Resin driveway cost: 5,400 searches a month, the planning rule that catches front gardens, and the page a driveway company needs

"Resin driveway cost" is searched about 5,400 times a month in the UK, with high competition and bids to match, because the first page is national franchises and price-comparison sites that publish a figure per square metre. A local driveway company that will not publish one is not on that page. The page that wins states a price per square metre with the three things that move it, explains the one planning rule that applies to front gardens since 2008, which most pages get wrong, and shows the drive before and after from the same spot on the pavement. It then asks for the square metres and a photograph, which is a quote done in an hour rather than a visit.

The price, and why per square metre

The homeowner has measured the drive, or can, and is comparing figures per square metre because that is how every page on the first result page prices it. Publish yours, with the minimum area, and what moves it: the base (an existing sound surface or a new sub-base), the edging, the drainage, the colour and the resin system. A page that says "every job is different" is true and loses to the one that said £x to £y per square metre and then explained why.

The planning rule that catches front gardens

Since 2008 in England, paving more than five square metres of a front garden needs planning permission unless the surface is permeable or the water drains to a lawn or border; a resin-bound surface laid on a permeable base qualifies, a resin-bonded one on tarmac usually does not. Most driveway pages either ignore this or claim everything is permeable. Say what your system is and why it qualifies, in two sentences, and link to the council's or the Planning Portal's page rather than copying it. A homeowner who has read the rule trusts the page that knows it.

The guarantee and the build-up, in words a customer can check

The second question after the price is how long it lasts, and the forums are full of resin drives that cracked in a winter. Say what is under yours: the sub-base and its depth, the binder course, the resin system and its UV stability, the edge restraint, the drainage. Then the guarantee, in years, for what, and who honours it if you are not trading. Most pages say "10 year guarantee" and nothing else; the page that says what the guarantee covers and what it excludes, in six lines, is the one the customer believes, and it is the one that does not generate the claim.

Say also what the drive cannot do: a resin surface laid over a failed base will follow the base, and a page that explains why you sometimes recommend a new sub-base reads as a company that will still be there in year five.

The before and after, from the pavement

A driveway is the one job the whole street sees, and the photograph that sells it is the pair taken from the same spot on the pavement: the cracked tarmac with the weeds, then the finished drive, with the house visible so the homeowner can picture their own. Six pairs with the town and the colour, on the page, with the square metres and the time on site under each. The national franchises use renders; your pairs are real, and the homeowner can tell.

Search "resin driveway cost" and look at the first page. Every result that is not a directory publishes a figure per square metre. If your page does not, it is not competing for the 5,400 people a month who typed it.

The page, in order

1. The heading with the surface, the job and the area, and the price per square metre with the minimum in the first screen.
2. What moves the price: the base, the edging, the drainage, the colour, the access.
3. The planning rule and your system's answer to it, in two sentences with a link.
4. The build-up and the guarantee, said plainly: what is under the resin and for how long you stand behind it.
5. Six before-and-after pairs from the pavement, with the town, the colour, the area and the days on site.
6. The questions: weeds, moss, cracking, colour fading, how soon it can be driven on, the winter.
7. The form: the square metres or a photograph of the drive from the road, the postcode and the surface it is now.

What to expect

A driveway page with a price per square metre and the planning rule explained shows for the town searches within weeks and competes for the cost term as the pairs and the reviews build; the national franchises hold the head term and the local page wins the town. The measure is quotes sent from a photograph without a visit, which is the form doing the first hour of the job.