Echo Property Maintenance
Property Maintenance & Trades · Kent
A Kent property-maintenance website built around an interactive house, with an enquiry system that saves every request.
PROJECT UPDATE · 25 OCTOBER 2026
Home, Services and Contact pages
Two days after the redesign we split the single long page into three, so each visitor lands on what they need: the house explorer on the home page, every job in detail on a Services page, and the form with common questions on a Contact page.
| Page or feature | Delivered change |
|---|---|
| Home | The photograph, headline and house explorer stay, followed by picture links to the landlords and areas sections and a short quote band. |
| Services | All eight jobs, each with what Matt covers and what is useful to include in an enquiry, carried over from the September version of the site. Landlord help and the eight Kent towns sit on the same page. |
| Contact | The form, phone, WhatsApp, email, hours and next steps, with the questions underneath, now including which areas Echo covers. |
| The job comes with you | Choosing a job in the house drawing, or pressing “Ask Matt about this” on the Services page, opens the form with that job already selected. |
| Old links still work | Links to the old sections, such as echopm.uk/#contact, forward to the right new page. |
| Nothing lost on a bad signal | If a send fails, the visitor can correct their details and try again, and the enquiry goes through exactly as typed. |
Before launch we re-ran the browser tests against the new pages, including the job type passing between pages and the old links. After launch we checked the live pages, the form’s security token and the version without JavaScript.
EARLIER UPDATE · 23 OCTOBER 2026
A redesign built around the house
Echo Property Maintenance serves homeowners and landlords across Kent. In October we rebuilt the site’s design so it feels like a local business worth calling, and so visitors can find their job without knowing what it is called.
What we changed
| Part of the site | Delivered change |
|---|---|
| First impression | A full-width photograph of a Victorian terrace, a clear headline about property maintenance across Kent, and call, quote and WhatsApp routes on the first screen. |
| Finding the right job | An illustrated cutaway of a terraced house with eight numbered areas, from the roof and gutters to the garden fence. Visitors point to the problem or pick it from a list, see what Matt covers, and send it to the form with the job type already chosen. |
| One catalogue, not two | The house replaced a separate grid of service cards, so each service is described once and the page is shorter, especially on phones. |
| Custom imagery | New illustrations and the house drawing were created for the site, so every job has a strong picture from day one. |
| Landlords and areas | A dedicated landlords section, and a Kent band listing the towns Echo covers. |
| Works for everyone | Without JavaScript every job is still listed and the drawing’s numbers become links. The controls work by keyboard and are announced properly by screen readers. |
What we checked
Each round was reviewed independently against a written checklist covering design, copy, accessibility and search before anything went live.
We tested the enquiry form end to end in a browser against the live security settings: sending, retrying after a failed connection, the version without JavaScript, the urgent-repair warning and the house passing the job type into the form. After launch, a marked test enquiry was saved and sent on to Matt. We also changed how the site is cached, so returning visitors see updates straight away.
EARLIER UPDATE · 8 SEPTEMBER 2026
Making the enquiry form dependable
What needed improving
The existing form relied on opening a visitor’s email application. That is a weak point for someone using a shared device, webmail or a phone without a configured email app: completing fields did not itself create a received enquiry. The content also needed clearer service explanations and more useful quote guidance.
The changes we made
| Part of the journey | Delivered change |
|---|---|
| Finding the right service | Nine service groups cover maintenance, plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, decorating, tiling, roofing, fencing and urgent repairs. Each helps the visitor describe the work needed. |
| Contacting from a phone | A mobile contact bar provides Call, WhatsApp and Enquire routes, with space reserved so it does not cover the end of the page. |
| Describing a job | The form asks for a name, email, optional phone, town or postcode, service and message. It explains what information helps with the first response. |
| Receiving the request | The site saves a valid enquiry before displaying a reference. Owner notification is handled separately, so a temporary mail failure does not erase a saved request. |
| Handling errors | Validation gives useful feedback. Repeated submissions are recognised so a retry does not create unnecessary duplicate records. A standard form route also works without JavaScript. |
| Reading and navigation | Visible service content, labelled controls, keyboard focus and native expandable questions make the main information available without animation or custom FAQ scripting. |
What we kept in the design
The burgundy and cream palette, serif headings and residential feel remain. The change puts a direct description of the work above the fold, followed by service choices, the enquiry process and a clear form. The page stays focused rather than creating a separate town page for every place Echo might serve.
What we checked
We checked the page in desktop and narrow layouts, the contact navigation, keyboard access and form behaviour. Backend checks covered validation, saving a request, retries and failure handling. Search foundations include a canonical address, crawl instructions, a sitemap and structured data consistent with the published business information.
What this means for another local business
A service site does not need dozens of pages to be useful. It does need to answer whether the job is suitable, where the business works, what information to send and what happens next. The form must then do what the confirmation says. Those are useful checks for a plumber, decorator, gardener or other local trade before adding more traffic.
Explore websites for trades, review an existing website, or compare Lustre’s package scopes. Our main local focus is Ashford and nearby Kent towns.
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