The hardest person to please is not the client. It is your network.
Most broker websites take three attempts because the designer treats compliance as a final check rather than an input, and the changes that come back are structural. Glide writes it for the person who has to approve it, so it clears first time. One monthly retainer from £1,000 plus VAT.
What comes back from the network
A broker signs off a design they like. Six weeks later it goes to the network, and the response is not a list of typos. The homepage says "free mortgage advice" when the firm is paid by procuration fee. The about page implies whole-of-market access the firm does not have. The footer is missing the appointed representative statement entirely. The calculator returns a figure a visitor could reasonably read as an offer.
None of those is a wording problem. Each one changes what a section can say, which changes what the section is for, which changes the layout. The designer quotes for a second round. The broker pays twice and launches two months late, into a market that has moved.
Every one of those was predictable at the drafting stage, by anyone who had read what a network asks for.
What gets built in
A page per situation, not a list of services
Nearly every broker site has one page headed "Mortgages" with a bulleted list underneath. It is the single biggest structural mistake in the sector, and it costs on both sides at once.
It loses the search
One page cannot rank for self-employed, adverse credit, contractor, first-time buyer and buy to let at once. A bullet is not a page, and a search engine treats it accordingly.
It loses the reader
Somebody self-employed who has already been declined by their bank is looking for evidence that you handle their exact situation. A bullet point on a generic page is not evidence. A page that describes their problem back to them is.
It makes approval harder, not easier
One page trying to cover everything either over-claims or says nothing. Split it out and each page can be specific and accurate, which is exactly what a network wants to see.
The Glide Retainer, from £1,000/mo
The website, hosting, maintenance, the search foundations and the compliance-aware marketing in one monthly fee, with no five-figure upfront build.
See pricingBroker websites, answered
We have built and run marketing inside FCA rules, and the discipline transfers directly: draft to the standard, then let the approver check rather than rewrite. What is specific to a broker is that the approver is your principal firm rather than an in-house compliance officer, and they are reviewing dozens of AR sites. Making theirs an easy yes is a large part of the job.
Because the designer treats compliance as a final check rather than an input. The site is built, the network reads it, and the changes are structural rather than editorial: a fee claim that needs qualifying, a status disclosure missing from the footer, a comparison that implies whole-of-market when the firm is not. Each one is a rebuild rather than an edit.
Carefully, and this is the single most common thing that gets marked up. If you are paid by lender procuration fee there is a way to describe that which is accurate and a way that implies the advice costs nothing at all. Networks are alert to it because the FCA is. We will draft the version that clears, and say so if what you want to claim will not.
Usually yes, and it earns its place, but it needs handling. A calculator producing an indicative figure is a useful reason to visit and a reasonable capture point. A calculator that looks like a decision in principle is a problem, because an output someone treats as a promise is exactly the kind of thing a network will not sign off.
Per situation, not per lender. Nobody searches for your lender panel. They search self-employed, adverse credit, contractor, first-time buyer, buy to let, later life. A page for each of those is how someone recognises their own circumstances and decides you are the broker who handles them.
Not yet, and we will say so plainly rather than let you find out later. Our named regulated clients are Square 4 Partners, an FCA regulatory compliance consultancy, and Aireside Accounting. Same rulebook, different products.
Websites for other regulated sectors
Same build discipline, written for the approval route each sector has.
Websites for accountancy practices
A prospective client judges your credibility in seconds. A generic, stock-photo site quietly costs you the work before anyone calls.
Websites for financial services firms
Built so the compliance step happens while the page is written rather than a week before launch, when changing it costs a rebuild.
Want it found as well as approved? SEO for mortgage brokers covers the search side. For the whole retainer, see marketing for mortgage brokers.
Want a site your network signs off first time?
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