What a builder website needs

The short version

If you build or renovate homes, or run a trade business, a client's questions are predictable: what do you do, have you done work like mine, who are you, and how do I ask for a price. A site that answers those four questions clearly, on a phone, is a good site. The rest of this guide goes through the pages that answer them and what to put on each.

Why these questions in particular

They are close to what the official guidance tells homeowners to check. Building.govt.nz advises people choosing a builder to get detailed written quotes, compare them on the same scope, and look beyond price at experience, reliability, references and past projects. It also tells them that restricted building work must be done or supervised by a Licensed Building Practitioner and that they can check the public register.

A client following that advice will look for your past work, your experience and any licences you hold. Your website is where they look first.

1. A page for each type of work

Start with the work you want more of. For a builder, that might be new homes, design and build, extensions and alterations. For an electrician, it might be rewiring, switchboard upgrades, heat pumps and new-build wiring. Each gets a page, or a clear section if there is little to say.

On each service page:

• describe the work in the words a client would use
• say what is included and what is not
• explain how pricing works, by quote, estimate or rate
• link to two or three finished projects of that type
• end with a way to ask for a price

Leave out services you do not want to be asked about. A page for every trade you could conceivably do makes it harder to see what you are actually good at.

2. A page for each finished project

Treat projects as your evidence. Give each job its own page, with the brief, the work, your role, the area and good photos, rather than one mixed gallery, so a homeowner can see exactly what you built. The guide to writing a project page goes through it section by section.

Three well documented projects are a reasonable start. Add each new job when it is finished, while the details are fresh.

3. An about page with real people

Clients are about to let you into their home, sometimes for months. The about page should name the people who will turn up, say how long the business has run if you want to, explain the area you cover and describe how you run a job, from the first visit to handover.

This is also the place for licences and memberships, stated exactly. If you hold a Licensed Building Practitioner licence, give the licence class as the register shows it and link to the register. If you belong to an association, link to its member listing. If you hold neither, leave the section out; there is nothing to gain from vague wording like fully qualified team, and under the Fair Trading Act any claim about your business must not mislead.

4. A quote request form that fits on a phone

The form is where a visitor becomes an enquiry. Ask only what you need to reply usefully: the type of job, a short description, the area, rough timing and how to reply. Give every field a visible label. Tell people what happens next and what you will do with their details.

That last part is a legal expectation as well as good manners. The Privacy Act's information principles cover why personal information is collected, telling people about it when you collect it, keeping it secure and limiting how it is used. A short notice beside the form covers the collection part. The quote request form guide has a template.

5. Contact details and policy pages

Every business site needs a contact page with a phone number that can be tapped on a phone, an email address and your coverage. It also needs a privacy notice that matches what the form says, and terms if you take bookings or deposits online. Keep them short and true.

Pages that are optional

• Area pages. Worth writing only where you have something specific to say about a place. See the service area guide.
• A blog or news section. Only if someone will keep it up. Two posts from three years ago make the whole site look abandoned.
• An FAQ page. Useful if you answer the same questions on the phone every week. Otherwise, put answers on the service pages where they belong.
• Pricing. Helpful when you can publish figures you stand behind, such as call-out fees or price ranges with conditions.

Order of work

If you are building a site in stages, do it in this order: service pages, the quote form, three projects, the about page, then everything else. That way the site can take enquiries from the first week, and each later addition makes it stronger.

A note on search

Google's starter guide says that there are no secrets to ranking first, and that content should be helpful, reliable and easy to read. For a building business, the five pages above are that content. A clear page for each service and each project, with an accurate title and description, gives search engines and people the same thing: a true picture of your work.