The contractor website checklist

A contractor website has to show five things on a phone: the towns you work in, your license and insurance, photos of jobs you actually did, a way to request an estimate with photos attached, and reviews from real customers. If one of them is missing, a homeowner comparing three contractors has an easy reason to call one of the other two.

This applies whether you build decks, fences, driveways, roofs or kitchens. The details change by trade, but the list stays the same.

Why homeowners look for these five things

Homeowners are told to check you before they call. The FTC's consumer advice on avoiding home improvement scams tells people to consider only contractors who are licensed and insured, to confirm a license with the state or county, to get more than one estimate, and to read reviews with a critical eye. It also says a written estimate should describe the work, the materials, the completion date and the price.

Your website is where that checking starts. Make it easy to pass.

1. Your service area, in plain words

Name the towns

Write out the towns and suburbs you work in. "Serving the surrounding area" tells nobody anything. A list of real town names lets a homeowner see in two seconds that you come to them.

Put the list near the top of the home page and again in the footer. If you have limits, say so: a minimum job size, a town you only go to for larger jobs, months when you don't pour concrete. That saves you calls you would turn down anyway.

Match your Google profile

Google Business Profile lets service-area businesses set their area by city or ZIP code, up to 20 areas, and not as a radius around your shop, according to Google's help page on managing service areas. Use the same towns on your website. When the two match, a customer who found you on Maps lands on a site that confirms what they just saw.

If you work from home or a yard and customers never come to you, leave your home address off the site. A phone number and the list of towns is enough.

Skip the copy-paste town pages

Forty pages that say "Deck builder in [Town]" with the same paragraph on each don't help anyone. One good page per type of work, with the town list on it and real jobs from those towns, does more.

2. Licensed and insured, with the details

"Licensed and insured" is painted on a lot of trucks. The details are what make it believable:

• License numbers, where your state or city issues them, written out so someone can look them up.
• What your insurance covers, in plain words, and a line saying you will send a certificate of insurance on request.
• Permits: whether you pull them, and whether the price includes them.
• Warranty: what your workmanship warranty covers and for how long, plus any manufacturer warranty that comes with the materials you install.

Licensing rules differ from state to state and often from city to city, so list what applies to you and nothing you don't hold. A claim a homeowner can't verify does more damage than leaving it off.

3. Photos of your own jobs

Stock photos of a smiling couple on a deck don't sell decks. Photos of your own work, taken by you or your crew, do.

What works:

• Before and after from the same spot. Same angle, same height, so the change is obvious.
• Short captions. What it is, the material, the town. "Composite deck with picture-frame border and two-level stairs, [town]" says more than "Recent project."
• Progress shots. Footings, framing, flashing, rebar, base prep. Homeowners rarely see this part of the job. Showing it tells them you don't cut corners where nobody looks.
• Grouped by type. Decks with decks, fences with fences. Someone planning a fence doesn't want to scroll past forty roofs.

Phone photos are fine. Wipe the lens, shoot in daylight, hold the phone sideways, and take more than you think you need. Have the images sized down for the web so the gallery still opens quickly on mobile data.

4. An estimate request that takes photos

A basic contact form asks for a name, a phone number and a message. A good estimate request asks for a little more:

• Name and phone number
• Town or ZIP code
• Type of job, as a short list to tap, plus "other"
• Rough size, if they know it
• When they would like it done
• Photos, uploaded straight from the phone camera

Photos change the first call. You see the old deck, the slope of the yard, the cracked driveway or the roof valley before you drive out. You can give a rough range, ask the right questions, or tell someone kindly that it's not a job you do. Either way you save a trip.

Two more things matter here:

• The request has to reach you right away, as a text or an email you actually read, not an inbox someone checks on Fridays.
• Say what happens next. "We call back within one business day" is a promise. Make it only if you keep it, and then keep it.

Keep a tap-to-call button next to the form too. Some people would rather talk, and that's fine.

5. Reviews from real customers

Show your Google reviews on the site and link to your Google profile so people can read them in the original place. If a review mentions the type of job, put it on that job's page: a fence review on the fence page, a roof review on the roofing page.

Never write reviews yourself, edit what a customer wrote, or pay for reviews. Google's policies and the FTC both cover this. If you need more reviews, here is how to get more Google reviews within the rules.

The rest of the checklist

These are smaller, but each one costs you calls when it's missing:

• Phone number at the top of every page, as a link you can tap.
• The same business name as on your trucks, your invoices and your Google profile.
• How a job goes, in four or five steps: estimate, written quote, scheduling, the work, cleanup and final walk-through.
• What your written estimate includes. The FTC tells homeowners to expect the work, materials, completion date and price in writing. Say on the site that yours covers all of that.
• Years in business and crew size, only if you state them accurately.
• A site that works on a phone with one thumb, loads quickly, and has the padlock in the address bar (SSL).

You can see everything we put on a contractor site on our websites for contractors page.

A five-minute test

Open your own site on your phone. Pretend you are a homeowner in one of your towns who has never heard of you. Then check:

• Can you tell within a few seconds that you work in their town?
• Can you find a license number or a clear insurance statement?
• Are the photos obviously your jobs?
• Can you send an estimate request with a photo without zooming in or typing a paragraph?
• Can you see reviews, and click through to Google to check them?

If you answered no to two or more, patching may cost more than starting over. This guide on whether to fix or rebuild your website walks through that decision.

See it on your own business

We build the first version of your website free, in 2 days, with your towns, your job photos and a request form that sends messages straight to you. You click around it, then decide. If it isn't for you, you owe nothing. Get your free preview.