, and a better website can make an immediate difference.
Websites built to do a job
A business website should make three things easier
Finding you
Your services and locations should be clear enough for customers and search engines to understand.
Trusting you
Real work, useful information, genuine reviews and straightforward copy should help visitors decide whether you are right for them.
Contacting you
Calling, messaging or requesting a quote should be simple, especially on a phone.
Everything else supports those three jobs.
A promise, because of what happened to Drayton Beaumont
Your domain and accounts stay in your name
Your domain, hosting and business accounts remain yours, registered in your name wherever the registrar allows. You will not be locked out of the essentials your business depends on, and you will not be left the way Drayton Beaumont was left, with a website gone and no way back in.
Thinking about a new website?
Tell me about your business, what you currently have and the sort of enquiries you want more of. I will tell you honestly what I think the website needs, what it does not need and what it is likely to cost.
Get a website quote →