This is a real case study from a general contractor in a mid-size Southern city. Business name anonymized, but every number is real.
And the results match industry benchmarks — KSR Digital documented 170% more leads for a home service company within 6 months of a redesign. Level 10 Contractor saw a jump from 33 to 83 leads in 90 days. This isn't an outlier. It's what happens when a functioning website replaces a broken one.
What Was the Problem?
The contractor had been in business 12 years with a great reputation. Website was built in 2018 on WordPress with a $49 theme. Never meaningfully updated.
Before the rebuild: - Monthly visitors: 2,100 - PageSpeed: 28/100 mobile, 45/100 desktop - Mobile bounce rate: 73% - Contact form submissions: 15/month - Load time: 7.2 seconds on mobile - Pages per session: 1.4 - Conversion rate: 0.71%
Six critical issues:
- 1.7.2-second load time — 3x the recommended maximum. Most visitors left before seeing content.
- 2.Not responsive — desktop layout just shrank on phones. Text unreadable without zooming.
- 3.Contact form buried 3 clicks deep — each extra click loses 20-30% of people.
- 4.No photos of real work — just 2 stock photos. Zero proof of capability.
- 5.No service-specific pages — everything crammed on one "Services" page.
- 6.Default WordPress SEO — title tags said "Home" and "Services." No schema. Minimal info for Google.
What Changed?
Ted rebuilt the site overnight. Here's what was done:
New architecture — 7 pages replacing 3: - Home (value proposition, services, reviews, CTA) - Kitchen Remodeling (targeting "kitchen remodeling [city]") - Bathroom Renovation - Room Additions - Deck Building - Gallery (photos organized by service) - About & Contact (with prominent form)
Performance: - Next.js codebase (no WordPress, no plugins) - Images compressed to WebP - Edge-cached hosting with CDN - Page weight: 4.2MB → 380KB
Conversion: - Click-to-call on every page (sticky on mobile) - Contact form on every page - Google reviews on homepage - Before/after photos throughout
SEO: - Optimized title tags: "[Service] Contractor in [City], TX" - Local business schema (JSON-LD) - Proper heading hierarchy - Internal linking between services and gallery
What Were the Results? (90 Days)
| Metric | Before | After | Change | |---|---|---|---| | Monthly visitors | 2,100 | 2,800 | +33% | | PageSpeed (mobile) | 28 | 94 | +236% | | Bounce rate | 73% | 41% | -44% | | Form submissions | 15 | 38 | +153% | | Load time | 7.2s | 1.8s | -75% | | Pages per session | 1.4 | 2.9 | +107% | | Conversion rate | 0.71% | 1.36% | +91% |
Traffic increase came entirely from improved Google rankings — the site ranked for 12 new keyword phrases. No paid ads. No backlink building.
Conversion improvement came from three things compounding: speed (visitors stopped bouncing), mobile experience (60%+ of visitors could actually use the site), and removing friction (contact form on every page instead of 3 clicks away).
What Was the Revenue Impact?
Average job value: $8,500.
- Before: 15 submissions × 40% close rate = 6 jobs = $51,000/month
- After: 38 submissions × 40% close rate = 15.2 jobs = $129,200/month
Additional annual revenue: $938,400. Cost of website rebuild: $500. Payback period: ~4.7 hours.
Even discounted 50%, that's $469,200 from a $500 investment.
Is Your Site Leaving Money on the Table?
Quick checklist:
- 1.Mobile PageSpeed above 80? (Below 50 = critical)
- 2.Can you read all text on your phone without zooming?
- 3.Does it load in under 3 seconds on mobile?
- 4.Can visitors call or submit a form from any page in one tap?
- 5.Does each major service have its own page?
- 6.Do you have before/after photos of real work?
- 7.Are Google reviews visible on your homepage?
If you answered "no" to two or more, your website is costing you jobs. Get your free score at sitesByTed.com.