Construction and contractor website design in Des Moines
Websites for Des Moines metro contractors from $499 — built around proof of finished work and a quote request people actually complete.
Since 2011 · You own everything · Price published, not quoted after a call
Last updated July 2026
A Des Moines contractor website needs a project gallery organized by job type rather than by date, a page per service, clear service areas across the metro, and a quote request that asks little enough to be finished on a phone. Ours start at $499, with scheduling-software connections quoted separately.
What a contractor's website needs that a generic business site does not
Proof of finished work, a clear service area, and a way to ask for a quote without committing to anything.
A contractor is asking a homeowner to let strangers into their house and spend a significant amount of money on an outcome they cannot see in advance. Every part of the site is really answering one question: have these people done this exact thing before, competently, near me?
That means three things carry the site — photographs of completed work, a page for each service you actually want to sell, and unambiguous statements about where you work. The rest is secondary. A page per service matters more here than in most verticals because the searches are specific: somebody wants a deck built in Ankeny, not general contracting.
- A page per service you want more of, not one page listing everything you can do
- Service areas named explicitly — the suburbs, not just "the Des Moines metro"
- A short quote request; long forms are the most common self-inflicted wound here
- License and insurance status stated plainly, because homeowners are told to check
- A phone number that dials on a phone, on every page
Your project gallery is the whole sale
Most contractor galleries are a scrapbook. Structured properly, the gallery does more selling than every other page combined.
The typical contractor gallery is a wall of photographs in the order they were taken, mixing a kitchen remodel with a roof with a basement. It looks like proof of work, and it is — but it makes the visitor do the sorting, and most of them will not.
What works is organizing by the thing somebody is trying to buy. A homeowner researching a kitchen wants to see kitchens, several of them, ideally at a similar scale to theirs. Grouping the gallery by job type turns it from a scrapbook into a series of arguments, and it has a second benefit: each group becomes a page that can rank for that job.
The other half is captions. A photograph with no context is decoration. The same photograph with two lines — what the job was, roughly how long it took, what the difficult part was — becomes evidence of judgment rather than evidence of a camera. That is the difference between a gallery that looks nice and one that gets you called.
Before-and-after pairs are worth the effort where you have them, and worth starting to collect where you do not. Ask the crew to take a photograph before they start. It costs nothing and it is the single highest-value marketing habit a contractor can build.
From "free estimate" to a scheduled visit
Every contractor offers a free estimate, which means it persuades nobody by itself.
“Free estimate” is the default call to action in this trade and it has stopped carrying information. What the homeowner is actually weighing is different: how long until somebody comes out, what happens on that visit, whether they will be pressured, and roughly what range they are in before they invest an afternoon.
A site that answers those converts better without changing anything else. Saying how quickly you can usually get out, what the visit involves and how long it takes, and giving even a rough range for common jobs removes most of the reason to delay. Ranges make contractors nervous, understandably — but the homeowner is going to find a number somewhere, and it is better that it comes from you with the caveats attached than from a national averages site with none.
Des Moines metro contractors we build for
The work has followed the growth, and the growth in this metro is very unevenly distributed.
The residential building in central Iowa is concentrated in a handful of places — Waukee and Ankeny have been among the fastest-growing communities in the state, Bondurant’s population has risen sharply in a few years, and Altoona and Grimes have both added significant new development. Meanwhile the established suburbs — Urbandale, Windsor Heights, Clive, Pleasant Hill — generate a steady stream of remodel and replacement work on older housing stock.
Those are genuinely different businesses. New-construction and new-build subcontract work follows the developers west and north-east; remodelling, additions and repair follow the older housing closer in. A site that names the areas you actually serve, and says something true about the kind of work you do there, is both more useful to the reader and far easier to rank than a page competing for the metro-wide term.
Longer research cycles, higher values and the most gallery-dependent segment. The kitchen and bathroom groups usually carry the whole site.
Often storm-driven and urgent, with an insurance conversation attached. Speed of response matters more than depth of content.
Selling to builders and developers rather than homeowners, which is a B2B site: capacity, reliability and evidence of similar jobs, not atmosphere.
Concrete, decks, fencing, basements. Highly specific searches, which is exactly the case where a page per service beats a single list.
Every site is built by Elisabeth Samuels and the Salterra team — a company building websites since 2011. Not a reseller, not an offshore queue. The same person who scopes your project writes the pages and hands over the logins.
That one number is enough to price a build. Send it with the work you do and you get a figure and a timeline back in writing.
What a contractor website costs in Des Moines
Published, because you publish estimates and would probably like the same courtesy.
Up to 15 pages starts at $499. Sixteen to 50 pages starts at $999. Fifty-one or more starts at $1,499. Most contractors need the first tier or the second — a page per service, a structured gallery, service areas and a quote form.
What moves it: connecting the site to scheduling or dispatch software, or an online booking flow that writes into your calendar. We build these and quote them separately — scoped before you get a number. Full breakdown on the pricing page.
What moves the number
- Page count — the honest driver, because every page is written and structured individually
- Scheduling or dispatch software connections — quoted individually, always
- An integration with software you already run — quoted separately, because we scope that before giving you a number rather than after
- Photography — a structured gallery is only as good as the images in it
- Content — if copy and photographs are ready it moves faster; if we write everything from scratch it takes longer
Frequently asked questions about contractor web design in Des Moines
What does a contractor website cost in Des Moines?
From $499 for up to 15 pages, $999 for 16–50, and $1,499 for 51 or more. Most contractors need the first or second tier. Scheduling-software connections are quoted separately because that work is not predictable from a page count.
How should our project gallery be organized?
By job type, not by date. A homeowner researching a kitchen wants to see several kitchens at a similar scale to theirs, and making them sort through a mixed feed loses most of them. Grouping by job also turns each group into a page that can rank for that job.
We do not have good photographs. Is that a problem?
It is the most common gap and the most fixable. Start by asking the crew to take a before shot on every job — it costs nothing and in three months you have the material. In the meantime we build the structure so the gallery improves as you fill it rather than needing a rebuild.
Should we put prices or ranges on the site?
A range for common jobs, with the caveats attached, usually helps. The homeowner will find a number somewhere; better it comes from you with context than from a national averages site with none. It also filters out inquiries that were never going to proceed.
Can you connect the site to our scheduling software?
We build this, and it is quoted separately because the work is not predictable from a page count — we scope it before giving you a number. A quote-request form that emails you is part of a normal build.
Who owns the website when it is finished?
You do. The domain is registered in your name, the hosting is opened under your billing, and any premium license is bought on your account rather than ours. If you leave there is nothing to migrate — you remove our login.
Tell us what you sell. Get your number.
Send us what your business does and roughly how many pages you think you need. You will get the number and a timeline in writing.
