Case study · Property surveying
Brecon & Dean Surveyors — a dark, rural, RICS-credible website built to rank across the Welsh Borders
A complete rebrand and 20+ page website for a one-surveyor RICS practice covering the Forest of Dean, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Powys and South West Wales.
- Brand Identity
- Web Design
- Copywriting
- Local SEO
Brecon & Dean Surveyors is an independent, RICS-regulated practice run by one chartered surveyor, James Buckingham MRICS. James deliberately caps his caseload at 12 instructions a month so every client gets the surveyor himself — not a call centre.
His old website didn't reflect that. There was no real brand — just a colour swatch and a few social-media logos — and nothing in the design or copy said “experienced, local, rural specialist”. James wanted a site that felt traditional and trustworthy, that looked like it belonged in border country rather than a city, and that could compete at the top of Google for surveys in his area.
I created a full brand identity from scratch, wrote and built a 20+ page site, and set up the on-page and local SEO foundations so every service and every county has its own optimised landing page.
A real practice with no brand to show for it.
- No brand assets — only a colour swatch and social logos.
- Needed to feel traditional, rural and premium (James liked the Savills feel and serif typography) — not a modern, cityscape template.
- The client preferred a dark site rather than lots of white space.
- A one-person practice competing with national panel firms and larger local surveyors on Google.
- A real specialism — non-traditional and system-built homes (PRC, BISF, timber-frame, modular) — that the old site never mentioned.
- Five counties across two countries to rank in, from a single surveyor.
- 1.Build a brand that signals RICS-level credibility and rural, local knowledge.
- 2.Make it easy for buyers to pick the right survey level (Level 1, 2 or 3).
- 3.Show the personal, one-surveyor difference.
- 4.Rank for surveys and valuations in every area covered.
- 5.Turn visitors into direct enquiries to James's inbox.
How we started and how we finished.
- 1
Discovery call & audit
Reviewed the old bdsurveyors.com, James's services, coverage area, credentials, caseload model and the competition. Agreed the direction: dark, traditional, rural.
- 2
Brand identity (Brand Kit v1.0)
Named palette, typography and a new logo mark. Presented as a brand sheet for sign-off.
- 3
Sitemap & content plan
Planned 20+ pages: one page per survey level, a comparison page, valuations, four add-on services, one landing page per county, about, contact and legal pages.
- 4
Copywriting
Wrote all the copy in James's voice: “Talk to the surveyor, not a call centre”, “Quality, not quantity”, “The Independent Difference”, “Five steps, one surveyor”. Added his real process: he phones every client to talk through findings before the written report is issued.
- 5
Design & build
Built the site in a dark theme on a staging preview. James approved the layout, dark build, typeface and logo direction.
- 6
Client amendments
First round of changes: new page images, homepage copy and the “Independent Difference” section. James supplied his own job photographs (stone cottages, barns and modern homes). Added his non-traditional/system-built specialism to the Level 3 page as a USP.
- 7
SEO, go-live & handover
Full on-page and local SEO, sitemap, schema, enquiry form wired to James's inbox, and launch on bdsurveyors.com. Domain and email stayed with the existing provider — only the website moved.
Brand Kit v1.0
Dark, traditional, rural, premium.
Inspired by estate-agency heritage brands, not city corporate. The serif wordmark sits with a contour-line mark that reads two ways — as survey levels on a site plan, and as the rolling hills of border country.
Colour theme
- PrimaryBorders Navy#1B365D · RGB 27, 54, 93Main brand colour, from the original site
- BackgroundDeep Navy#0F1F36 · RGB 15, 31, 54Dark page backgrounds
- AccentBrass#C9A227 · RGB 201, 162, 39Buttons, highlights, icons, dividers
- LegacyHeritage Orange#FF5E00 · RGB 255, 94, 0Original brand orange, secondary highlight
- Legacy toneBurnt Orange#C94800 · RGB 201, 72, 0Darker tone of the legacy orange
- LightParchment#F4EFE4 · RGB 244, 239, 228Light text and light panels
- MutedSlate#8A96A8 · RGB 138, 150, 168Muted text and borders
Navy kept from the original site for recognition; brass added for a premium, heritage accent; the original orange retained as a secondary colour at the client's request.
Typography
Headings · Libre Caslon Text
Aa
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
“Talk to the surveyor, not a call centre.”
Body · Source Sans 3
Aa
Every survey and valuation is carried out personally by James Buckingham BA (Hons) MSc MRICS. He phones every client to talk through the findings before the written report is issued, so nothing in it comes as a surprise.
Desktop and mobile
Page by page
Survey level chooser
“Which survey level do I need?” guide plus a side-by-side comparison page.
One page per survey
Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3, each with “Best suited to”, “What is included” and “The other levels”.
Non-traditional property specialism
PRC, BISF, timber-frame and modular expertise on the Level 3 page: frame and concrete condition, mortgageability and PRC repairs, alteration and insulation planning.
Five county landing pages
Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Powys and South West Wales.
Trust bar
Regulated by RICS, RICS Registered Valuer, RICS firm registration, The Property Ombudsman, 5.0 Google rating.
“Five steps, one surveyor”
A process section showing exactly what happens from first call to written report.
About page built around the person
James, his qualifications, caseload cap — and his Labrador, Ollie.
Direct enquiries
Contact form and click-to-call straight to James.
On-page
- Unique, keyword-led title tags on every page, e.g. “RICS Level 3 Building Survey | Non-Traditional & System-Built Specialist”
- Unique meta descriptions for every page
- One H1 per page with a clean H2/H3 hierarchy
- Descriptive image alt text
- Clean, readable URLs: /surveys/rics-level-2-home-survey, /areas/herefordshire
- Internal linking between survey levels, services and areas
- FAQ section answering real buyer questions
Local SEO
- Dedicated landing page per county (5)
- Consistent name, phone and area details across the site
- Area-specific copy (stone cottages, barns, rural and border-country property)
- Google reviews (5.0★) surfaced on site
Technical
- XML sitemap (20+ URLs) and robots.txt
- Structured data (LocalBusiness / ProfessionalService, Service, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList)
- Open Graph and Twitter card images
- WebP images, lazy loading, mobile-first layout
- HTTPS, fast hosting, Google Search Console submission
Trust & E-E-A-T
- RICS credentials, Registered Valuer status and The Property Ombudsman membership shown sitewide
- About page centred on the named, qualified surveyor
- Complaints handling procedure, privacy, cookie and terms pages
- 20+Pages built and indexed in the sitemap
- 5County landing pages
- 8Service pages
- 5.0★Google rating displayed on site
- 1Consistent brand across web, social and print
Early ranking and enquiry results will be added here after the first 90 days.
[Client quote from James Buckingham — to be added once approved]
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