What to cut from your contractor website

Most contractor websites don’t have a “too little” problem. They have a “too much” problem.

Somewhere along the way a web designer, a plugin, or a well-meaning relative added a feature. Then another. Each one seemed harmless on its own. Together they make the site slower, more confusing, and a little less trustworthy, and none of them help a homeowner decide to call you.

Here’s what’s safe to remove. In most cases, removing it makes the site better.

The fake “chat” bubble

You’ve seen these. A little bubble in the corner: Chat with us. It looks like live support. A homeowner opens it, types out their question, and gets back “Thanks, we’ll respond as soon as we can.”

Not an actual chat. It’s a contact form behind a bubble.

The homeowner now feels a little tricked, right at the moment they were trying to reach you. That feeling sticks. If you can’t staff real-time chat, and most contractors can’t because you’re on a jobsite, don’t pretend to. A plain contact form does less harm than a chat bubble that overpromises.

The AI chatbot

AI chatbots earn their keep on huge websites, like a phone carrier or an insurance company, where the answer a visitor needs is buried in a thousand pages.

A contractor website isn’t that. Your services, your area, and your contact info are, or should be, short, clear, and already on the page. There’s nothing for a bot to dig up that a homeowner can’t find by scrolling.

These bots also only know what you feed them, so they can’t answer much beyond what the site already says, and they almost always come with a monthly fee. The one fair use is after-hours lead capture. A short contact form and a posted phone number do that same job for free, without the risk of a bot making up an answer about your pricing.

For an existing customer who needs you right now, the answer isn’t a chatbot. It’s your cell number.

The “CAPTCHA protected” tab

Some sites have a little tab clinging to the side of the screen: Protected by CAPTCHA, or a small security seal.

This is usually a leftover from an older form plugin. It does nothing for the visitor, and it doesn’t scare off bots. Bots don’t read badges. At most it’s a disclosure some spam tools ask you to show, and modern tools handle that with one line of small text.

It’s not harmful. It’s just clutter, and clutter on a contractor site reads as “nobody has looked at this in a while.” Remove it.

Auto-playing video and rotating slideshows

A hero video that plays on its own, especially with sound, is a fast way to make a visitor reach for the close button. It also slows the page down and burns the data of a homeowner standing in their driveway.

A rotating slideshow has a quieter problem: almost nobody sees slide two. You put effort into five messages and the homeowner saw one of them, picked by a timer. Choose your strongest message and let it sit still.

The copyright year from three years ago

A footer that says © 2021 tells a homeowner nobody has touched this website in years, which makes them wonder whether anyone is running the business either. It’s a thirty-second fix, and it should update on its own. Make sure it does.

What you’re left with

Strip those out and you don’t have a worse website. You have a faster, calmer, more honest one. It loads quickly, says what you do, and gives a homeowner one clear way to reach a real person. That’s the whole job.