What a contractor website needs (and what you can skip)

The five pages of a contractor website, and what each one needs

Here's what goes on each page. "Must have" means a customer may leave without it. "Nice to have" helps once the basics are in place. "Skip" costs time or money and rarely leads to a call.

Give every page its own title that says what's on it, like "Drain Cleaning in Springfield, MO" plus your business name. Google's SEO guide says a good title is unique to the page, clear and concise, and describes what's on the page.

How our sample sites lay it out

We built sample sites for a plumber, an HVAC company and an electrician. The businesses are fictional. Each sample fits the five pages above into one long page, split into sections. Here's the order on the plumbing sample, top to bottom. The HVAC and electrical samples follow the same order with their own services and towns.

1. Header. Business name, trade and city, links to the sections, and a call button with the full number.
2. First screen. A small label ("Plumbing in Springfield, MO") and the main heading "Your local plumber in Springfield". Then one sentence ("From a dripping faucet to a new water heater..."), a Call now button and a Request a quote button. Under the buttons are two short lines: "Serving Springfield, MO" and "Clear quote before work starts".
3. Services. Six cards, each with a job name, one or two sentences and a quote link. The plumber lists leak repair, drain cleaning, water heaters, toilets and fixtures, sewer lines, and repiping. The electrician lists repairs, panel upgrades, lighting, outlets and wiring, ceiling fans and EV chargers.
4. How it works. Three steps, from "Call or send a request" to "Job done".
5. About and service area. A short paragraph, then the main city and five nearby towns, and the line "Not sure if we cover your area? Just ask."
6. Quote form. Three fields: name, phone number and "What do you need?" The last box shows an example, like "the kitchen sink drains slowly and the disposal hums".
7. FAQ. Four questions, with at least one specific to the trade. The plumber covers a pipe that's leaking right now. The HVAC company covers how often to service a system, and the electrician covers a breaker that keeps tripping.
8. Closing band and footer. "Need a plumber in Springfield?" with call and quote buttons again, then the phone number in the footer.

The page titles follow one pattern: business name, trade and city, for example "Northside Plumbing Co. | Plumbing in Springfield, MO".

Because the businesses are made up, the samples have no reviews, job photos, license numbers or hours. A real business should add all four. The placement of the call buttons is covered in our call button guide.

What changes for plumbing, HVAC, roofing, landscaping and cleaning websites

An electrician website and a cleaning company website can use the same five pages. What you put near the top, and what proof customers look for, depends on the work.

Emergency trades depend on the first screen. Someone with water on the floor wants the number and wants to know if you'll pick up tonight. For project trades like roofing and landscaping, the photos do the most work, because people compare finished jobs before they call. Recurring services like cleaning and pest control need to explain the plan: how often you come and what each visit includes.

Handyman sites need extra care. Many states limit which jobs you can take without a contractor license, so list only work you're allowed to do and check your state's rules first.

License numbers, insurance and reviews

Many states require licensed contractors to show their license number in advertising, and a website can count as advertising. California is one clear example. Its law says licensed contractors must include their license number in "all forms of advertising". The state's contractor board lists "any website or post that solicits business on the Internet" as a form of advertising. It sets the first-offense penalty at $100 to $1,000. Other states have their own rules, so check with your state licensing board.

• Put the license number in the footer, so it's on every page and customers can look it up. It also fits in the short trust line near the top of the homepage.
• Be careful with "licensed, bonded and insured". California's board says the law prevents contractors from telling the public in ads that they're bonded. Say only what's true and allowed in your state.
• Say you're insured only if the policy is current. Some customers will ask for proof.
• Use real reviews. The FTC's rule bans fake reviews and says reviews from employees or relatives need a clear disclosure. Our guide to getting more Google reviews covers how to ask.

What to skip

These are the things that get built because other sites have them. They take time or money and they rarely bring in a job.

• A blog you won't update. Three posts from years ago make the site look abandoned. Answer the questions customers ask in an FAQ on your services page instead.
• Sliders. They push your heading and phone number down and add heavy images to the first screen. Anything on the third slide is easy to miss.
• Stock photos of smiling models. They look like every other site. Phone photos of your truck, your crew and your jobs show the business people are about to hire.
• Chatbots and chat bubbles. If nobody answers fast, it's a dead end. On a phone, the bubble can also sit on top of your call button.
• A page for every town. Google's spam policies name "multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page" as doorway abuse. List your towns on one service area page. Add a separate town page only if you have something real to say about work there.
• Pop-ups on arrival. A newsletter sign-up is the last thing a person with a broken furnace wants to see.

What's most often missing

The parts that get left out are the plain ones. Think of a clear list of services, the towns you cover, real photos, license and insurance, reviews and a number you can tap.

Some sites are missing nearly everything. In our research on 1,000 trade business websites (September 2026), 8.2% of the homepages that loaded had no main heading or were minimal pages. Another 7.2% had almost no text. We checked homepages only and didn't run JavaScript, so some of those sites may show more in a browser. Still, a homepage without a heading or text doesn't tell anyone what you do or where.

In our sample, the listed website didn't work for 25 of 79 cleaning companies and 25 of 104 landscapers. For HVAC companies it was 14 of 139. The samples per trade are small, so don't read too much into the gap between trades. It's still worth tapping the website link on your own Google listing today to make sure it opens.

Check your own site in 10 minutes

Open your website on your phone and go through this list. Each "no" is a fix, roughly in order of how much it costs you.

1. Does the link on your Google Business Profile open your site?
2. Does the first screen say your trade and your town?
3. Can you tap the phone number and get the dialer?
4. Is every service you want more of listed by name?
5. Are the towns you cover written out on the site?
6. Is your license number there, if your state requires it?
7. Are there at least a few real reviews and photos of your own work?
8. Does every page have its own title that says what's on it?

If the first three fail on a phone, start with our mobile friendly website check. Then work down the list, one fix at a time.