Plumbing · Phoenix, AZ
ASAP Plumbing
- Tap-to-call button on the first phone screen
- Quote or contact form
- License number shown
- Trade association or BBB shown
Benchmark · US trades · 2026
US Trades Website Benchmark 2026: 564 businesses tested.
I spent more than 15 years as a plumber before I moved into marketing. I tested the websites of 564 US contractors on speed, lead capture, trust signals, local SEO and Google reviews. Here is what the data shows, who is doing it well, and how to check your own.
| Businesses tested | 564 |
|---|---|
| Trades / metro areas | 7 / 12 |
| Independent / chains | 504 / 60 |
| Median score (independent) | 60 / 100 |
Tested October 2026. A benchmark of a stated sample, not a census. Individual scores are private.
Headline findings
What 498 independent contractor websites got right and wrong.
Headline figures are for independent businesses. Franchises and multi-location chains are compared separately below.
65%
show a tap-to-call button on the first phone screen
80% have one somewhere on the mobile homepage.
27%
show a license number or state reference
Of the 359 in trades where one applies. Nearly everyone says "licensed and insured".
81%
have a quote or contact form
Only 11% offer online booking or scheduling.
8%
say how fast they reply
46% mention emergency or after-hours service.
62
median mobile speed score out of 100
24% score under 50. 9% score 90 or more.
84
median Google reviews, at 4.9 stars
20% have fewer than 30.
The detail
Lead capture, trust, speed and local SEO.
All charts: 498 independent businesses. Each site was tested once on a phone-sized screen in October 2026.
"Licensed, bonded and insured" does not count as a license. Only a license number or state license reference does. It was not checked against the state register.
Sites that returned no PageSpeed result are left out, not scored as zero.
Doing it well
10 contractor websites worth learning from.
The highest-scoring eligible independents on the rubric, in alphabetical order. Ranks and scores aren’t published, because the differences between them are within the margin of error.
Painting · Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Painting Company
- Tap-to-call button on the first phone screen
- Quote or contact form
- Online booking or scheduling tool
- Trade association or BBB shown
HVAC (heating and cooling) · Phoenix, AZ
AZ Perfect Comfort Heating & Cooling
- Tap-to-call button on the first phone screen
- Quote or contact form
- Online booking or scheduling tool
- License number shown
Plumbing · Seattle, WA
Bee’s Plumbing and Heating
- Tap-to-call button on the first phone screen
- Quote or contact form
- Online booking or scheduling tool
- Says how fast they reply
Plumbing · Dallas, TX
Dean’s Plumbing
- Tap-to-call button on the first phone screen
- Quote or contact form
- License number shown
- Trade association or BBB shown
HVAC (heating and cooling) · Seattle, WA
Glendale Heating & Air Conditioning
- Tap-to-call button on the first phone screen
- Quote or contact form
- License number shown
- Trade association or BBB shown
Plumbing · Miami, FL
Hernandez Plumbing Co.
- Tap-to-call button on the first phone screen
- Quote or contact form
- License number shown
- Local business markup that tells Google what they do
Plumbing · Los Angeles, CA
JW Plumbing, Heating and Air
- Tap-to-call button on the first phone screen
- Quote or contact form
- Online booking or scheduling tool
- License number shown
HVAC (heating and cooling) · Atlanta, GA
Moncrief Heating & Air Conditioning
- Tap-to-call button on the first phone screen
- Quote or contact form
- Online booking or scheduling tool
- License number shown
Roofing · Miami, FL
Perkins Roofing - Miami
- Tap-to-call button on the first phone screen
- Quote or contact form
- License number shown
- Says how fast they reply
What they have in common: 10 of the 10 have a tap-to-call button on the first phone screen, 89% show a license number or state reference (against 27% of independents where one applies), and 60% show a trade association or BBB badge (against 13%). Their median is 1,194 Google reviews against 84 overall, and a median mobile speed score of 66 against 62.
Google ratings are credited to Google and shown as of October 2026. Businesses are linked so you can see their sites. Being named means a site scored well on this rubric, nothing more, and every named business is in the South or West and in plumbing, HVAC, roofing or painting, so read it as this sample, not a ranking of trades or regions. 1 of the 10 are also listed on Top5HomePros, a directory I run; see the conflict of interest note below.
Independents vs chains
Franchises and chains score higher.
60 franchises and multi-location chains (one website serving several places, or a known franchise name), scored the same way and reported separately so they don’t distort the independent figures.
| Independent | Chains | |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses | 498 | 60 |
| Median score | 60 | 66 |
| Tap-to-call, first screen | 65% | 80% |
| Service area pages | 57% | 80% |
| Booking tool | 11% | 18% |
| Median mobile speed | 62 | 59 |
| Median Google reviews | 84 | 142 |
Chains lead on phone access, service area pages and reviews. They do not lead on speed. The chain group includes some regional multi-branch companies that are not franchises.
By trade and region
How each trade and region compares.
Independents only. Each trade has 72 businesses and each region 126, so read these as a guide, not a verdict.
| Trade | Score | Tap-to-call | Quote form | Speed | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical | 60 | 62% | 79% | 64 | 89 |
| General contractors | 53 | 49% | 83% | 61 | 40 |
| HVAC | 65 | 85% | 78% | 60 | 204 |
| Landscaping | 51 | 50% | 77% | 58 | 51 |
| Painting | 61 | 67% | 77% | 58 | 71 |
| Plumbing | 68 | 81% | 79% | 66 | 236 |
| Roofing | 61 | 61% | 92% | 63 | 100 |
| Region | Score | Tap-to-call | Quote form | Speed | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northeast | 58 | 63% | 78% | 64 | 60 |
| South | 61 | 67% | 82% | 62 | 95 |
| Midwest | 60 | 61% | 82% | 60 | 90 |
| West | 64 | 68% | 81% | 63 | 100 |
Score, speed and reviews are medians (score and mobile speed out of 100, Google reviews). Tap-to-call is the share with a tap-to-call button on the first phone screen.
What the website is built on
| Platform | Sites | Median score | Median speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress | 252 | 61 | 59 |
| Not detected | 151 | 62 | 69 |
| Squarespace | 34 | 45 | 52 |
| Wix | 27 | 53 | 68 |
| Next.js | 16 | 70 | 70 |
| Webflow | 11 | 61 | 56 |
| other platforms (each under 8) | 7 | 47 | 48 |
Platform is detected from the page and is descriptive only, not part of the score. Platforms with fewer than 8 sites are merged, so don’t read this as one platform being better than another.
What to do about it
Six fixes that move your score.
Based on what separated the strongest sites from the rest.
01
Put your phone number where a thumb can reach it
Only 65% of independents show a tap-to-call button on the first phone screen, and 10 of the 10 named businesses do. See how we build contractor websites that get the phone ringing →
02
Show your license number, not just "licensed and insured"
Almost every site says it. Only 27% show a license number or state reference a customer can check, and 13% show a trade association or BBB badge. Put your number and your badges where people can see them.
03
Make it easy to ask for a quote, and say how fast you reply
81% have a form, but only 8% say when you will hear back and 11% offer online booking or scheduling. See how we turn website visits into quote requests →
04
Tell Google what you do and where
Only 53% have local business markup, and 43% don’t name the areas they cover. See how local SEO gets contractors found in their own city →
05
Fix the mobile basics
The median mobile score is 62 out of 100 and 24% score under 50. Oversized photos and too many scripts are the usual cause.
06
Keep collecting Google reviews
The median independent has 84 Google reviews, and 20% have fewer than 30. A text with a review link after every job is the cheapest way to build this.
Methodology
How the benchmark was done.
Simple enough to repeat, and written down so you can check it.
01
Who was tested
564 US trade businesses with their own website: plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, general contractors and remodelers, painting and landscaping, in 12 metros across four regions. Found through Google Maps searches only, then drawn at random: 6 independents per trade per metro, plus up to one franchise or chain. Not a random sample of all contractors and not a census.
02
What was checked
One load of each homepage on a phone-sized screen and one contact or quote page, in a real browser, with a clear user agent and a delay between requests. Google PageSpeed Insights on mobile, three runs spaced apart, median. Google ratings and review counts. Everything was collected in October 2026.
03
The score out of 100
Speed and mobile 25. Local SEO and technical 25. Lead capture 20. Trust signals 15. Google reviews 15. Anything that couldn’t be measured is left out, never counted as zero, and the license check is skipped for painting and landscaping. Businesses with less than 90% measurable are not eligible to be named.
04
How trust was judged
A license number or state license reference (not just "licensed and insured"), a trade association or BBB accreditation, a guarantee, insurance and testimonials, read from the homepage text and logos. Manufacturer certifications are recorded but not scored. Only things a script can detect reliably are scored.
05
Who is named
The highest-scoring eligible independents, shown alphabetically with no ranks or scores. Ties at the cut-off are all included. Franchises and chains are scored and compared but not named. Everyone else is anonymized.
06
Conflict of interest
EightySix Digital sells web design, SEO and lead-capture help, so lead capture was deliberately weighted below speed and local SEO. I also run Top5HomePros, a directory: 37 of the 564 businesses tested are listed on it, found through Maps rather than the directory, and scored the same way. 1 of the 10 named are listed there. No paid or featured directory listing, client or site I built was found.
Limitations
- The sample comes from Google Maps searches only. Maps favors businesses with a Google profile and a website and returns mostly metro-center results, so businesses with no web presence, suburbs and small towns are under-represented. About 12% of the businesses Google Maps returned had no website of their own, and that is a floor, not a share of all US contractors.
- One point in time. Websites and Google ratings change.
- Speed scores are lab tests. Some sites returned no speed result. Real-user data exists for only some sites and is labeled where used.
- Each site was tested once on a phone-sized screen, plus one contact page. Things deeper in a site, or shown only as images, can be missed. Detection is by text and code patterns and can miss unusual layouts.
- License rules differ by state, and a business in a state that does not license its trade has no number to show, so the license result understates compliance. License numbers were not checked against state registers.
- Franchises and multi-location chains are a separate group, and the rule also catches some regional multi-branch companies that are not franchises.
- AI search visibility is not part of the score and has not been tested yet.
Free scorecard
Get your website scored against the benchmark.
Whether or not your business was one of the 564 we tested, I’ll run your site through the same checks and email you a private one-page scorecard: your score against the average, and your top three fixes. It isn’t published, and there’s no obligation.
What is the US Trades Website Benchmark?
It is a test of the websites of 564 US trade businesses on speed and mobile experience, local SEO, lead capture, trust signals and Google reviews. It covers plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, general contractors and remodelers, painting and landscaping in 12 metro areas. It is run once a year so you can see how the trades are changing.
Which businesses were tested and how were they chosen?
504 independent businesses (6 for each of 7 trades in each of 12 metros: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Minneapolis, Columbus, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Seattle) plus 60 franchises and multi-location chains, reported separately. They were found through Google Maps searches and drawn at random. It is a benchmark of a stated sample, not a census and not a random sample of all US contractors. Maps results lean toward metro centers, so suburbs and small towns are under-represented.
How is the website score worked out?
Out of 100: speed and mobile 25, local SEO and technical 25, lead capture 20, trust signals 15 and Google reviews 15. Anything that could not be measured is left out, never counted as zero. The full breakdown is in the methodology section above.
Why aren’t individual scores published?
To avoid shaming anyone. The report names only the businesses that scored best, in alphabetical order with no ranks or scores, and shows everyone else as anonymized averages. You can ask for your own private scorecard.
How can I get my own score?
Use the scorecard form on this page. Any business can request one, whether or not it was in the sample. You get a private one-page scorecard that shows your score against the average and your top three fixes, within 5 working days. Businesses outside the sample are scored afterwards using the same method and compared against the published results, and those scores are never added to the benchmark. It is free and it is not published.
What if something about my business is wrong, or I would rather not be named?
Get in touch through the contact page. I will check it, correct it, or remove you from the named examples.
Why isn’t AI search visibility in the score?
AI answers change between people, places and runs, so they are measured as a separate sample, not as part of the website score. That check hasn’t been run yet. If you want to know what ChatGPT and Gemini say about your business, ask about an AI visibility audit.
Is there a conflict of interest?
Yes, and it is disclosed. EightySix Digital sells web design, SEO and lead-capture help, so lead capture was deliberately weighted below speed and local SEO. I also run Top5HomePros, a directory of home service pros: 37 of the 564 businesses tested appear in it, and 1 of the 10 named. They were found through Google Maps, not through the directory, and are scored the same way. No paid or featured directory listing, client or site I built was found.
Get more of your visitors to call or request a quote.
Part of a wider plan to get contractors more work. No bullshit, no jargon: tell me what you want to fix and I’ll tell you what it would take. I ran the same test in New Zealand: see the NZ Trades Website Benchmark 2026.