What makes a great general contractor website?
If you asked ten different website designers, you’d likely get ten different responses.
Most would talk about fonts, colors, and graphics – all the ways they can make your website pretty. Some would talk about mobile-friendliness, website structure, or load speed.
But what if there was a different metric that defined successful general contractor websites? One that was a whole lot more important to your contracting business or construction company…
Contractor Websites that Drive More Leads, Phone Calls, & Sales
Here’s the dirty little secret about web design: how your website looks has very little to do with how much business it can generate for you.
That’s not to say your website shouldn’t be gorgeous. The websites we design are beautiful – we’d stack them up against any graphic designer’s work.
It’s just to say that for most small businesses, graphics, font choices, and logo designs don’t move the needle when it comes to making the phone ring.
So what does?
If you want a truly effective general contractor website, here’s what you need:
- Content. You need more than you think – and many different types. Ignore this at your peril.
- A large digital footprint. Would it really make sense to build the world’s best amusement park without any highway exits connecting to it? Who would find it?
- Keyword research. People generally find local services by typing keywords into Google. How would you know what to put on your website without knowing what people are searching for?
- True SEO. Optimizing your website happens at the domain and page level. You’d be amazed what your website can achieve with simple optimization – and lots of content.
- A lifelong partnership with consistent updates. Do you really want to go through the hassle of waiting a week for a simple update… or finding a new designer every 5 years?
Before we get to the 22 stunning contractor website examples in 2023, let’s delve into each of these aspects a little more to show you exactly what your website needs.
The Top 5 Aspects of a Lead-Generating General Contractor Website
Let’s get something out of the way quickly: your website should absolutely look the way you want it to look. It should be as beautiful as you imagine it in your head.
Your web designer should take the time to understand your brand’s values, tone, and unique selling position to build you a website you’re proud to show off.
Now, let’s assume you get that.
But as we just discussed, good looks aren’t all it takes to generate leads for your business.
I want to talk about the aspects of lead-generating general contractor websites that you may not even know you need. I also want to explain why they’re so important.
The difference between having these things and not having them could be the difference between a website that looks pretty and one that averages 44 free quote requests per month in 2022.
1. You need more content than you think.
More content = more traffic. That’s a pretty good formula when it comes to contractor websites. The reality is, a bulleted list of services doesn’t cut it in 2023 – and it didn’t really cut it ten years ago, either. Thankfully, content and website pages are pretty easy to produce.
Here are some ideas for content your website should have:
- Pages for each service you offer (yes, all of them)
- Pages for each location in which you offer those services (ditto)
- Pages for your beautiful project portfolio (you have one, right?)
- Pages showcasing your team members (show some personality)
- Blog posts people actually want to read (and that actually target the right keywords!)
More content allows you to target more keywords, which generally means more traffic to your website from search engines like Google.
More content also allows you to better serve your potential customers.
If you were searching for a local roofer, which would you choose?
- Website A: has a few pictures and a simple list of services they offer.
- Website B: has information about different types of roofing products, answers to common questions about roof repairs, tells you the area they service, and has pictures and job titles of the estimator or technician who will be showing up at your door.
I know which one I’d choose.
Your potential customers are savvy. Give them all the information you can, answer their most basic questions on your website, and show them the stellar work you can perform.
Do that, and they’ll choose you more often than not.
2. You need a large digital footprint.
Here’s another dirty little secret: a website by itself will do little to nothing for your business. Seriously. In order to get people to your website, you need a large digital footprint.
Here are some things your contractor website will need:
- A strong, optimized Google Business Profile (the most important aspect)
- Listings on dozens (if not hundreds) of quality directory websites (Angi, YellowPages, etc…)
- Social media profiles (all of them… even the ones you’ve never heard of)
- Press releases (easy to submit, and a great source of publicity)
- GPS listings with driving directions (Google loves these)
While incredibly time-consuming, all of these pieces of your footprint are free to build. Don’t skimp on this or put it off. If your digital footprint isn’t large enough, you’re not going to get the results from your website you’re hoping for – no matter how pretty it looks.
- Related reading: 267 Places to Promote Your Contractor Website Today
3. You need real keyword research.
[porto_blockquote footer_before=”Jesse Kemmerer,” footer_after=”a website designer who doesn’t cut corners.” view=”with-borders” skin=”primary” color=”#000000″]Building a website without keyword research is kind of like throwing darts in the dark: you might get lucky and hit the bull’s eye every once in a while, but you don’t really deserve to.[/porto_blockquote]
To understand this concept, we need to make a few assumptions:
- Likely, most of your website traffic will come from Google.
- People find local businesses by typing keywords into Google.
- To show up, pages on your website need to be optimized for those keywords.
We’ve just explained contractor SEO. It’s a simplified version, but not incorrect.
Here’s the thing: very few website designers offer keyword research, but they all claim to perform SEO. How can you know what to optimize for if you don’t know which keywords to target?
Keyword research will tell you what people are searching for, how many people are searching for them, and which pages you’ll need on your website to reach those people.
It looks something like this:
That’s a tiny sample of a list that could be hundreds of keywords long.
Why is this important?
This research will tell you exactly what pages you need on your website, as well as how much traffic you can expect to get from each keyword.
You can do this research right now, for free, using Google’s Keyword Planner.
4. You need true SEO.
Here’s the thing: every web designer under the sun offers “SEO.”
Few actually perform the service.
If you’re not sure which category your website service provider falls into, ask for a keyword research list. We provide them for free during every consultation.
If you’re still not convinced, ask which pages are being built to target those keywords.
Finally, for the cherry on top, ask for a list of links built to those pages.
Because here’s the thing: SEO is fairly simple. The process looks like this:
- Find a list of keywords relevant to your business.
- Build and optimize pages for those keywords.
- Build links to those pages until they rank.
That’s really about it.
Remember when we talked about the keyword research we perform for each new website?
Remember when we talked about the importance of having more content ie. pages on your website to target those keywords and drive more traffic from search engines?
Remember when we talked about building a large digital footprint linking back to your website?
Well, there’s your SEO.
Typically, a full SEO campaign is months-long because it takes time to create content and build links. We don’t replace those campaigns; we simply speed them up by providing a larger content foundation and digital footprint from the onset. Custom SEO campaigns are available, too.
- Related reading: How to Market Yourself as a Contractor
[porto_blockquote footer_before=”Editor Jesse,” footer_after=”who forgot to add this crucial aspect when first writing this article.” view=”with-borders” skin=”primary” color=”#000000″]Part of SEO is providing a good user-experience to your website visitors. Google hates slow websites. See how quickly your website loads for free using Google PageSpeed Insights, right now. Hint: it should score at least 80%. We guarantee that for all our new website builds.[/porto_blockquote]
5. You need a true partner.
Websites were never designed to be static resources. In order to treat your website like the asset it was designed to be, it needs to be continuously updated.
That’s where a true website design partner comes into play.
Our hosting package includes 1 free hours of updates every month. We also schedule quarterly check-ins with each of our clients so they’re always up-to-date on the status of their website.
On top of that, we offer the following tracking to show our worth:
- Google Analytics. The gold standard. Custom conversions help, too.
- Keyword tracking. We’re talking organic listings and local visibility.
- Phone call tracking. The best way to judge ROI for most local business websites.
For most local businesses, tracking these three metrics are all you really need.
If you want to see how your construction website design currently stacks up, request a free analysis. We’ll build a custom, hand-curated breakdown of your current website and digital footprint, along with critiques and steps to take to make your online presence more effective. It’s completely free.
22 Stunning Examples of Effective Contractor Websites
Okay, enough yapping.
While we don’t think beauty is the end-all-by-all of website design, there’s no doubt that your website needs to look good to succeed.
We’ve curated 22 general contractor website examples that look stunning.
Some, we built ourselves. (We’re a contractor marketing agency, after all.)
Many, we didn’t. But that doesn’t mean they’re not great or effective.
When looking at these contractor site examples, pay attention to more than just how it looks – the graphics, fonts, colors and more.
Pay attention to their menu structure, the amount and types of content they have.
Pay attention to their project portfolio and photo galleries.
Pay attention to how quickly the website loads.
Website design isn’t just about throwing together some pretty graphics. It’s about building a website and online presence that drives traffic, leads, phone calls and sales.
Without further adieu, here are the best contractor website examples.
1. Miller’s Residential Creations
https://www.millersresidential.com
Full disclosure – we built this website. But we still think it’s awesome! The overall design is sleek and photo-centric. Not only that, but this construction company site is absolutely packed with content: over 200 pages and counting! All of this content helped us recently increase this construction contractor’s phone calls by 98% in only 12 months! This is website design done right.
2. Slonaker’s Custom Paving
https://www.slonakerscustompaving.com
Okay, we built this one, too. Don’t blame us – we’re a web design company, after all. Brand cohesion was important to this client, so we stuck with the yellow and black color scheme while highlighting all of their great work. They have a rockin’ project portfolio, and are currently averaging 44 free quote requests per month!
3. Loudoun Valley Roofing
We love this roofing contractor business website. There’s something almost old-school about it – probably owing to the logo itself. It reminds us of a quintessential logo design from the 1920’s, and we mean that in the best sense. Not only that, but the menu items are clean and descriptive. As soon as you land on this website, you can clearly see where you should go for information on whatever service you need. It’s an A+ in our book.
4. Southern Wood Roofing & Siding, LLC
https://www.southernwoodllc.com
There’s so much to unpack here, from the top banner with a special offer to the double menu to the prominently displayed phone number. However, the biggest win by far comes from the contact form that’s front and center – one of the first things you see when you land on this site. I imagine they’re getting plenty of leads from that placement, especially with all of those trust-building signals directly underneath.
5. TradeMark Construction, LLC
https://www.trademarkconstruct.com
Right off the bat, you can see their company values: communication, respect, and reliability. One of the things that makes a great website design is its content and copy – the words you say the sell your services. We love this construction business website because it puts the company message right at the forefront. Where it belongs.
6. Austin Native Landscaping
https://austinnativelandscaping.com
Sleek, simple and effective. Those are the first words that come to mine for this website design. Focusing on the foliage native to their area, this website screams Texas. With a simple, easily navigable menu and a strong opening image, this website has it going on.
7. Kevin Wood Landscapes
https://www.kevinwoodlandscapes.com
We put all of these contractor websites through their paces, especially when it comes to responsive design features. This one passed that test with flying colors. No matter which screen you’re viewing on, this websites adapts its beautiful opening image to fit your viewport, while at the same time ensuring the menu appears at the bottom of your screen. Great work – and bonus points for the easy social sharing!
8. Maggio Roofing
Another wonderful-looking construction business website design. Right off the bat, they have a banner advertising their financing options. Great. Then they have a contact form prominently displayed. That’s great for contractor email marketing. Then they have an optimized h1 tag for their targeted keyword. Stellar. They’re doing a bunch of things right, including showing off their great work.
9. Ruff Roofers Inc.
First off, we love this business’s name and URL. Very cool. The website seems like it was built completely around the logo, with great brand cohesion. The phone number is prominently displayed in big, blocky letters. Furthermore, you can see from a glance exactly what this company does. We didn’t even know “historical roofing” was a thing, and I bet a lot of other people don’t either. But if they come to this website, they will.
10. Cambria Construction
https://www.cambriaconstructiongroup.com
Construction business websites needs to do one thing really, really well: show off the beautiful work done by the company. As you can see, this website does just that, leading with what had to be a professionally-taken photograph of a custom-built home. You’d be amazed at how big a difference professionally-taken photographs can make on a website. It seems this company knows that fact well.
11. Ziger Snead
This isn’t really a construction website – this is an architect, but when we came across it in our research, we just had to include it. It’s basic almost to the point of emptiness, but it’s not empty at all. The website itself does just what it was designed to do: show off this business’s beautiful portfolio. Because it does that so well, this is an A+ in our book.
12. Judd Builders
Wow. This opening image is stunning. Full frame, responsive, and obviously professionally-taken. This contracting business website knows what people want to see, and gives it to them right off the bat: pictures of their gorgeous work. Not only that, but there’s a fun, funky font that’s eye-catching and that sets the tone for the brand. Great work.
13. Kumas Homes
Simple, sleek and professional – those are the words that first come to mind when viewing this website design. This developer truly leans into the idea that sometimes less is more, and the result is stunning. This website design is all about branding, and the image it portrays is the height of professionalism.
14. Larry & Sons
This company is from our neck of the woods, and they’re doing just about everything right for their digital presence. Their website is absolutely packed with content, with 630 pages indexed on Google. With so much content, we bet their website gets tons of traffic and keeps them pretty busy. That’s no secret – almost every day we see one of their blue and red vans on the road. They’ve hired someone very talented to do their digital marketing.
15. Talon Construction
https://talon-construction.com
I love this website’s opening message: “fall in love with your home all over again.” What a great tagline for a remodeling company. Some web design companies know something about copywriting, too, it seems. As for their website, it is minimalist and clean, with sharp edges, great clarity, and an easily navigable menu. Great work.
16. Jack Rosen Custom Kitchens, Inc.
Some web design companies know what you need: clear, concise menus, prominently displayed phone numbers, and big header images showing off some project pictures. Why? The classics work for a reason. This website is clean and sharp, focused primarily on letting the beautiful project pictures do the heavy lifting of making things pop. It works.
17. Heidler Roofing
https://www.heidlerroofing.com
For some reason, this website just screams “roofing contractor,” and not in a bad way. It also focuses on a subset of the roofing market – commercial work – and makes that very clear from the get-go. If I had any criticism, it would be to get some professionally taken pictures and replace the ones shot from someone’s iPhone. You can see the difference, right?
18. Simply Green Landscaping
https://simplygreenlandscaping.com
Remember the criticism we had for the above website’s images? Yeah, not the case with this one. Their photographer clearly has some skills, with vibrant colors popping all over the place. Combined with a simple, strong logo and a fun grass graphic at the bottom, this landscape construction site is truly special.
19. Maxalea
Not to harp on the point too much, but take a look at this website’s photo. It’s good; the one above is great. Photography really makes a difference, folks! But we love the strong logo and static left-hand banner of this landscaping contractor website. Combined with a simple, sleek menu and a great font choice, everything about this website screams longevity and gravitas – no wonder, when the company has been around for 90 years!
20. Ashton Woods
You can’t see it from this image, but the website featured a video as its header image, and the effect is great. Not only that, but they have a live chat feature – a huge boost to conversion rates – and a quick, easy location search for customers to use. The website itself is minimalist and done to great effect, with strong fonts and sparing graphics. It’s a construction website done right.
21. Shelter Custom-Built Living
https://sheltercustombuiltliving.com
This is another one of those side-scrolling websites with a static left-hand banner. You don’t see it much, but when it’s done correctly, it looks great. And take a look at that introductory picture! You can really tell it was taken by a professional, and it makes all the difference. If you want your construction site to show off your work the best it can, invest in professional photography like this company.
22. Loudoun Valley Roofing
Again, professional photography! We can’t stress this enough. Besides that, they have a simple, sleek looking logo with a prominently displayed phone number at the top and a simple drop down main menu. Minimalist by design – after all, the focus is on that beautiful home they built!
7 Frequently Asked Questions About Contractor Website Design
Right. Now that we’ve talked about what makes a great contractor web design and shown you 22 examples of companies doing it right, it’s time to answer some of your burning questions about the actual web design process. Of course, each service provider is going to be different, but there are typically some commonalities. We’ll talk about those below.
Note: I’m going to make some generalities throughout these answers, but after a decade of being in this industry, I have a good grasp on price points, common service features, and more.
1. How much does web design for contractors cost?
This is a hard question to answer, but I know it’s on everyone’s lips. As far as I can tell, you pretty much have three options to choose from, all with their own inherent strengths and weaknesses:
You can do it all yourself for a nominal fee: $100-$300/year.
Website builders like Squarespace or Wix allow you to build a website with no real technical knowledge. They work fine, as far as I can tell, and your finished product will essentially look as good as you’re able to make it. Of course, you’ll have to write all of your own content, select your own pictures, build your own menu structure, try your hand at SEO optimization, and build a digital footprint by yourself, and that can be a daunting task. Our blog should help get you on the right track. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer (and if you have the time), this option might be for you.
You can buy from a big-box provider: $200-$800/month.
These websites are typically paste-and-play, and they look like it (in my opinion). These web design companies will typically give you a handful of pages with an acceptable amount of content, pages for a photo gallery and contact form, and some links to your social profiles. They’ll usually configure their pre-built templates around your brand and logo, using your company colors where possible. You’ll usually get up and running within a week or two. The downside? You’ll rarely (if ever) own the final product, so if you stop paying, you lose your asset. Ouch.
You can buy from a competent website provider: $5,000 – $15,000 (give or take).
There are about a million and a half options for this. It’s a buyer’s market, but you have to be careful who you choose, so some due diligence is required. We think we’re one of the best, but whomever you choose, make sure your new website will have the following:
- Lots of pages, with an easy, cost-effective option to add more
- An optimized Google Business Profile
- Directory listings, social media profiles, GPS listings, and more
- SCHEMA markup
- Website caching, with a guaranteed website speed benchmark
- An active blog with real content
- Project portfolios, team member biographies, and more
- Reliable website hosting
2. How long will it take to build my website?
This will depend on the provider you’ve chosen, but in general, you should be prepared for at least a 4-6 week turnaround time, all the way up to 12 weeks for an in-demand provider. Keep in mind, you’ll likely have to provide some assets to your provider, such as your logo, and project pictures, your company’s unique selling proposition, and more. If you delay in providing these, well… you delay the process.
3. Will my new website include SEO?
Again, a hard question to answer.
The short answer: no.
But it’s complicated. Let me explain.
Every single contractor web designer under the sun will say their website build will include contractor SEO. But what does that even mean?
SEO means optimizing pages on your website for certain keywords in the hopes that those pages will appear first whenever someone searches for them on Google, Bing, or other search engines. That’s perhaps a simplistic explanation, but lets run with it for the time being.
Here’s what a typical process for SEO looks like:
- Find keywords
- Build pages targeting those keywords
- Build backlinks to those pages until they rank #1.
Of course, this is a highly simplified version, but let’s run with it.
Now, let’s say you’re a kitchen remodeler or countertop store in Dallas, Texas. You offer kitchen countertop replacements.
Your new website designer builds a page for you targeting that service. Let’s say they know what they’re doing, and they optimize that page’s title, heading, alt tags, meta description, and more for the main keyword: “kitchen countertop replacement dallas tx.”
Let’s say they’ve even built a backlink or two to that page.
In the broadest sense, they’ve performed SEO.
Let’s even say they’ve done a really, really good job, and you’re now ranking #1 for that keyword: “kitchen countertop replacement dallas tx.”
Here’s the problem:
No one searches for that keyword!
You see, SEO (ie. search engine optimization) can be done to any website or website page fairly easily, which is why just about every web designer offers it. The difference between true SEO and mere optimization for optimization’s sake is knowing what keywords to go after to begin with (not to mention a slew of other factors, but let’s keep it simple).
Here are some keywords that website designer should have optimized for:
Long story short: every website designer will offer SEO. However, there will probably be a steep gulf between your expectations of that service and the reality of it.
A true SEO campaign will typically last at least 12 months. There’s actually a reason for this, and it isn’t typically due to the time it takes to perform the service.
True SEO takes a while because:
1. It takes time for website pages to move up or down in search engines rankings.
2. It takes time for Google to crawl (ie. discover) website pages and backlinks.
3. It takes time to build backlinks that will actually move the needle.
Keep this in mind when buying a website that comes packaged with SEO. It’s not to say the service isn’t performed – just that it might not be being performed the way you think it is.
After all, companies pay thousands of dollars per month for SEO work to rank for keywords like the ones above. There’s real, heavy competition for them because they’re incredibly valuable.
If you want the rewards, you have to compete just as hard.
4. What about the monthly fee?
Most website providers will charge you a monthly fee to host, maintain, and update your website on a regular basis. Websites built on WordPress require their plugins, themes, and WordPress core updated regularly. There is an extremely wide range of price points for this type of fee, but anything in the $50-$200/month range is reasonable – so long as the maintenance is done.
5. What about ongoing updates? How often should I be adding new content?
Most providers will assist with ongoing changes for a fee – ours is built into our monthly package. As for how often you should update your website, it boils down to a few things:
1. You should always be adding new portfolio, project, or before/after pictures.
2. You should always be adding blog posts that add value in the forms of building your authority in your industry or solving common problems for customers and visitors.
3. You should only go out of your way to add additional content when it aligns with a specific SEO strategy. Remember the keyword lesson from before? It’s fine to throw spaghetti at a wall, but it would be nice to know what you’re trying to hit before you do it.
6. What about a mobile version of my website?
Most website built today are responsive. However, it’s important to keep in mind that over 50% of your website traffic will likely come from a mobile device, and responsive design doesn’t always solve the problem of looking good on a mobile viewport. Make sure your website designer is as focused on the mobile appearance of your website as they are on the desktop one.
7. What about website speed?
Firstly, realize that the difference between your mobile speed and desktop speed can be wildly different (and since over half of your visits will come from a mobile device, that’s incredibly important.} Let’s look at example #3 from the previous list, by example: lvroofing.com. (I can’t use the first two examples – we built those and they’re lightning-fast on both mobile and desktop)
8. I’ve heard enough. Can I hire you?
Of course! Give us a call at (304) 223-9030 or request a free consultation.
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This website isn’t the fastest to begin with, but you can really see how much slower the mobile version of the page is than the desktop version.
In general, your “first contentful paint” speed should be 2 seconds or fewer. Your “time to interactive” metric should be less than 3.8 seconds.
Here’s a tip: always test this, as it’s not something many website providers will mention unless they’re specifically asked.
What Do You Want Out of Your General Contractor Website?
If you’ve been paying attention, hopefully you want more than just pretty graphics (though there’s no doubt you should have those, too).
In order to get more visitors, leads, and phone calls, your website needs to be effective. It needs to have a ton of helpful content, a large digital footprint, automated social media, the latest website technology, and an efficient tracking and analytics setup so you can assess your results.
Let’s boil those down to be clearer:
- Be helpful.
- Be easy to find.
- Be where your customers already are.
- Be fast.
- Be able to measure your success (or failure) in the previous four areas.
If you do all of that with your website, there’s no way you’ll lose.
Remember: this isn’t rocket science.
You’ve Googled enough and visited enough websites to know what makes one better than the other. You can have the better option; it just takes a little more effort.
We build websites for contractors that make the phone ring.
Get in touch with us today for a free website analysis, or call us for a free consultation.
