Ask ten web designers what a contractor website costs and you'll get ten different answers. That's not because anyone is hiding the ball. The price depends on a handful of decisions, and once you know what they are, quotes get much easier to compare.
What drives the price
- How many pages you need. A one-page site is cheap. A site with a page for each service and each city you work in costs more to build, and it's also the kind that ranks.
- Custom design or a template. Templates are fast and inexpensive. Custom work costs more but fits your business and loads faster when it's built well.
- Who writes the words. If you supply the copy, the price drops. If the designer writes it, plan for more, and expect better results if they know how your customers search.
- Photos. Your own job photos are the best thing you can put on the site. A photographer costs extra; stock photos are cheaper and less convincing.
- Features. Quote forms, booking calendars, call tracking and chat each add a little time to build and connect.
- Ongoing work. Hosting, security, updates and SEO either come bundled in a monthly plan or get billed separately.
The three common ways to pay
Do it yourself. Website builders charge a small monthly fee. The cost is your time, and most DIY sites never get the service and city pages they need to rank.
A one-time build. You pay a larger amount upfront for the site, then pay separately for hosting, changes and SEO. Changes are often billed by the hour, which adds up.
A monthly plan. Design, hosting and updates are rolled into one monthly price with little or nothing upfront. This is how SrvrSide works: you get a professional site without a big check, and changes are included.
Costs people forget
- Your domain name and business email
- Hourly charges for small changes after launch
- A full redesign every few years when a cheap site ages badly
- SEO, which is a separate line item at many shops
Questions to ask before you sign
- What exactly is included each month, and what costs extra?
- How are changes handled after launch?
- Will I get a page for each service and city I work in?
- How fast does it load on a phone?
- What happens if I cancel?
The cheapest site isn't the one with the lowest price. It's the one that brings in more work than it costs. If you want to see where your current site stands, a free site review is a good place to start.