What Should a Contractor Website Include? 10 Things That Bring in Quote Requests

A contractor's website has two jobs. When a homeowner nearby searches for the work you do, it has to be there. And once they land on it, calling you or asking for a quote has to be the obvious next step. Everything else on the site is decoration.

We have built sites for fence companies, landscapers, remodelers, tree services, septic companies, cleaners and dumpster rental businesses, and the ones that bring in work all have the same ten parts. Here they are, with examples from sites in our contractor portfolio, in the order a homeowner meets them.

1. A phone number that dials, at the top of every page

Most of your visitors are standing in the yard looking at the problem with a phone in their hand. Your number belongs at the top of every page, large enough to tap, and it should dial when tapped. Not in the footer. Not on the contact page. Not as an image. If a visitor has to hunt for the number, the next contractor in the search results gets the call.

2. A quote request that is hard to miss

Some homeowners will not call. They are at work, it is 10pm, or they want to compare three quotes before they talk to anyone. For them the site needs a quote request form on every page: name, phone, the type of job, the address and a place to attach photos. Ground Breakers, a landscaping company in Beldenville, Wisconsin, puts a free quote request where visitors cannot miss it. Croix Area Fence goes further with a fence designer that lets the visitor lay out their fence and see an instant estimate without waiting for a call back. Build the version that matches how you sell.

3. A page for each service you want more of

A single "Services" page with a bulleted list does not rank for anything. A page about fence installation, written for someone who wants a fence, with photos of fences, ranks for fence searches. Start with the three or four jobs that pay best and give each its own page with what the job involves, what affects the price, how long it takes and photos of your work. Add the rest as the site grows. This is the single biggest difference between a trades site that brings in search traffic and one that does not.

4. A project gallery with your real work

Photos of finished work close more jobs than any paragraph. Respectful Remodeling's site lets homeowners look through completed projects before they ask for a quote, and that is exactly the order a homeowner wants: see it, then call. Use your own photos, taken on your own jobs with your phone. A before and after of a real deck in a real backyard beats a stock photo every time, and stock photos are the fastest way to make a contractor look like he has never held a tool.

5. Reviews, on the site and on Google

Homeowners hire contractors they trust, and nothing builds trust like other homeowners. Put your Google reviews on the site, with names and towns, and keep asking for new ones after every job. The reviews on your Google Business Profile also decide how you rank on the map, which for most trades is where the calls come from.

6. Trust signals: license, insurance, warranty

If you are licensed, insured, bonded, certified or a member of a trade association, say so, with the numbers, where a visitor will see it. Croix Area Fence's five year warranty has its own section of the site. Toombs Septic Services puts its licensing front and center. These are the things a careful homeowner is looking for before they call, and the things a competitor who lacks them hopes nobody asks about.

7. Service area pages for the towns you work in

A homeowner searching for a septic service in their town wants to know you come to their town. Toombs Septic lists the areas it covers across Northwest Wisconsin, so a search from any of those towns finds a page about them. Write each page about that place: the kind of homes there, the jobs you do there, a project you finished there. Pages that are copies of each other with the town name swapped do not rank and do not convince anyone.

8. A site that works on a phone first

Most of the visitors to a contractor's site are on a phone, and a site that was designed on a desktop and squeezed onto a phone is slow, hard to tap and quietly losing jobs. Design for the phone first: big buttons, a number that dials, a form that can be filled in with a thumb, and photos that load fast on a cell connection. We wrote about why in Responsive Websites: Why You Need One.

9. A Google Business Profile that matches the site

Your profile is the listing that appears on the map, and for most trades it produces more calls than the website itself. It needs to be claimed, complete and consistent: the same business name, address and phone number as the website and every directory that lists you, the same services, photos of your work and a steady flow of reviews. We set up and tune the profile as part of every contractor site, because a great website behind an unclaimed profile is a truck with no tires.

10. Someone who keeps it current while you are on the job

A contractor's site changes more than most: a new service, a price change, a new crew member, a gallery that should grow with every job, and seasonal work that comes and goes. You do not have time to learn a website editor and you should not have to. On our hosting and maintenance plan, which is $200 a month, you send a text or an email with the change or the photos and it is done in under 48 hours. The site stays current, backed up and secure while you are out on a job.

What you can leave out

Contractors are often sold things their customers never use. A blog you will not write. A chat widget nobody staffs. A mission statement. Stock photos of smiling models in hard hats. An animated homepage that takes six seconds to load on a cell connection. If a part of the site does not help a homeowner decide to call you, it is costing you money twice: once to build and again every time it slows down a visitor on the way to the phone number.

What it costs

A custom contractor site built around the ten parts above starts at $5,000, or $200 a month on the Small Business plan with the writing, hosting and changes included. Grow Together asks for nothing up front and is paid 10% of the sales the site brings in. Most sites launch within 4 to 8 weeks, and the price and the launch date are in writing before anything is built. Our full breakdown of website costs explains what drives the price.

If you already have a site, run it through our free website grader to see how it scores on speed, SEO and mobile before you decide anything. When you are ready, tell us about your trade: what you do, where you work and what kind of jobs you want more of. That is enough to start, and Jason replies in under 24 hours.