Website for window frame companies: the planning permission question answered before you're asked for a price
Anyone replacing their window frames wants to know first whether it's allowed, then what it will look like, and only after that what it costs. Most window frame websites do it the other way round. We build a WordPress site that follows your customer's order: an explanation of the facade, your own work on display, and a quote form that only asks for measurements once there's contact.
Six fields before the send button, the rest only after
This is the structure of a form, not a working form and not a completed request. The two key fields at the top decide whether you want the job and whether the council has a say; everything you only need to work out a price sits on screen 2, after your first reply. Asking for a photo and measurements before the send button costs you the enquiry.
Anything your visitor has to look up or measure. Measurements, the year the property was built and glass type are exactly the fields that make someone get up to check and never come back. They belong to the conversation that follows, not the enquiry.
How to read this. The two blue fields at the top are what sets this apart from every other window frame form. The question of which facade is involved and whether the property stands in a protected townscape decides, under the Dutch Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving (the buildings and environment decree), which route your customer goes down. Asking that on screen 1 costs them three seconds and gets you a quote that holds up, instead of one that falls apart at the kitchen table.
The planning permission question belongs on your website, not at the kitchen table
Anyone wanting to replace their window frames silently asks a question they almost never say out loud: am I even allowed to do this. And that is exactly where the biggest silent drop-off in this trade sits. Someone reads three websites, sees the same story about uPVC and insulation values three times over, still doesn't know whether their plan is feasible, and puts the enquiry off until next year.
The rule is simpler than it looks
Under the Dutch Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving (the buildings and environment decree), the physical work on a window frame in the rear facade, and in a side facade that doesn't face a publicly accessible area, doesn't need a permit. For the front facade, the rules of the local council's omgevingsplan (environment plan) apply. If the property stands in a nationally protected townscape or village conservation area, that permit-free scope shrinks to indoor work plus a rear facade or rear roof slope that doesn't face a publicly accessible area. If the property itself is a listed building, only ordinary maintenance that keeps the same colour and material stays permit-free, and replacing a window frame doesn't count as that.
Source: articles 2.29 and 2.30 of the Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving on wetten.overheid.nl
Checked on 25 August 2026.
That exact information belongs on your own website, in plain language, with the line added that the council's omgevingsplan is decisive and differs by address
Whoever explains that first doesn't become the cheapest quote but the party running the conversation. How the same question works as an advertising topic is explained on Google Ads for window frame companies NL.
Show your own work, not your supplier's brochure
Window frames are one of the few products where the customer sees the result from the street every single day. Yet most window frame websites use the manufacturer's render images: a white villa in the sun, a facade that has nothing to do with your customer's own street. Those images convince nobody, because everyone has already seen them three times over on your competitors' sites.
What does work is your own work, organised by situation
Not a gallery of two hundred photos but a handful of facades with a caption that tells the story: what type of facade, which material, which colour, and whether planning permission or design review played a part. A visitor scans a series like that looking for their own house. If they find it, the rest of your site barely matters any more.
In practice, we build a project structure in WordPress for this, where each completed project gets its own page, with a few photos, the situation and the council added. You reuse that same structure later for a new location, without ever leaving an empty page behind. The approach and the different engagement types are on the WordPress specialist hub.
Five parts from top to bottom, with the reason alongside each one
On the left, the cross-section of a project page; on the right, why each part sits where it does. This is our own structure and not a standard; it doesn't show a real project and it doesn't claim a result.
Recognition beats beauty. A visitor scans facades until they see something that looks like their own house. A slick render of a villa gets skipped past, an ordinary terraced house in the rain holds their attention.
The heading is your keyword and your proof at once. Material plus building period is exactly how people type this in. Your company name in the heading gets you nothing, because they don't know it yet.
This is where the planning permission question lands. Reading that permission was needed on this street but not in the neighbourhood behind it makes clear, in one sentence, that it depends on the address. That saves half an intake call.
The problem sells, not the product. Uneven opening sizes, a sill that didn't fit, a design review comment: it's exactly those sentences that show you've done this before, more than once.
The button sits at the bottom on purpose. Above the evidence, you're asking for something before you've given anything. Below it, it's simply the next logical sentence.
How to read this. This is a sheet, not a gallery. Five pages like this do more than two hundred photos in a grid, because a grid lets the visitor look and a sheet lets them read. In WordPress this is a project type with fixed fields, so you fill in the same five parts for every job and no page is ever left half finished. What deliberately isn't on there: prices per frame, because those depend on size, material and facade, and a figure without those three only brings in enquiries you'll have to turn down. You answer the pricing question in the form above, and the planning permission question is worked out in chapter 01.
Which fields cost you enquiries, and which ones save your quote
A window frame quote can only be accurate once someone has measured up. You know that, your customer doesn't. The result is a form that tries to capture everything upfront: measurements per frame, glass type, opening direction, year built. Every one of those fields is a reason to get up, go and measure something, and never come back.
The split that does work is shown in the figure above
On the first screen, only what someone can answer off the top of their head, plus the two questions that pay off most for you: which facade it is, and whether the property stands in a protected townscape. Everything that needs looking up or measuring moves to the second screen, which only appears after you've replied. By then there's contact, and effort suddenly becomes acceptable.
Never ask for a budget on the first screen either
In this trade, the customer doesn't know their budget, and a figure they make up on the spot sends your quote in the wrong direction. What a website costs in general, and how we arrive at that figure, is explained at what it costs to have a website made NL.
Planned replacement and damage don't belong on the same page
A window frame company serves two customers who have nothing in common. One plans months ahead, reads up, compares three quotes and decides together with their partner. The other lost a pane of glass last night and wants a sealed facade today. Put both on the same page, and you give the urgent customer a quote form and the planner a phone number, and you lose them both.
That's why we build two entry points on a site
The planned route lands on a page with material choice, the planning permission explanation and the form from the figure above. The damage route lands on a short page where calling is the only button, with your availability and your service area above it. That's the same logic an emergency trade like locksmithing uses; you can read what that page looks like at website for locksmiths.
Both routes have their own keywords and their own rhythm
How you serve those organically, with location pages and a Google Business Profile that moves with them, is in the guide local SEO for window frame companies.
What a window frame website costs, and how we build it
We start with an intake, put together a draft design, and then map the pages out together in a flowchart. The price follows from that flowchart: every page is work, and the number of pages is the basis for the quote. For a window frame company, most of the work isn't in the number of pages but in the two entry points, the project structure and the form that runs across two screens.
What we don't do is promise a configurator that calculates a binding price
That doesn't exist in this trade without a site measurement, and a figure on your site that turns out wrong later costs you more trust than it brings in enquiries. What does work is an indicative range per situation, with the honest note that the price is only fixed after measuring up.
After launch, upkeep keeps being needed: another project page added, another council covered, and the technical side kept current
What that includes is on WordPress maintenance and security NL. And if your site stays slow while you're advertising, start at making a WordPress website faster, because every second there counts double once you're paying for clicks.
Frequently asked questions about a website for window frame companies
Do I really need to put the planning permission rules on my website?
Yes, because it's the question that keeps your visitor from acting. The Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving makes the physical work permit-free for the rear facade and for a side facade that doesn't face a publicly accessible area. For the front facade, the council's omgevingsplan applies. In a nationally protected townscape, only the rear facade that doesn't face a publicly accessible area stays permit-free, and for a listed building only ordinary maintenance with the same colour and material. Put that on the page in plain language, with the line added that the omgevingsplan differs by address.
Which fields belong in the quote form?
On the first screen, only what someone knows off the top of their head: which facade it is, whether the property stands in a protected townscape, roughly how many window frames, which material, postcode and contact details. Measurements, glass type, opening direction and year built belong on a second screen that only appears after you've replied. Anything that needs measuring or looking up before that first reply costs you the enquiry.
Can I have a configurator on my site that calculates the price?
A binding price without a site measurement doesn't exist in this trade, and a figure that turns out wrong later costs more trust than it's worth. What does work is an indicative range per situation, with the honest note that the price is only fixed after measuring up. That gives the visitor something to go on without making a promise you'll have to take back at the kitchen table.
Why two separate entry points on the site?
Because planned replacement and damage are two different customers. The planner reads, compares and decides with their partner; the damage customer wants a sealed facade today. A page that serves both gives the urgent customer a form and the planner a phone number. Two entry points cost little extra to build and win jobs on both sides.
Shall we restructure your window frame site?
A first conversation carries no price and no obligation at all. We look at your current enquiry form, count which fields make a visitor go and look something up, and say honestly whether restructuring is enough or a new site pays off faster. Which fields a quote intake does and doesn't need applies more broadly than window frames, and is covered at having a website made for trade businesses.