01
A referral, then a search
Someone names you in a meeting. The owner's rep googles you that afternoon. What is on page one of your own brand name decides whether the referral survives contact with the internet.
General Contractor Websites
General contractor website design for the prequal desk.
Nobody hires a GC because the website was attractive. They shortlist you because the site removed doubt faster than the next three did.
Who this is for
Commercial and institutional general contractors, design-builders and construction managers who get evaluated before they get invited.
Buying behaviour
How you actually get on the bid list
This is the part that changes the build. Everything below follows from it.
02
A procurement contact building a list
They need sector experience, contract value range, bonding capacity, safety record and geography — fast, and preferably without emailing you for a capability statement.
03
A prequalification platform check
ISNetworld, Avetta, ComplyWorks and Cognibox profiles get cross-referenced against your public site. Contradictions between the two are a genuine problem.
04
A journeyman deciding where to apply
Increasingly the highest-volume traffic to a GC website is people who want to work for you. Most GC sites treat that audience as an afterthought.
The brief
What your website has to do, ranked.
- Prove capability in the sector and value band the visitor cares about, within about thirty seconds
- Publish certifications, bonding, insurance and safety statistics as readable content, not attachments
- Present delivery methods clearly — design-build, CM-at-risk, stipulated sum, IPD — because owners filter on this
- Give subcontractors a route in that is not the general contact form
- Recruit trades with an application flow that works one-handed on a phone
Common mistakes
What we see on most general contractors sites.
- A project list that is just names, with no value, scope, duration or delivery method
- The capability statement locked in a PDF that requires an email to obtain
- Safety presented as a value statement rather than a number
- A careers page that is a mailto link, on a site otherwise built to impress owners
- Renders and stock photos where project photography should be
What we build
Six components, specific to this sector.
Capability statement page
The page a procurement contact would otherwise have to email you for. Sectors, delivery methods, value bands, geography, bonding, key personnel — plus a matching PDF that never contradicts it.
Project portfolio with real filters
Sector, contract value, delivery method and location. Each project carries scope, duration, your actual role and photographs of the job rather than a render.
Credentials module
COR and SECOR, WCB clearance, insurance limits, bonding capacity, prequalification platform profiles and association memberships, all as structured content.
Safety and quality narrative
TRIF, LTI and your safety programme presented accurately — including guidance on what not to publish.
Subcontractor and trade partner path
A dedicated route for subs to register interest, with the scope and geography questions you actually need answered.
Careers pathway
Trade-specific applications, an employer-brand page with something concrete in it, and job listings you can post and close yourself.
Services that apply here
What this sector actually needs from us.
Construction Website Design
Project portfolios, a credentials module, a careers pathway and a capability profile a procurement desk can actually use.
Content & Copywriting
Capability statements, project write-ups and sector pages written by people who know CM-at-risk from design-build.
Website Maintenance
Scheduled maintenance rather than emergency callout. Updates, backups, uptime, security, and your portfolio kept current.
Questions from general contractors
Should we publish our bonding capacity?
Usually yes, as a range or a single aggregate figure. It is one of the fastest ways to signal the project size you can carry, and procurement contacts are going to ask anyway. If your capacity is a competitive weakness, publish sector experience prominently instead rather than leaving both blank.
Most of our projects are under NDA. Can we still show a portfolio?
Yes. Sector, value band, delivery method, duration, complexity and your role can all be published without naming the client. That is most of what a procurement contact is actually assessing.
How many projects should we feature?
Enough to cover every sector and value band you want to be considered for, which is usually twelve to twenty rather than everything you have ever built. A portfolio of eighty undifferentiated jobs is harder to evaluate than fifteen well-chosen ones.
Do we need a careers page if we are not actively hiring?
Yes. Trades research employers long before they apply, and a company with no careers presence reads as one that does not hire, or does not care. A page that says "no current openings, here is what it is like to work here" is far better than nothing.
Our safety record has a bad year in it. Do we publish?
Publish the current figure and the trend, and be prepared to speak to the bad year. Selectively omitting it is worse: procurement contacts often have access to the same data through prequalification platforms, and a discrepancy is far more damaging than a hard number with context.
The library
Articles for people who build things
Construction SEO
Google Ads for Contractors: Set Up, Target, and Track Paid Search to Win Construction Leads
Learn how contractors can structure Google Ads campaigns, choose keywords, manage budgets, and track qualified construction leads with confidence.
Maintenance
Lead Quality Scoring for Construction Companies: Build a Practical System to Prioritise and Convert Website Leads
Build a practical construction lead scoring system to rank, route, and follow up on website leads in your CRM using fit, intent, and behaviour.
Construction SEO
How to Attribute Website Leads to Won Construction Projects: Measuring Pipeline, Value, and ROI
Learn how contractors can connect website leads to won projects with CRM data, call tracking, GA4, and practical attribution workflows.
See how your site reads to a buyer.
A free audit, assessed against this sector rather than a generic checklist. Speed, mobile, SEO, conversion paths and credibility gaps, plus a comparison against two competitors.