The Contractor Website Guide: What It Needs, What It Costs, What Gets Calls

In this guide

• What is a contractor website actually for?
• What must a contractor website include?
• What does a contractor website cost?
• Should you build it yourself or hire someone?
• By trade: what to put front and center
• A homepage you can copy today
• How do customers find the site?
• How do you know the website is working?
• What should you leave off?
• First 30 days checklist
• What mistakes cost the most calls?
• What if you would rather not run this by hand?
• Common questions

Most homeowners do not read your website. They scan it, on a phone, often while standing in a room with a problem. In about five seconds they decide whether you are the right company and whether reaching you looks easy.

That is the whole test. This guide covers what a site has to show in those seconds, what it costs to get one, whether to build it yourself, and what to put on it for your trade.

What is a contractor website actually for?

It is not a brochure and it is not a place to impress other contractors. It does three jobs:

1. Answer the quick questions. What do you do, where do you do it, and are you a real local company?
2. Prove you are worth a call. Real photos, reviews, and the basics that show you are legitimate.
3. Make contact easy. A phone number that taps to call, and a short form for people who would rather write.

Everything else is decoration. If a section does not help with one of those three, it can wait.

What must a contractor website include?

Use this as a checklist. If you are missing any of these, fix them before you spend a dollar on anything fancier.

• Your trade and city in the top headline, in plain words (“Roof repair and replacement in Tulsa”).
• A phone number at the top of every page that taps to call on a phone.
• A short list of the services you actually do, and a clear note on what you do not.
• Your service area, named by town or county.
• Real photos of your own work and your own crew, not stock images.
• A few real customer reviews, with the customer’s permission and their real words.
• Business basics: legal business name, license or insurance details if they apply to you, and hours.
• A short contact form asking for name, phone, address or town, and what they need.
• A working page on a phone. Test it on yours, on cellular data, not on office wifi.

For the page-by-page version, see what pages a contractor website needs.

What does a contractor website cost?

It depends on the route. The ranges below are typical and approximate, not quotes. Prices change and vary by provider and location, so get current written quotes before you decide.

Route	What you usually pay	What you also pay
Do it yourself on a website builder	A subscription, often tens of dollars a month, plus a domain name	Your time, and your patience for design decisions
Freelancer	Often hundreds to a few thousand dollars up front	Hosting, updates, and the risk they get busy or disappear
Local agency	Commonly a few thousand dollars and up	Often a monthly fee for hosting and changes
Managed monthly service	One monthly fee	Usually less control over exact design

Ask every provider the same four questions: What is the total for the first year? What do I pay each year after? Who owns the domain and the content? What does it cost to leave? We break this down further in how much a contractor website costs.

Should you build it yourself or hire someone?

Build it yourself if you enjoy tinkering, your business is small, and you have evenings to spare. Hire if your time is worth more on the job than at the keyboard.

A simple way to price your own time. Say you bill about $75 an hour and a DIY site takes 20 hours to write, photograph, build and test. That is $1,500 of your time. Use your own numbers. If your hour is worth less, DIY is cheaper. If a week without a crew lead costs you a job, paying someone is cheaper.

Either way, three things are yours to supply and nobody can do them for you: your real photos, your real reviews, and an honest list of what you do. A designer with no photos from you will hand you stock images, and stock images are the fastest way to look like everyone else.

By trade: what to put front and center

The same rules apply to every trade, but the emphasis is different because customers arrive in different states of mind.

• Roofers. A roof is a large, rare purchase, so trust carries the page. Lead with before-and-after photos of finished roofs, name the materials you install, show any license and insurance details that apply where you work, and put a repair or leak line right up top for urgent calls.
• Plumbers. Many visitors have water on the floor. Put a big tap-to-call button at the top, say whether you take emergency calls and when, and list drain, water heater and repair work plainly. Keep the form short. Nobody with a burst pipe wants to fill in seven fields.
• HVAC. Demand swings with the weather. Separate repair, replacement and maintenance so a customer with a dead furnace does not have to read about tune-ups. Name the brands you service and the systems you install. Update the top of the page with the season.
• Electricians. Customers worry about safety and licensing. Show your license number if you hold one, and list the jobs people search for: panel upgrades, outlets and lighting, EV charger installs, generator hookups. Make it clear whether you do residential, commercial or both.
• Landscapers. This is the most visual trade. A strong gallery does most of the selling. Split one-time projects (design, patios, planting) from recurring work (mowing, cleanups), and let a customer send a photo of their yard with the quote request.
• Painters. Customers cannot judge paint from a description. Show clean edges, finished rooms and exteriors in natural light, and say how you prep and protect the home. Interior and exterior deserve separate sections because the buyer, the season and the price differ.
• General contractors and remodelers. The sale is long and the ticket is large. Tell project stories: what the room looked like, what you changed, how long it took. Explain your process from first visit to final walkthrough, and invite a consultation instead of a rush call.
• Tree service. Speed matters after storms, and so does proof of insurance. Put an emergency line at the top, show equipment and crew at work, list removal, trimming and stump grinding, and say only what you can support about qualifications.

A homepage you can copy today

Here is a plain structure you can fill in tonight, whether you build it or hand it to someone.

“ HEADLINE: [Trade] in [City] and [nearby towns] SUBLINE: [One sentence: what you do and who for.] Call or text [phone]. BUTTONS: [Call now] [Request a quote] SERVICES: [Service 1] | [Service 2] | [Service 3] | [Service 4] PROOF: [Photo strip: 4 to 6 real jobs] [2 to 3 real reviews] AREA: Serving [Town], [Town], [Town], and [County]. HOW IT GOES: 1. You call or text 2. We look at the job 3. You get a written quote ABOUT: [Owner name], [years in trade if true], [license/insurance if true] CONTACT: [Phone] [Email] [Hours] [Short form] “

Write it the way you would explain the job to a neighbor. Short sentences, no slogans.

How do customers find the site?

A good site nobody sees does nothing. Put the address everywhere people already look: your Google Business Profile, your truck, your invoices, your estimates, your email signature and your text replies.

On search, be careful with promises. Google does not publish its full ranking recipe. What it says it uses for local results is relevance, distance and prominence. You control relevance by being clear about what you do and where. You do not control distance. Prominence builds over time. Our local SEO guide for contractors covers the practical parts.

How do you know the website is working?

Count the results, not the visitors. Once a month, write down three numbers: calls from new customers, forms and texts from new customers, and how many of those became booked jobs. Ask every new caller how they found you and write the answer next to the name.

That log tells you more than any traffic chart. If people call but do not book, the problem is your phone handling or your quote, not the site. If nobody calls, look at the top of the page on a phone and ask whether a stranger could tell what you do and how to reach you in five seconds. Show it to someone outside your trade and watch where they hesitate.

What should you leave off?

• Long “about our company” stories nobody reads.
• Stock photos of smiling people in hard hats.
• Auto-playing video and music.
• Pop-ups that block the phone number.
• Dozens of near-identical pages that only swap the town name.
• Anything you cannot keep current, like a blog you will not update.

First 30 days checklist

Week 1: gather. Pull 15 to 20 of your best job photos. Write down your services, your service area, and your hours. Pick two or three reviews you have permission to use. Decide who owns the domain, and make sure it is you.

Week 2: build. Set up the homepage using the template above. Add a services page, a photo gallery, an about page and a contact page. Put the phone number at the top of every page.

Week 3: test. Open the site on your own phone, then on a friend’s older phone. Tap the number. Submit the form and see where it goes. Check that a message reaches your cell. Fix anything slow or awkward.

Week 4: connect. Add the website address to your Google Business Profile, your truck, invoices and estimates. Send the link to five past customers with a thank-you. Then keep a simple log: how many calls and forms came in, and how many turned into jobs.

What mistakes cost the most calls?

The usual ones: no visible phone number, stock photos, vague services, and a form as the only way to reach you. We list all seven in contractor website mistakes that cost calls.

What if you would rather not run this by hand?

If you want the site built and kept up for you, the website that comes with the Builders Presence plan is built in 7 to 10 days and is month to month with no contract. See pricing for what else is included. You can also do everything above yourself and skip us entirely.

Common questions

Can I build my own contractor website?

Yes, if you have a few free evenings and are willing to write plain copy and take decent photos. Website builders make the layout easy. The hard parts are the words, the photos and keeping it current. If you would rather be on a job, paying someone or using a managed service costs money but saves your time.

How long should a contractor website take to build?

A simple site of five to seven pages can go live in days if you have your photos, services and service area ready. Delays usually come from the owner not having those pieces, not from the building itself. Gather them first and the process moves quickly, whether you build it or someone else does.

Do I need a blog on my contractor website?

No. A blog is optional and easy to neglect. A small site with clear services, a service area, real photos, reviews and a visible phone number does the main job. If you add a blog later, write about real questions customers ask you, and only if you will keep it up.

Should my website have online booking?

Only if it fits how you work. Emergency trades usually want the customer to call. Project trades often prefer a quote request, because the job needs a look first. Whatever you choose, keep a tap-to-call number on every page so nobody has to hunt for a way to reach you.