Your website's return comes down to four numbers: how many people visit, how many of them contact you, how many of those you book, and what an average job is worth. Multiply them and you get the revenue your website produces each month. Change any one of them and you can see exactly what an improvement is worth. This guide gives you a simple worksheet to do the math with your own numbers.
Key takeaways
- Monthly website revenue = visitors × lead rate × close rate × average job value.
- Your own numbers matter more than any industry average. Measure them first.
- Small gains in lead rate are worth a lot in trades with high job values.
- Count repeat work and referrals, not just the first job.
- Judge a website by calls and quote requests, not page views.
The formula
Monthly website revenue = visitors × lead rate × close rate × average job value
- Visitors: people who reach your website in a month.
- Lead rate: the share of visitors who call or send a quote request.
- Close rate: the share of those leads you turn into booked jobs.
- Average job value: what a typical job brings in.
Where to find your numbers
- Visitors: Google Search Console (clicks from Google) or your analytics tool (all visits).
- Leads: count form submissions and phone calls from the website. A call tracking number on the site makes this much easier.
- Close rate: your job records or CRM. If you don't track it, count last month's quotes and how many you booked.
- Average job value: total revenue from website jobs divided by the number of those jobs.
The worksheet
CONTRACTOR WEBSITE ROI WORKSHEET
A. Average job value ($): ______
B. Website visitors per month: ______
C. Website leads per month (calls + forms): ______
D. Current lead rate = C / B x 100 (%): ______
E. Close rate (% of leads you book): ______
F. Monthly website revenue = C x E% x A: $_____
What if your lead rate improved?
G. Target lead rate (%): ______
H. Leads at target rate = B x G%: ______
I. Extra leads per month = H - C: ______
J. Extra revenue per month = I x E% x A: $_____
K. Extra revenue per year = J x 12: $_____Example 1: a plumbing company
This is an illustrative example, not a real client.
- Average job value: $650
- Website visitors: 600 a month
- Leads: 9 a month, a 1.5% lead rate
- Close rate: 50%, so about 4.5 booked jobs a month
- Monthly website revenue: 4.5 × $650 = $2,925
If a faster, clearer website lifted the lead rate to 3%, the same 600 visitors would produce 18 leads, 9 more than today. At a 50% close rate that's 4.5 extra jobs, or $2,925 more per month ($35,100 a year) without a single extra visitor.
Example 2: a roofing company
Also illustrative. High-ticket trades see bigger swings from small changes.
- Average job value: $12,000 (roof replacement)
- Website visitors: 300 a month
- Leads: 3 a month, a 1% lead rate
- Close rate: 30%
Moving the lead rate from 1% to 2% adds 3 leads a month. At a 30% close rate that's about one extra roof every month, worth roughly $10,800 a month on average. Real months will be lumpier, but the direction is clear: in trades like roofing, a single extra job can pay for a website many times over.
What actually raises your lead rate
When a site converts poorly, the cause is rarely the quality of your work. It's usually one of these:
- Slow pages on a phone. Research by Google and SOASTA found that as mobile load time grows from one second to three, the chance of a visitor leaving rises by 32% (Think with Google). More in our guide on website speed and local SEO.
- A phone number that's hard to find or tap. It should be visible on every screen and dial with one tap.
- No proof. Licenses, insurance, real job photos and recent reviews should be visible without digging.
- Vague service pages. Visitors need to see quickly that you do the exact job they need, in their area.
- Long forms. Ask for the essentials (name, phone, what they need) and collect the rest when you call back.
- Slow follow-up. Not a website issue, but it decides how many leads become jobs. Call new leads back as fast as you can.
Don't forget repeat work and referrals
The math above counts only the first job. In home services, a good customer often comes back and sends neighbors your way. If a typical customer books you three times over five years and refers one neighbor who does the same, each new customer is worth about six jobs, not one. That makes every lost lead more expensive than it looks.
When does a new website pay for itself?
Use profit, not revenue: payback in months = website cost ÷ extra monthly profit.
Using Example 1: $2,925 of extra monthly revenue at a 40% gross margin is about $1,170 of extra profit. A $1,000 website plus a $150 monthly care plan pays for itself in roughly the first month. Your margin and numbers will differ, so run them through the worksheet.
How to measure it honestly
- Record your current visitors, leads and close rate for at least one month before changing anything.
- Use a call tracking number on the website so you can separate website calls from other calls.
- Ask every new customer how they found you.
- Compare three months before and three months after a change, and watch for seasonal swings.
Frequently asked questions
What's a good lead rate for a contractor website?
It varies widely by trade, season and where the traffic comes from, so the best benchmark is your own baseline. Even a one-point improvement, such as 1.5% to 2.5%, is meaningful for most service businesses.
Should I count calls from my Google Business Profile?
Track them separately. Those calls come from your listing rather than your website, but a strong website still helps, because many people check it before calling.
Is more traffic or a better lead rate more important?
Fix the lead rate first. Sending more visitors to a site that doesn't convert just multiplies the waste.
See what your website could look like
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