The best website setup for contractors and trades
The platform matters far less than most people think. What matters is whether the site captures a priceable job. Still, here is an honest comparison.
Contractors ask which platform to use. It is the wrong first question, but it is a fair one, so here is a straight answer before we get to the question that actually decides whether the site earns.
The honest platform comparison
Squarespace and Wix
Fast to stand up, hard to break, fine for a five-page brochure. You will hit the ceiling when you want a real quote flow, conditional pricing questions, or anything that talks to your scheduling. Good first site, rarely the last one.
WordPress
Enormously capable and enormously maintainable-or-not depending on who set it up. A WordPress site with fifteen plugins and no maintenance contract is a security incident waiting for a slow Tuesday. With someone looking after it, it is solid.
Custom build
Right when the site needs to do work: route quote requests, manage recurring schedules, hold customer history. Wrong if all you need is a brochure — you would be paying for capability you never use.
The pages every trade site needs
- 01Home — what you do, where you do it, and one obvious way to request a quote
- 02One page per core service, each written specifically
- 03Service area, naming the towns and neighborhoods in plain text
- 04Pricing, even if it is only ranges and the variables that move them
- 05Work — photos of real jobs with a sentence about each
- 06Reviews, pulled from or linking to the real platforms
- 07About, with a face and a name, because trust is the whole sale
- 08Contact and quote request, reachable from every page
The things that actually decide performance
- A quote request form that collects enough to price the job
- Phone number tappable and visible on mobile without scrolling
- Loads in under about three seconds on a phone
- Every page has its own title and description naming the service and the area
- Real photos, not stock — customers can tell instantly
- Bilingual copy if a meaningful share of your market speaks Spanish
One thing to insist on
Own your domain yourself, in your own registrar account, with your own credit card on file. Whatever else you outsource, do not outsource that. It is the one asset that makes every other decision reversible.