Choosing a web designer for your home service company seems easy at first. You want a good-looking site that brings in more leads, right? But the wrong designer can cost you more than you think. Roofing contractors, electricians, HVAC techs — whatever your trade is, a bad website can slow you down for months. Across a range of home services, we’ve seen businesses lose ground just because of a few early mistakes.

According to a study by BrightLocal, 87% of consumers used Google to evaluate local businesses in the past year. Your website isn’t just there to look good—it’s your top sales tool. And it has to work.

Here are the common mistakes you want to avoid if you want your website to actually grow your business.

Choosing a Designer Who Doesn’t Understand Home Services

Not every web designer gets what a roofing company or a plumbing service actually needs. If your designer treats you like a fashion store or a coffee shop, they won’t design for how real customers search for you.

Service industries run on quick decisions. Someone needs a leaking pipe fixed today. Someone else needs a broken shingle replaced before it rains again. Your site needs to speak to those needs right away.

If you have to explain the difference between commercial roofing and residential repair during your first meeting, you’re probably not in good hands.

Prioritizing Design Over Functionality

A beautiful website won’t matter if it loads slow or confuses people. Research from Portent shows that a website that loads in 1 second can have a 5x higher conversion rate compared to a site that loads in 10 seconds.

Homeowners don’t wait around. They tap and expect fast answers. If your designer is obsessed with oversized graphics and videos but doesn’t mention site speed or mobile layouts, you’re in trouble.

It’s not about having the flashiest homepage. It’s about getting that visitor to call you, fill out a quote request, or book a service.

Ignoring SEO From the Start

One of the biggest mistakes we see is companies saying, “We’ll do SEO after the site is finished.” No. SEO isn’t something you bolt on later. It has to be baked into the build from the start.

A 2023 study from Ahrefs found that 91% of all pages on the internet get no organic traffic from Google. Most of the time, it’s because of bad structure or missing basics during the build phase.

If your designer doesn’t talk about SEO architecture, page speed, mobile usability, or keyword intent during your planning meetings, they’re setting you up for failure.

Settling for a Template or Cookie-Cutter Website

It’s tempting to go with a cheap, fast template. But those designs were made for everyone — and no one. Google can tell when a site is copy-pasted across a hundred businesses.

Templates also limit how well your pages can rank locally or how personal your site feels. Customers can spot a stock site a mile away. And they’ll trust a company with a real, human website way faster than a company using recycled content.

When you work across a range of home services — from HVAC to pest control — you need your website to reflect what makes you different, not just exist.

Not Asking About Conversion Strategy

Plenty of designers can make a clean site. Not enough can make a site that gets people to call you. And that’s the point, right?

If your designer isn’t asking questions about your service areas, quoting process, emergency calls, or scheduling needs, you might end up with a site that looks fine but doesn’t work.

Every roofing, plumbing, or electrical website needs strong calls to action. Click-to-call buttons. Fast quote forms. Trust signals like badges and testimonials placed where people actually see them. Otherwise you’re leaking leads every day.

Overlooking Post-Launch Support and Maintenance

Some business owners think that once the website goes live, it’s done. That’s another mistake that costs money later.

According to GoDaddy, 73% of small business websites run into at least one major technical issue every year. Usually, it’s something simple that gets missed: updates not installed, a plugin crash, or security holes.

Without ongoing maintenance, your site slowly falls apart. Forms break. Pages slow down. Rankings drop. If your designer isn’t offering some kind of maintenance plan, you’ll need a backup plan sooner than you think.

Being Tempted by Low Prices Over Real Value

Everyone wants a deal. But with websites, you really get what you pay for.

A $500 website might sound like a win, until you realize it loads slow, isn’t optimized for phones, has no SEO value, and needs a rebuild in six months. Meanwhile, a good website — even one that costs a few thousand upfront — can bring in leads for years without needing an overhaul.

You wouldn’t want the cheapest roofer fixing your own house. Same with your business’s online presence.

Failing to Check Reviews, Case Studies, and Past Work

Before you hire a web designer, ask for examples. Ask to see websites they’ve built for other contractors. Call a few of their clients. See what they say.

A good designer will be proud to show you real results. They’ll have live sites you can click through, especially for companies across a range of home services like roofers, electricians, HVAC installers and more.

If someone can’t provide real examples or looks uncomfortable when you ask, that’s your signal to keep looking.

Not Thinking About Future Growth

Maybe right now you’re a one-truck operation. Maybe you’re covering one zip code. But if you’re serious about growing, your website needs to be ready too.

Will you want to add service pages later? New cities? Extra crew bios? Service-specific blogs for roofing, plumbing, solar installs?

If your website doesn’t have a smart structure behind it, every time you grow, you’ll have to pay a developer to hack things together. Planning for growth saves time, money, and stress.

Ignoring Local SEO and Lead Capture Features

Most homeowners search for help within a few miles of where they live. And 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information, according to HubSpot.

If your website doesn’t have good service area pages, if it’s missing local keywords, if it doesn’t have fast “click to call” options or visible reviews… you’re leaving money on the table.

Your customers aren’t just looking for someone who does roofing. They’re looking for someone who does roofing in their town, today.

Local SEO isn’t a bonus anymore. It’s your ticket to showing up when someone needs help right now.

Final Thoughts

Choosing a web designer shouldn’t feel like a gamble. You don’t have to guess if they’re good for your business. Ask the right questions. Look for someone who cares about real results, not just fancy layouts.

If you run a roofing company, electrician service, HVAC team or any other business in the range of home services, you deserve a website that works harder than you do.

If you’re ready for a site that actually brings in calls, we’re here to help.