The seven things a painting company website has to do
The pages, the gallery, the price ranges, the estimate form and the speed a painting contractor site needs, and why the site changes how bids are judged.
- 1. Show the work, organized by what people search for
- 2. Put a price range on the page
- 3. Tap to call, everywhere, on a thumb
- 4. One page per service, one page per main city
- 5. An estimate form that asks four questions
- 6. Speed, because slow sites lose bids before they are read
- 7. Proof that a person will show up
- What it should cost
- Frequently asked
27.1% of painting contractors on Google list no website at all. Among those who do, most have a five year old template with a stock photo of a roller and a contact form that goes to an email nobody reads.
The gap matters more in painting than in emergency trades. A homeowner with a burst pipe calls the first number. A homeowner deciding who paints their house for $5,000 opens all three bidders' websites and looks for the same thing on each: proof that these people have done this before, in a house like mine. In the dataset, painting companies with a website carry a median of 18 reviews against 3 for those without. The site does not create the reviews, but the companies that win consistently have both.
Here is what the site has to do.
1. Show the work, organized by what people search for
The gallery is the site. Not a testimonials page, not an about page. A homeowner wants to see a kitchen like theirs.
Organize it by job type, not chronologically: Interior, Exterior, Cabinets, Decks and Fences, Commercial. Twelve to twenty before and after pairs, each pair shot from the same position. Caption each one with the town, the surface and the rough scope: "Exterior repaint, 1970s cedar siding, Oak Park, four days." The town in the caption does double work, because it is also how you rank for that town.
2. Put a price range on the page
The most common objection to this is that every job is different. Every job is different in every trade, and the ones that publish ranges get better leads.
A simple table does it:
| Job | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Interior, two rooms, walls and trim | $1,400 to $2,600 |
| Whole interior, 2,000 sq ft | $4,200 to $7,500 |
| Exterior repaint, two-story | $5,500 to $11,000 |
| Kitchen cabinet refinishing | $3,800 to $9,000 |
| Deck stain and seal | $900 to $2,200 |
Two effects. The homeowner who was budgeting $1,200 for a whole house does not book an estimate, which saves you two hours and a drive. And the homeowner who was worried it would be $20,000 books immediately.
3. Tap to call, everywhere, on a thumb
More than two thirds of the traffic is on a phone. The phone number must be a tap-to-call link in the header, at the end of every service page, and in a sticky bar at the bottom of the screen. Not an image. Not a number that has to be copied.
4. One page per service, one page per main city
Six pages does it: interior painting, exterior painting, cabinet refinishing, deck and fence staining, drywall repair, commercial. Each 600 to 900 words, each with its own photos, its own price range, its own frequently asked section.
Then a page for each of the three or four towns you most want work in, written honestly, naming neighborhoods and housing types rather than repeating the same paragraph with the town swapped. Ten thin city pages is a spam signal. Four real ones rank.
5. An estimate form that asks four questions
Every extra field costs you submissions. Ask for: name, phone, what needs painting (a dropdown), and a photo upload. That is it. Address and timeline come on the call.
The photo upload is the painting-specific detail worth insisting on. A homeowner who uploads two pictures of their kitchen is a serious lead, it lets you pre-qualify before driving out, and it doubles as the "before" photo for your gallery.
6. Speed, because slow sites lose bids before they are read
Target a load under 2.5 seconds on a phone on cell data. In practice that means compressed images (a gallery of 40 photos at 4MB each is the usual culprit), no video background, and a template that is not carrying six page builder plugins. Test it on your own phone, away from your shop wifi, on the way to a job.
7. Proof that a person will show up
Painting is the trade where strangers are in the house for a week. The site has to answer that anxiety directly: a photo of the actual owner and the actual crew, the license number, the insurance carrier, how many years, and a plain paragraph about what a day on site looks like (arrival time, daily cleanup, where materials are stored, whether you move furniture).
Add your three most recent Google reviews as text on the home page, with the reviewer's first name and the town.
What it should cost
A five to eight page painting site with a real gallery costs $1,500 to $5,000 built once, or $150 to $400 a month on a managed plan. If someone quotes $12,000 for a brochure site, they are selling you a design process you do not need. If someone quotes $299 total, you are getting a template with your logo dropped in and no gallery structure.
Whatever you pay, the domain and the hosting account go in your name. That rule is expanded in the choosing a partner guide.
Frequently asked
Can I just use a Facebook page instead? No. It cannot rank for "cabinet painting [city]", it cannot be structured for the AI answer engines, and it puts your competitors' ads next to your work. The AI search guide explains what a real site does that a profile cannot.
How many photos before I launch? Twelve pairs. Shoot them over the next month with a phone. Do not launch with stock photography of somebody else's kitchen.
Does a blog help a painting company? A few answer pages do, a weekly blog does not. Write the eight questions homeowners actually ask about cost and timing, and leave it there. Where you sit against the field is in the benchmark report.
If you want the site built, including the gallery structure and the estimate form, it is one of the services in the free 14-day trial. Text or call (385) 832-6175.