Contractor website launch checklist.
A site is not done when the last page is written. It is done when a homeowner in one of your towns can find it, trust it, and reach you from it. This is the list I run on my own phone before a contractor site goes live, in the order I run it.
Arseni FilonUpdated October 1, 2026
Check it on your phone, not at your desk.
Most homeowners find a contractor on a phone, so that is where the site gets checked. Open it on your own phone, on cellular, with the shop wifi off, and not on the desktop where it was built. The desktop hides slow photos, a phone number that does not tap, and a form that is fine with a keyboard and painful with a thumb.
Then go through it the way a homeowner would. Land on a town page from a search, read the footer, tap the number, look for the reviews, look for the photos, and send a request. The list below is in that order. The first items are what a homeowner sees in the first ten seconds. The last items are the plumbing that decides whether Google shows the site at all.
Have three things next to you. Your license card or your state record, the Google Business Profile open in another tab, and the phone that receives the quote requests.
The checklist, in order.
Work top to bottom. Nothing goes live with an item open.
The license number and bond line on every page.
One line in the footer under the business name. The Washington L&I registration number or the Oregon CCB license number, written the way the state writes it, next to the legal name on the record. On an Oregon site, licensed, bonded, and insured can sit next to a current CCB number. On a Washington site, leave bonded and insured off, because RCW 18.27.100 bars advertising it on the strength of the registration bond and insurance. Then confirm the same line is on the about page, the contact page, and under the quote form. I wrote a separate guide on where the license number goes.
A page for each town you serve.
Count them. If you work twelve towns, there should be twelve pages, each written for its own town, each with the phone number and the form on it. A single service area page is asked to rank in every town at once. Open two of the town pages and read them. If the Kirkland page could be the Tacoma page with the name swapped, it is not done.
A phone number that taps to call, and a text option.
Tap the number in the header. Tap it in the footer. Tap it on a town page. Each tap should open the dialer with the number filled in. Then look for the text button. Many homeowners will not call a contractor at 9pm but will send a text, and a button that opens a message with the first line already written is how that homeowner reaches you. This site keeps a call button in the header on every page on a phone, and your site should too.
A quote form that reaches your inbox the moment it is sent.
Fill it out the way a homeowner would, from your own phone, with a made up job. Then watch. The email should arrive in the inbox you read, on your phone and your computer, within the minute, with the job details on it. If it does not come, or it lands in spam, the site is not live yet. A form that emails an address nobody checks is decoration. You can try the quote form on a live demo.
Google reviews beside the work, with the review link.
The reviews belong next to the jobs they describe, with the name of the reviewer and the town, not on a separate page nobody opens. Then find the review link. It should be on the site and saved in your phone, because the count grows one text at a time after every job. How to ask is its own guide, and the reviews feature shows how they sit on a finished site.
Before and after photos of finished jobs.
Your jobs, from your phone, not stock photos. A homeowner can tell. Each project page should show the finished work, and a before and after slider lets them see what changed. Check that every photo loads on cellular without a wait. Photos straight off a phone are large, and a page full of them is the most common reason a contractor site is slow.
The Google Business Profile linked to the site.
Open the profile and read the website field. It should point to the home page of the new site, not the old site and not a Facebook page. Then check the other direction. The site should link to the profile, and the review link on the site should open the review box on that profile, not a search result.
HTTPS and a fast load on a phone.
Type the address with http in front of it and confirm it lands on https with the lock, on every page and not only the home page. Then time three pages on cellular. If any of them makes you wait, find out why before launch, because the fix is cheap now and expensive once the site is live. The hosting and SSL check on this site tests any address for HTTPS, the redirect, and response time.
The address and service area matching the profile.
Read the name, phone, address, and towns on the site next to the same fields on the profile. They have to match word for word. A service area business that hides the address on the profile should not print a street address on the site, and the towns on the profile should be the towns with pages on the site. If the profile lists Kent and the site has pages for Kent and Auburn, add Auburn to the profile.
The day it goes live.
Point the domain at the new site and run the HTTPS check again, because a domain move is where certificates go wrong. If there was an old site, the old page addresses should send people to the matching new pages, not to an error. Homeowners have the old address saved, and so does Google.
Then change the website field on the profile to the new home page, and change the link everywhere else it lives. Your email signature, the invoice footer, the truck if the address is on it, and any social page. Send one more test request from the live domain, and open the dashboard to confirm it counted.
What to update every month.
A site that adds a few photos and a review every month reads as a working company. One that stops at launch reads as a company that stopped. Here is the monthly list.
| Item | When | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Job photos | Every month | Text a before and an after from a finished job. It becomes a project page. |
| Reviews | After every job | Text the review link the day the job finishes, and reply to each review on the profile. |
| Towns | When you start working a new one | Add a page for the town and add the town to the service areas on the profile. |
| Hours and phone | When they change | Change the profile and the site the same week. |
| License line | At every renewal | Check the state record, then check that the footer still matches it. |
| Services and prices | When they change | Update the service pages, the quote tool if you have one, and the services list on the profile. |
| The dashboard | Once a month | Read visits, quote requests by source, phone taps, and review clicks, and compare them with last month. |
How this runs on my builds.
A Site is $1,500, with $750 to start and $750 at launch. It has a page for each service and 20 town pages, your reviews and your license number at the top, and a quote wizard that emails you every request the moment it is sent. Hosting costs you nothing, your domain is registered in your name, and there is no monthly fee on the site. Project pages with before and after sliders and your map listings come with a Site with Tools at $4,000.
I ask for the license number, the logo, the towns, and the job photos at the start, and I run this list on my own phone before the site goes live. The dashboard starts counting on launch day, so the monthly numbers are there from month one. The first draft of a Site arrives in 7 business days, and the site goes live 7 business days after you approve the draft. Photos and details sent before launch go into the build. After launch, a Site has a 14 day punch list and a Site with Tools has 60 days of updates. After that, Care at $150 a month covers small changes, or a change is quoted flat before I make it, with a $150 minimum. A pack of ten more pages is $600.
If the profile is not set up yet, map listings are $600 on their own and come with a Site with Tools. Your Google Business Profile, your Apple Maps listing, and your Bing listing are built or rebuilt and verified, so the name, the phone, and the towns on the listings match the site.
Keep reading.
- What a contractor website costs in 2026The four ways contractors buy a website, what drives the price, and what a monthly fee adds up to over three years.Read the guide
- Put your L&I or CCB license number on your websiteWhere the number goes, how to write it, and what to say about your bond and insurance without overclaiming.Read the guide
- Google Business Profile checklist for contractorsName, categories, service areas, hours, photos, services, the review link, and what to keep updated.Read the guide
- How a contractor gets more Google reviewsThe ask at the walkthrough, the text with the direct link, the QR code on the invoice, how to reply to every review, and what Google forbids.Read the guide
- How long a contractor website takesWhat sets the timeline, the steps from the first text to launch, what you send, and what slows a build down.Read the guide
- Why a contractor with a Google Business Profile still needs a websiteWhat the profile does well, what it cannot do, how the profile and the site work together, and what each one costs.Read the guide
- Google Ads for contractorsHow the ads reach a homeowner, keywords and negative keywords, call and form tracking, the ad spend, and when to wait.Read the guide
What contractors ask before launch.
I am Arseni Filon. Text me the question and I answer within the hour on weekdays.
How long does the checklist take?
About an hour on a phone if the site was built right. Most of it is tapping the number on a few pages, sending a test request, and reading the footer. The form test is the one people skip, and it is the one that costs calls.
What if my license renewal is in progress at launch?
Put the number on the site only if the record shows active. If you are in a renewal gap, hold the license line until the record updates, then add it the same week. Look yourself up the way a homeowner would before you publish it.
Do I need a page for every town, or is one service area page enough?
One page per town. Google ranks pages, and a single service area page is asked to rank in every town at once. A Site has 20 town pages, a Site with Tools has 40, and a pack of ten more pages is $600.
Where should the quote form send?
To your email, with the job details on it, so it shows up on your phone the moment it is sent. Send a test from your own phone before launch and watch it arrive. If it lands in spam or never comes, fix it before the site goes live.
How do I know the site is fast enough on a phone?
Open it on your own phone on cellular, not on the shop wifi, and tap through three pages. If any page makes you wait, the photos are too large or the host is slow. The hosting and SSL check on this site shows HTTPS and response time for any address.
What do I do every month after launch?
Text a before and an after from a finished job, text the review link after every job, and add a page when you start working a new town. Check the hours and phone on the profile. Open the dashboard once a month and read the counts. On my builds, Care at $150 a month covers small changes, or a change is quoted flat before I make it, with a $150 minimum.
Next step
Launch with the list already checked.
Send your trade, your towns, and your license number. A written plan comes back with the price on it.
Call (206) 468-2416