The short answer
A contractor website in Austin needs five things a generic small-business site skips: the state license number where Texas rules call for it, service and city pages written from real jobs, LocalBusiness markup, a fast mobile page, and a clean link to the Google Business Profile. Everything else on the page is design.
The license number is the one with a rulebook behind it, so start there. The other four come from Google's own documentation and decide whether the site gets found at all.
Does a Texas contractor have to put a license number on the website?
For HVAC, electrical and plumbing companies, the Texas advertising rules cover all advertising designed to win work, and a contractor website soliciting jobs reads as advertising. None of the three rules names websites, so treat this as the safe reading of the rule rather than a line quoted from it.
The wording is plain. The air conditioning rule at 16 Texas Administrative Code section 75.71 says all advertising by air conditioning and refrigeration contracting companies "designed to solicit air conditioning or refrigeration business must include the affiliated licensee's license number." The electrical rule at 16 Texas Administrative Code section 73.51 requires the contractor's name and license number on all advertising designed to solicit electrical business. The plumbing rule at 22 Texas Administrative Code section 367.10 requires the license number of the responsible master plumber "regardless of the type of media used."
| Trade | Regulator | Whose number goes on the ad |
|---|---|---|
| Air conditioning and refrigeration | Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation | The affiliated licensee, also on proposals and invoices |
| Electrical | Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation | The electrical contractor, including on business cards |
| Plumbing | Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners | The responsible master plumber of record, in any media |
| Roofing and general contracting | No program on TDLR’s list | No TDLR number to show |
Put the number where a homeowner would look for it, in the site footer on every page and on the contact page, written the same way it appears on your trucks. The truck rules are exact: TDLR requires air conditioning companies to show the license number and company name in letters not less than two inches high on both sides of every work vehicle, and it requires electrical contractors to put the letters TECL in front of the number. A homeowner who checks the van against the website should find the same number twice.
What should a contractor's service and city pages say?
Each service page and each city page should describe work you actually did, in words only your company could write. Google's spam policies define doorway abuse as pages "created to rank for specific, similar search queries," and give multiple pages "targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page" as an example. A stack of city pages with only the town name swapped is that pattern.
Google's guidance on people-first content asks who made a page, how and why, and asks whether the content shows "first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge." For a contractor that means job photos you took, the owner's name and license on the about page, and city pages that name the work and the neighborhoods you really serve. Our post on service area pages for Austin contractors goes through Google's rules on those pages in detail.
What markup does a contractor website need?
A contractor website should carry LocalBusiness structured data on the home page and contact page. Google's local business documentation lists two required properties, name and address, and recommends telephone, url, geo and opening hours on top.
Google asks for the most specific type possible, and a shop that does more than one trade can list several; Google's own example puts Electrician, Plumber and Locksmith in one array. Two cautions come from the same page. Review markup is recommended only for sites that capture reviews about other local businesses, so do not mark up your own testimonials. And Google says it does not guarantee that structured data will produce any special result in search.
How fast does a contractor website need to be on a phone?
A contractor website should load its main content within 2.5 seconds, respond to a tap within 200 milliseconds, and keep layout shift at 0.1 or less. Those are the Core Web Vitals thresholds published on web.dev, measured at the 75th percentile of real page loads, and Google Search Central says it highly recommends good Core Web Vitals for success with Search.
Test on a phone first, because Google does. Google's mobile-first indexing documentation says it uses the mobile version of a site's content for indexing and ranking, and that the mobile site should carry the same content as the desktop site. A gallery or service list that only appears on desktop does not count. Google's page experience checklist adds two more: serve the site securely, and skip the full-screen pop-up that blocks the page.
How should the website connect to the Google Business Profile?
The Business Profile should link straight to the page that represents that location. Google's guidelines say to provide a website that represents your individual business location and not to use URLs that redirect or refer users to landing pages. A contractor who runs the business from home should also hide the address on the profile, which Google's guidelines ask of every service-area business.
That link is where the website and the map pack meet. When we build contractor websites, the license number, the markup and the profile link go in on the first day, and the service pages are written from the jobs the owner actually wants more of.
Frequently asked questions
Does a Texas HVAC contractor need the license number on the website?
The TDLR rule for air conditioning and refrigeration contractors says all advertising designed to solicit that business must include the affiliated licensee's license number. The rule does not name websites, but a website that solicits work reads as advertising, so the safe practice is to show the number on every page.
Do Texas plumbers have to show a license number in online ads?
The Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners rule requires advertisements designed to solicit plumbing business to state the license number of the responsible master plumber of record, regardless of the type of media used.
Do roofers in Texas have a state license number to display?
Roofing does not appear on the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation's list of regulated programs, so there is no TDLR roofing license number to show. Insurance details and real project photos carry more of the weight on a roofing site.
How fast should a contractor website load?
Google's Core Web Vitals thresholds on web.dev are a Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, an Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and a Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads.