The short answer
A contractor website that looks fine but gets no calls usually fails at something a homeowner notices in seconds: a number that will not tap, slow loading, no page for the job, no town named, a long form, no proof by the button, or enquiries left unanswered. Each takes minutes to check on your own phone.
In this article
- Why does a good-looking site still not get calls?
- 1. Can a homeowner tap your number and call you?
- 2. Does your site load fast enough on a phone?
- 3. Is there a separate page for each service you want calls for?
- 4. Does the site say which town you work in?
- 5. Is your contact form short enough to fill in on a phone?
- 6. Is there proof next to the button?
- 7. Does anybody answer the enquiries the site does get?
- How do you score your own site?
- Common questions
- Want a second opinion on your site?
Why does a good-looking site still not get calls?
Because looks are the part you can judge, and calls depend on the parts you cannot see from your desk. A homeowner who lands on your site is on a phone, often in a hurry, and has probably opened two or three other contractors in other tabs. They are not admiring the design. They are looking for a reason to ring you, and a reason to close the tab.
So the fix is rarely a redesign. It is usually one of seven small failures, and you can find out which in an evening with your own phone and a second phone number. Take the checks in order, write down what fails, and do not skip the last one, because it is the one most owners are quietly losing jobs to.
One caution before the list. A site that is the place calls get caught cannot create demand that is not there, and nobody can honestly promise you a number of calls from fixing these. What they do is stop you losing the people who already found you.
1. Can a homeowner tap your number and call you?
Open your site on your phone and tap the phone number. It should open the dialer with your number ready to go. If nothing happens, or it selects the text like ordinary words, a person on a phone has to memorize seven digits, switch apps and type them in. Many will not.
Check three things. First, tap the number in the header and again in the footer. Second, scroll down the page on your phone and see whether the number is still in reach without scrolling back to the top. Third, look at the Contact page, where someone who has already decided to call is most likely to be standing.
The number should be visible on the first screen, before any scrolling, on every page. If it only appears on the Contact page, a homeowner reading your deck or drainage page has to go hunting for it.
2. Does your site load fast enough on a phone?
Switch your phone off wifi, use mobile data, and open your home page and one service page. Count how long you wait before you can read the page and tap something. If you have time to look out the window, a homeowner has time to hit Back.
You can also run the page through PageSpeed Insights, Google’s free tool, and read the mobile result rather than the desktop one. Do not chase a perfect score. Look at what it flags as the biggest causes, which on a trades site are almost always very large photos, a video that starts on its own, or a pile of add-on scripts.
Your finished-job photos are the best thing on the site, so the fix is not fewer of them. They need to be sized for the screen they show on. That is a job for whoever built the site, and it is a fair thing to ask them for.
3. Is there a separate page for each service you want calls for?
Write down the three jobs you most want more of. Now search your own site for each one. A deck builder who wants railing jobs needs a page about railings, not a line in a list on the home page. A homeowner with a wet basement is typing “basement waterproofing”, not “home improvement”, and a site with one page called Services cannot answer either.
A page per service does two things. It gives Google something specific to show for that search, and it gives the homeowner a page that speaks to their problem on arrival. A page that covers a single job can name the materials, the process, the kind of house it suits and the questions people ask, which is what makes it read like someone who does the work.
If you are in the deck trade, our note on what a deck builder’s site needs goes through what those pages need. The test applies to every trade: if you removed your logo, could a reader tell which job this page is about?
4. Does the site say which town you work in?
Read your home page as a stranger and find the town. It should be in the main heading or the first paragraph, and in the page title if you look at the browser tab. Then check whether the neighbouring towns you actually serve appear anywhere.
Plenty of trades sites never name a place. They say “serving your area” or “the Lower Mainland and beyond” and leave the homeowner to guess. A person looking for a contractor near them wants to see their own town written down. It tells them you work there, and it tells a search engine which searches the page is for.
Do not list thirty towns in a footer. Name the real area you work in, and put it where the reader is already looking: the heading, the first paragraph and the service pages.
5. Is your contact form short enough to fill in on a phone?
Fill in your own form on your phone, with your thumb, while standing up. Time it. A homeowner asking about a job wants to give a name, a phone number and a line about what they need. Every field beyond that is a reason to give up and call someone else.
Count the fields. Ask whether each one is something you need before the first conversation. Budget, preferred start date, how they heard about you and a long description box can all wait until you speak. Check the phone keyboard too: the number field should bring up the number pad, and nothing should force them to pick from a tiny dropdown.
Then press send and look at what happens. There should be a clear message that it went through. A form that appears to do nothing gets pressed three times, or abandoned.
6. Is there proof next to the button?
Look at the spot where you ask the homeowner to ring or send a form, and see what is next to it. If it is a bare button on its own, the homeowner is being asked to trust a stranger with no evidence nearby. Put real evidence within a thumb’s length of the ask: a photo of a finished job, a short quote from a client or your Google rating.
Use real things only. A real photo from your own jobs beats any stock image, and homeowners can tell the difference. A real client quote beats an adjective about yourself. Northwest Drainage Solutions’ owner, Tyler Carruthers, said of working with Rega: “it’s about looking legit and having the systems.” A contractor site is judged on that first impression, and proof beside the button is what makes it hold.
Do not make anything up to fill the gap. If you have no reviews yet, ask the last three happy clients for a line, and use a photo of the work in the meantime. Saying nothing is better than a claim you cannot back.
7. Does anybody answer the enquiries the site does get?
This is the one to do last, and it is the one that stings. Some sites are getting enquiries, and the enquiries are going nowhere. Submit a test enquiry from a different phone and watch what happens. Does it arrive at all, where does it land, and how long before a person or an automatic text replies? Then call your own business number from a phone you do not normally use, and see whether it gets picked up, goes to a voicemail that works, or rings out.
A homeowner who has asked three contractors for a quote picks the one who answers first. If a form lands in an inbox nobody checks until evening, the site did its job and the business did not. Habitat for Humanity MVI’s CEO, Trevor Coyle, described the fix in a client testimonial: the site was connected to their CRM “so all our form submissions now flow directly into it, which has saved us a lot of time.” The enquiry goes somewhere that a person sees, rather than into a mailbox.
The fix is a follow-up that does not depend on you being free: an instant text back, a missed-call reply, and a place where each enquiry is tracked until it is closed. That is what a lead system for contractors is for. If you have no other spare hour, spend it here, because no page change helps if the answer never comes.
How do you score your own site?
Go back through the seven and mark each one pass or fail. Two or three fails is normal and each is a small fix: a tappable number, smaller photos, a shorter form. Five or more fails suggests the site was built to be looked at rather than to catch calls, and the piece to decide is whether to fix or rebuild.
A rebuild is a real cost, so it helps to know what drives the price first. Our guide on what a contractor website costs in Canada sets out what a quote should include and what to ask before you sign.
It is also worth saying when a new site is not the answer. If the seven checks pass, the site is probably not the problem, and the next place to look is whether people can find you at all or whether the phone is being answered. A site cannot fix a business that is not answering.
Common questions
How many calls should a contractor website get? There is no honest single number. It depends on your trade, your town, how many people are searching for your service there and how you are found. We do not publish a figure because one that fits every contractor would be invented. Work on the seven checks and watch whether more of the people who visit end up calling.
Is it my website or my marketing? Both can be the cause. If few people visit, the problem is in how you are found. If plenty visit and few call, the problem is on this list. Your site’s analytics or call tracking will show which one you have, and it is worth knowing before you spend on either.
Can I check all this myself? Yes. Every check above uses your own phone, a second phone number and about an hour in total. Nothing here needs a developer to find out, only to fix.
Will fixing these guarantee more calls? No, and nobody should promise it. These are the common places a site loses people who were already ready to call. Fixing them removes reasons to leave. It does not create demand that is not there.
Want a second opinion on your site?
We take one client per trade per market, so the first thing worth finding out is whether yours is open. Ask for a market check through the contact page: tell us your trade and where you work, and we will tell you where it stands and what we would look at first on your site.
