Guides
Guides for building and trade websites
Ten guides on the main parts of a contractor website, written for owners rather than web developers. Each one cites the official or primary source behind its advice, and none needs you to hire anyone to use it.
Written by Christopher Lee, last revised
All guides
- Claims on contractor websitesLicences, prices, reviews, photos and promises, checked against the Fair Trading Act basics.
- Contractor website costsWhat drives the price of a building or trade site, our starting points and running costs.
- Business Profile and your siteMaking your profile and site agree on name, coverage and hours, plus structured data basics.
- Phone-first trade sitesLayout, tap targets, call buttons, forms and photo speed for visitors on phones.
- Project photos for websitesTaking, choosing and preparing job photos, including before and after pairs and permissions.
- Quote request form designWhich fields to ask for, how to label them and what to say about privacy.
- Redesigning safelyInventory, redirect map and launch checks so old links and projects survive a rebuild.
- Service area pagesWhen a town deserves its own page, what to put on it and how to keep coverage consistent.
- What a builder website needsThe pages a building or trade site needs, in priority order, and what each should say.
- Writing a project pageA section-by-section method for writing up a finished job, with the claims to leave out.
Sources and checking
Each guide starts with the short answer, then explains it. Where a guide refers to a rule, such as the Privacy Act information principles, the Fair Trading Act or Google's documentation, it links to the body that publishes it, and the source list at the foot of the page says whether each source is primary, secondary or commercial. Christopher Lee writes and checks every guide; the editorial policy sets out how.
The guides are not legal advice. Where a subject touches building law, consumer law or privacy law, they explain what the official guidance says and suggest you check anything specific to your business with the relevant professional or regulator.
A reading order
If you are planning a new site, read what a builder website needs first, then the guide to writing a project page. If you already have a site and want to improve it, the quote request form guide and the mobile guide cover the two places where small changes can make the biggest difference to whether people get in touch.
If you are weighing up the cost of a site, the cost guide explains what drives the price and links to one published set of New Zealand figures alongside our own.
Tools that go with the guides
Four free tools turn the advice in these guides into a plan you can keep. They run entirely in your browser and send nothing to us:
- the website project planner for a new site or redesign
- the quote form planner for deciding which fields to ask for
- the service area planner for deciding which area pages to write
- the project caption builder for project photos and permissions
Corrections and updates
Each guide shows the date it was last updated. When a rule changes, the affected guides are revised and their date changes. If you spot something out of date, email hello@contractovix.site.
Rather have someone do this for you?
Tell us which guide you were reading and what you want done. The reply is free and says whether we could help.