Ask three people what a contractor website costs and you'll get three answers, from "free, just use Wix" to an agency quote with a comma in it. None of those answers tells you what you're getting, or whether it will bring you any work.
I build websites for contractors, so I'm not neutral. Here's how I'd think about it anyway, with our own prices out in the open.
The Three Usual Options
Do it yourself on a builder. Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy charge a monthly fee that's listed on their own pricing pages. Check there, because plans and prices change. You pick a template, add your content and publish.
What you get: a site you control, cheap to start. What it takes: your time, and knowing what to put on it. The builder gives you the tools. It won't write a page for each service or each town, set up your Google Business Profile, or tell you which leads came from where.
Hire a freelancer or an agency. You pay for a custom design, often on WordPress, and they hand it over. What you get: a site that looks like your business. What to ask before you sign: who keeps it updated, who fixes it when something breaks, who adds pages later, and what each of those costs. Get two or three written quotes and compare what's included, not just the total.
A managed local lead system. A monthly fee that covers the site and the work around it. That's what we sell at SolutionDG: Foundation at $249/month, Growth at $499/month and Lead Engine at $799/month, plus a one-time setup from $999. Month-to-month, no long-term contract.
Foundation includes a lead-gen site built for your trade and towns, your Google Business Profile set up and optimized, a one-tap review-ask link plus a Friday list from David of recent customers you haven't asked yet, every form lead emailed and texted to you within a minute, the lead path tested automatically every day, and a monthly report: leads delivered (spam left out), where they came from, search visibility and reviews gained.
The Question You Should Actually Be Asking
"How much does it cost?" matters. "What will it bring in?" matters more, and only your own numbers can answer it.
Keep a simple count: every call and every form, where they said they found you, and which ones turned into jobs. After a few months you'll know what each job cost you in marketing, and you can compare any option, including us, on the same math. Our monthly report counts the leads that came in; you count the jobs. It's month-to-month, so if the math stops working, you can stop paying.
What to Look For Before You Pay Anyone
A page for each service you offer. If the proposal is a five-page template with one "Services" page, ask why.
A page for each town you really work, each one written for that town, not the same page with the name swapped.
Schema markup that matches your Google Business Profile. If someone tells you schema will put review stars next to your name in Google, they're wrong: Google doesn't show star ratings a business marks up about itself (Google Search Central, review snippet guidelines).
Lead tracking you can check. You should be able to see every lead that came in and where it came from, not just a summary someone typed up.
A plan for after launch. Who updates it, who fixes it, who adds pages, and what that costs. Get it in writing.
And one red flag: a guaranteed spot on page 1. Google's own advice on hiring an SEO says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google (Search Central, "Do you need an SEO?"). Walk away from anyone who promises one.
