Web design for Lebanon contractors
By Chris, who builds every Firemoth site.
Lebanon is still a town where the contractors on page one are the ones who live here. That is rare in this metro, and it may not last.
In most Indianapolis suburbs, search results for a roofer or a plumber are filled with large regional companies that built a page for every town they serve. In Lebanon, I found small local businesses ranking in nearly every trade. For landscaping, three of the six results were Lebanon outfits.
But the town is changing quickly, the outside firms have already arrived in some trades, and most local sites are not ready for them.
Who hires in Lebanon
Lebanon is an older town with a lot of new money pointed at it.
- The median home was built in 1973, and many date from the first half of the 1900s: Cape Cods, small cottages, and the ranch houses of the postwar neighborhoods. These are houses on their third roof and second or third furnace, with wiring and plumbing that have been patched by several owners.
- Homes are modest in size and price. The average single-family home is about 1,700 square feet, below the national average, and the median sale price over the last twelve months is $305,000.
- Growth is coming from the LEAP district along I-65. The city's own planning page carries the LEAP District ordinance and the development plans for the Eli Lilly site. That means new residents, new subdivisions, and newcomers who do not know a single local contractor.
So there are two customers here. One has lived in Lebanon for years, owns an older home, and hires whoever their family has always used. The other just arrived, has no one to ask, and will search. The first customer already knows you. Your website is for the second one.
Who you are actually competing with online
Locals still rank here. A Lebanon electrician held the top spot in its trade, with another family-owned shop two places below. Lebanon businesses ranked for plumbing, heating and cooling, remodeling, and landscaping as well.
Roofing is the exception. I did not find a single Lebanon-based roofer on page one. It was outside firms with a page built for Lebanon, a franchise, and directories. The top result was a page about metal roofing, which tells you something about the barns and outbuildings around town and about who has noticed.
Some businesses here exist only on Facebook. One plumber on page one had no website at all, just a Facebook page with a handful of reviews. Another local company ranked twice, once with its site and once with its Facebook page. That works until someone builds a real site for the same trade.
Lebanon gets confused with West Lebanon. One of the remodeling results was a Facebook thread about contractors in West Lebanon, which is a different Indiana town about an hour away. Say "Lebanon, Indiana," "Boone County," and "46052" in plain text, and name the places you really serve: Whitestown, Zionsville, Thorntown, Advance.
The area code matters. Lebanon is 765. Most of the outside firms chasing Lebanon customers show a 317 number. A 765 number at the top of your site is a quiet signal that you are actually from here, and it is one the regional companies cannot copy.
What I found on five Lebanon contractor sites
I checked the homepages of five locally owned Lebanon contractors that rank on page one against the Firemoth Score.
- Not one of the five had a contact form on its homepage. Every one of them requires a phone call. Anyone who finds them at nine at night, or who would rather type than talk, has no way to raise a hand. Of the eight towns I checked, Lebanon was the only one where this was true of every site.
- None of the five had call tracking, and two had no analytics at all. Those two cannot tell whether the website brought them one visitor last month or a thousand.
- Only one showed live customer reviews. In a town that runs on reputation, four of five leave that reputation on someone else's platform.
- Four of the five showed a 765 number. One showed 317. See above.
- Three said "Boone County." Two did not.
- Two had no meta description, two homepages were under 400 words, and one footer was three years out of date.
All five loaded over https, all five had a tap-to-call link, and all five had the trade and the town in the page title. The foundations are better here than in some larger towns. What is missing is any way to capture a customer who is not ready to call, and any way to know the site is working.
You can run the same 24 checks on your own site in about four minutes with the free Firemoth Score. Nothing is collected and no email is required.
Local rules worth putting on your website
Lebanon asks for permits on a long list of home projects, and it licenses the electrical, heating and cooling, and plumbing contractors who pull them. For a contractor who does things properly, that is an advantage worth putting in writing.
Lebanon has a residential permit for work that several nearby towns do not regulate. The city's online permit application lists each of these as its own permit type:
- Residential roofing
- Residential fence
- Residential HVAC
- Residential electrical
- Residential plumbing
- Residential remodel and residential addition
- Accessory structures and above-ground decks
- Above-ground pools and in-ground pools
- Demolition, of a primary or an accessory structure
Compare that with Westfield, where the city says roof replacement, fences, and heating, plumbing, and electrical work need no building permit at all. A contractor who works in both towns is working under two very different sets of rules, and most homeowners have no idea. If your site says "a roof replacement in Lebanon needs a city permit, and I pull it," you have answered a question the out-of-town companies never mention.
The city licenses electrical, heating and cooling, and plumbing contractors, and anyone can look them up. Lebanon's permit portal has a public contractor license search. If you hold a Lebanon license, say so on your site and tell people they can check it. It is a credential some of the out-of-town firms chasing Lebanon work may not have.
The Planning Department does more than issue permits. It runs building inspections and code enforcement, and it staffs the Plan Commission, the Board of Zoning Appeals, and a Historic Preservation Commission. If you work on older homes near downtown, find out whether a property falls under that commission before you quote exterior work, and tell your customers you check.
Applications, inspections, and payments all go through the city's online portal. The Planning Department handles questions about the process.
Outside city limits, check with the Boone County Area Plan Commission, which is also based in Lebanon.
What it costs and what happens next
Prices are published and fixed. A five-page Porch Light site is $4,500, or $2,250 at Founding Client pricing for the first three paid engagements. Larger builds with service and town pages of your own run to $15,000. Every build includes a contact page with a form, and call tracking and form tracking are installed before launch, so you can see what the site produces.
Full scope, timelines, and payment terms are on the pricing page.
I work in writing, by email, and reply within one business day. If you want a second opinion on your current site first, start with the free score. If you already know you need a new one, tell me about your business.
Serving Lebanon and the rest of Boone County. See the full service area, or read how I build sites for roofers, HVAC companies, plumbers, electricians, remodelers, and landscapers.