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The Contractor Website Audit Checklist: 12 Things Your Web Guy Should Have Fixed Already
If you paid someone to build your website and it brings in zero leads, you got sold a pretty brochure. Here's how to tell whether your site is actually working or just taking up server space.
Grab a coffee and pull up your website. We're going through this together.
1. The vanity trap: do you only rank for your business name?
Open an incognito window and Google your business name. You probably show up. Now Google what your customers actually search: "roofing contractor [your city]" or "emergency plumber near me." You should appear somewhere on pages 1 through 3.
If you're nowhere to be found, your website is an expensive business card. You paid for it, it looks nice, and nobody who hasn't already heard of you can find it.
Why this matters: the people searching your business name were going to find you anyway. The money is in the hundreds of people per month searching for what you do who have never heard of you.
- Search "[your service] [your city]". Do you appear in the first 3 pages?
- Check Google Search Console. Are you getting impressions for anything besides your business name?
- Look at your analytics. Is your traffic basically you and your employees checking the site?
2. The fluff problem: your content says nothing Google cares about
Scroll through your homepage and service pages. Count how many times you actually say what you do and where you do it.
If your homepage reads like "we're passionate about creating beautiful, functional outdoor living spaces that bring your vision to life," cool. You're a poet. But Google has no idea whether you build decks, install pools, or paint houses. Neither does the person who just landed on your site.
Real talk: the agency that charged you $5K for premium copywriting probably handed you the same template it gave 47 other contractors, with a few words swapped. Meanwhile, your competitor who writes like a 7th grader and says "kitchen remodeling Austin" eight times on his ugly website is getting the calls.
- Does your homepage say your primary service in the first sentence?
- Does it mention your city or service area in the first paragraph?
- Do your service page URLs include the service? Think yoursite.com/deck-building.
- Can someone who speaks English as a second language understand what you do in 5 seconds?
3. Your blog is a traffic graveyard
Check your blog analytics, if you even have a blog. Posts like "Why Hire a Professional?", "The Importance of Quality", and "Spring Maintenance Tips" get maybe 12 views per month, and half of those are you checking that they published.
Two quick tests: type your post titles into Google and see if they auto-complete (if they don't, nobody searches that), and check whether each post clears 50 views per month after being live 6+ months. Under that, it's a dud.
The scam: your marketing company sold you a monthly blog package and has been pumping out generic industry content written by someone who has never swung a hammer. They hit their word count, you paid your invoice, and they were the only winner.
Topics that actually pull traffic:
- "How much does [your service] cost in [your city]": everybody searches this
- "[Service] vs DIY: when to call a pro": people want permission to hire you
- "[Service] timeline: how long does it take?": they're planning and budgeting
- "[Emergency service] repair cost": they need help right now
4. You only mention one city (but you serve eight)
You're based in Austin. You serve Round Rock, Cedar Park, Pflugerville, Georgetown, Leander, Lakeway, Bee Cave, and Dripping Springs. Your website mentions Austin three times and nowhere else. You're invisible to everyone in those other cities.
The fix: one page per city. The guy who built your site in 2019 either never thought of it or wanted to charge you another $500 per page.
- Google "[your service] Round Rock" (or whatever cities you serve). Do you show up?
- Do you have a dedicated page for each service area?
- Does each area page mention local landmarks, zip codes, and neighborhoods?
5. One giant services page instead of separate pages
Click your services page. Is it a wall of bullet points covering everything from faucet repair to whole home repiping to water heater installation? Google can't tell what to rank you for, and visitors can't tell what you specialize in.
The reality: separate pages rank better, convert better, and make you look less desperate. Your web guy bundled everything into one page because it was faster for him.
- Does each major service have its own dedicated page?
- Does each service page have real content, well past two sentences?
- Are there photos specific to that service?
- Is there a clear "get a quote for [this specific service]" button?
6. Zero schema markup
Right-click your homepage, hit View Page Source, and Ctrl+F for "schema." Nothing? Then your site is missing the rich snippets, star ratings, and "Open Now" badges that make other contractors stand out in search results.
The excuse you probably got: "schema is too technical," or "we'll add that in phase 2." There was never a phase 2. The truth: it's copy-paste code that takes 20 minutes. Your web developer either doesn't know what it is or couldn't be bothered.
- Run your site through Google's Rich Results Test.
- Do your star ratings show up in Google search?
- Does your business info (phone, hours, address) display correctly?
7. Your gallery is an SEO black hole
Open your project gallery, right-click an image, and inspect it. Filename: IMG_2847.jpg. Alt text: empty, or "image."
Google can't see images. All those beautiful deck builds, kitchen remodels, and bathroom renovations are doing zero SEO work for you.
Why nobody did this: it's tedious, and your web designer charged by the page. They bulk-uploaded 50 photos and called it done.
- Are your image filenames descriptive? deck-build-austin-composite-2024.jpg works.
- Does every image have alt text with your service plus location?
- Do captions explain what the project is, where it is, and what materials you used?
8. Slower than dial-up
Open your site on your phone, on cellular with WiFi off. Count to 3. Is it loaded? If it isn't, half your visitors are already gone.
The excuse: "load speed doesn't really matter that much." The truth: Google uses it as a ranking factor, and 53% of mobile visitors bail after 3 seconds. It matters.
- Run your site through PageSpeed Insights. It's free.
- Is your mobile speed score above 50? It should be 70+.
- Did someone upload massive iPhone photos without compressing them?
- Is there an auto-play background video that adds nothing?
9. No FAQ page (or a terrible one)
Do you have an FAQ page? Does it answer the questions people ask you every single day? Or is it stuff like Q: "What makes you different?" A: "Our commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction." Nobody searches that.
Pull 15 to 20 real questions from your phone calls, format them as actual questions (Google loves this for featured snippets), and cover service area, pricing, licensing, timeline, and emergency availability.
Real questions people search:
- "Do I need a permit for [service]?"
- "How long does [service] take?"
- "What's the average cost of [service] in [city]?"
- "Can you do [service] in the winter or rain?"
10. Testimonials are buried or useless
Where are your reviews? Buried on a testimonials page nobody clicks? And what do they say? "Great work! Would recommend. - John S." That tells nobody anything.
Compare: "Fixed our burst pipe on Christmas Eve within 45 minutes. Quoted $850, final bill was $850. No surprises. - Sarah M., Westlake Hills." That's credible. That gets someone to call.
- Are Google reviews embedded on your homepage?
- Are testimonials on every service page?
- Do reviews include specifics: timeline, cost, problem solved, neighborhood?
11. No clear next step
Someone is on your site. They read your service page, looked at the photos, and they trust you. Then the page just ends, with no button and no phone number in sight.
The miss: you spent money driving people to your site, you created content that convinced them you're legit, and then you left them with no obvious way to take the next step.
- Does every page have a clear call to action?
- Can someone schedule an appointment without calling? Calendly, Acuity, anything.
- Is your phone number clickable on mobile?
- Is there a sticky header with "Get a Quote" that follows them down the page?
12. Your contact form is a job application
Click your contact page and count the fields. Name, email, phone, address, service needed, project description, budget range, timeline, preferred contact method, "how did you hear about us?" Nobody is filling that out, especially on mobile.
Every extra field drops your conversion rate by roughly 10%. Collect the bare minimum to call them back: name, phone, service needed. Get them on the phone, then get the details.
Better yet, skip the form entirely. Click-to-call button. Scheduling that books straight into your calendar. Make it so easy a toddler could do it.
- Is your form under 5 fields?
- Is every field actually necessary to get someone on the phone?
- Do you offer a prominent "skip the form, just call" option?
Scoring time
Count how many boxes you checked.
- 10-12 checked: your site is solid. A few tweaks and you're golden.
- 7-9 checked: you're doing okay but leaving money on the table.
- 4-6 checked: your site needs work. Like, yesterday.
- 0-3 checked: that's a liability with a domain name.
The real problem
Most web developers and marketing agencies mean well. They're lazy, or they don't know better, or they're optimizing for what pays them: monthly retainers for template content while your lead count stays flat.
You got sold a website. What you needed was a lead generation system.
If you checked fewer than 8 boxes, someone needs to fix this. Either pressure your current marketing team to actually do their job, or find someone who knows the difference between looking pretty and making money.
Want us to audit your site and fix this stuff? A free 15-minute review will tell you exactly what's broken and what it's costing you.