How to Build a Contractor Website

A professional, well-designed website can be an excellent marketing and business tool for a small business. Less expensive and more widely accessible than a brochure, a website can allow a small business to interact more closely and dynamically with its customers, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, regardless of actual business hours. This is especially advantageous for a contractor. A good website can help a contractor sell a wider variety of services, make better sales pitches, sell a wider variety of services and establish himself as an expert in his field.

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  Purchase a good domain name from a reputable domain name registrar. Register a domain name that reflects your business name in a concise way, preferably under 15 characters. Keep it short and easy to spell; do not include hyphens or numerals, which can make the domain name difficult to spell over the phone or in radio ads for your contracting business. Consider purchasing the .net and .org versions of your domain name as well. Register the name of your business, or register a name that tells about your business. Since contractors often deal locally, it may be wise to register a domain name that reflects your locality and type of contracting business. For example, an electrical wiring business in New York City may make better use of a domain like NYCElectrical.com, instead of the name of its contracting business, which target customers might not recognize.

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  Set up your Web hosting account with a reliable site host. A Web hosting account is rented space on a large computer, or server, that is accessible to the Internet at large. Your Web host account will house all the files and graphics that make up your website. Point your domain name to your Web hosting account. Typically, a Web hosting account will tell you in the FAQs or welcome email exactly how to do this. A contractor doesn't often need all the bells and whistles, such as hundreds of email addresses, of the more expensive Web hosting packages, so it is safe to select one of the simpler, cheaper plans from the company of your choice. Ensure that the hosting plan you choose comes with Fantastico on the control panel, or the capability to house WordPress.

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  Install a content management system (CMS), software that allows you to manage, edit, delete and add your own content to the site without needing to know any programming. WordPress is a popular, flexible and free software popular with many small-business website owners. A Web host account with Fantastico via its control panel, or a one-click install option for WordPress in the hosting back end, will allow you to install and configure the software through an easy-to-use interface. Simply click on the WordPress option in your hosting account's back end or control panel and follow the on-screen instructions to install the software.

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  Add a nice layout to your new site. Log in to WordPress by visiting your new WordPress site, clicking on "Site Admin" in the "Meta" widget on the right and entering the username and password you selected during the WordPress setup. Scroll down to the "Appearance" widget in the dashboard and click on "Add New Theme." Browse through the extensive free theme gallery, and choose a theme that appeals to you and professionally reflects your contracting business. Activate it through the back end following the on-screen directions. Your theme will be visible on your site immediately.

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  Install a custom theme. If you are a more advanced user, you can search Google for "free contractor WordPress theme" or "free [type of business] WordPress theme," where "type of business" is the type of contracting your business does. Download a suitable theme, unzip it onto your hard drive and upload it to your website's server using an FTP client. In the WordPress admin dashboard, click on "Themes" in the "Appearance" widget on the left side of the screen, then click on the theme you uploaded to activate it.

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  Create your site's pages. In your WordPress admin dashboard, click on "Add New" under "Pages" to start creating pages. Include a page with your contact information, adding a contact form if desired. Add an "About Us" page describing the history of your contracting business. An important page for a contractor website is a "Services" page listing in detail all the services your contractor business provides. Since many contractors rely on word-of-mouth advertising, many contractor websites include a "Client Testimonials" page. You must decide whether you want to include more information, such as a list of your fees and your hours of operation. By default, your home page will be your news blog, where you can post company updates and keep your customers updated on any specials or news about your contracting business.