Industries / General contractors and construction
Websites for
contractors.
Fence, deck, roofing, remodeling, construction. Different trades, one buying pattern: a price, proof of work, and a way to ask.
Updated 22 September 2026 · Justin, JT Studio, Chandler AZ
Key takeaways
- Contractors are compared on price before they are ever called. A site that publishes a starting rate, as words on the page, gets shortlisted by customers and quoted by AI assistants.
- Each trade you run is a separate search. Fence, deck and dock are three queries, and one page covering all three ranks for none of them.
- The bar in this industry is low. The page ranking second for "website design for fence companies" carries 677 words and no tables.
- A website will not win the map results on its own. Most of what decides those sits in your Google Business Profile and your review count, and both are your work rather than the site’s.
What your customers search for
What people search for
Checked September 2026
Google finishes your sentence based on what other people have typed. That will not tell you how many, but it will tell you how they ask. Across roofing, landscaping, fencing and the rest of the trades, one word turns up again and again: template. "Roofing company website template", "landscaping company website template", "roofing website template". People in this trade start by looking for the cheap version. A custom site has to earn the difference on the page rather than assume it.
The second recurring pattern is proof. "Best roofing company websites", "top roofing company websites", "roofing website examples", "best landscaping company websites". Contractors want to see the work before they commit, which is why a site without real job photos loses to one that has them.
Two traps are worth knowing before anyone spends money on them. "Deck builder website" belongs to Magic, Clash Royale and Pokémon, not to decks you walk on, and "deck building company website" returns no suggestions at all. And "website for contractors" completes with "to bid on jobs", "to find work" and "to review customers": that phrase means lead-generation platforms, not web design. Targeting either one wastes a page.
Where these websites lose the job
| What happens | What it costs |
|---|---|
| No price anywhere on the site | The first question every homeowner asks gets answered by a phone call you have to take, or not at all. Published starting rates also give AI answers a number they can quote. |
| Every service on one page | Fence, deck and dock are three different searches. A single services page competes for all three and wins none. |
| Prices locked in a calculator widget | Google reads page text. An AI answer quotes page text. A number that only appears after a visitor moves a slider is invisible to both. |
| Stock photography instead of job photos | Trust in this trade comes from work a customer recognises from their own street. Stock images make a local builder look like a franchise. |
| A form that lands in spam | A quote request that never arrives is worse than no form. Authenticated sending and spam protection are not optional. |
| City pages built for cities nobody searches | Time spent on a page nobody searches, while the town people do search has nothing. Ten minutes in Google settles this. |
Where to start
Publish a starting rate
Per foot, per square, per job, whatever unit the trade uses. Say plainly that a real quote follows a site visit. The number filters bargain hunters and answers the search.
A page per service
Each trade you actually run gets its own page, its own photos and its own form. That is what matches the way people search.
Your own job photos
Compressed properly so the site opens fast on a phone in a truck. Real work, not a stock library.
Connect the profile
Google Business Profile, categories, service area and reviews. On a local trade search this decides more than the website does.
What is on page one right now
Three agency pages and a design gallery. Read in the browser, September 2026, for "website design for fence companies".
| Found | Detail |
|---|---|
| 677 words | The page Google ranks second. About a page and a half. |
| 0 of 3 | Publish a price. |
| 1 of 3 | Lay out questions and answers on the page. |
| 0 of 3 | Carry a single table. |
| Ranked first | A Dribbble tag page. Not an agency. |
Questions owners ask
Do I need a page for every service I offer?
If you want the search, yes. Fence, deck and dock are three different queries, and a single page covering all three competes for all of them and wins none. If you book entirely on referral and just need a professional address on the web, one page is honest and enough. That is a real conversation, not an upsell.
Should a contractor publish prices on the website?
A published starting rate filters out bargain hunters and gives AI answers a number to quote. Publish it in whatever unit your trade uses, per foot, per square, per job, with a clear line that the real quote comes after a site visit. If your pricing genuinely cannot be reduced to a starting number, say what drives it instead.
Is a template good enough for a contracting business?
Often, for a contractor who books on referral and needs a place to send people. A template falls short in three places: starting rates end up inside a calculator widget rather than as words on the page, services share one page instead of each getting a page, and the site belongs to the platform rather than to you. The right answer depends on how you get work, and it gets settled on the call.
Will a new website put me at the top of Google?
Not on its own. A site can be finished and correct and still sit below a competitor with more reviews, because the map results are decided mostly by the Google Business Profile and the review count. The website is the part that can be controlled and finished. The profile and the reviews are the rest, and they take longer.
How long does a contractor website take?
Most sites take a few weeks, set by how fast photos, prices and review rounds come back. What holds a site up is almost never the building. It is waiting on your photos and your prices.
Going deeper
Fence contractors have their own page, built on the Crown Fence Co. site in Cape Coral, Florida: fourteen pages, per-foot rates for five materials in page text, and the numbers measured at launch.
Start with a call
Bring your trades, your photos and your starting rates. Twenty minutes covers what people search in your area and what the sites already ranking carry.