Should you put prices on your website

What it costs 6 min read

The case for and against publishing prices as a local trade, three honest ways to do it, and what to write when the job genuinely has no fixed number.

The first question anybody has is what it costs. Your website does not answer it, so they either call you and ask, or they go and ask somebody whose site does.

Both of those happen every week and you only ever hear about the first one.

What the silence actually costs you

A site with no money on it anywhere is not neutral. It sorts your callers for you, and not in your favor.

The people who call anyway are, in the main, the people who are calling everybody. They have four tabs open and they are collecting numbers. The ones who wanted to know whether you were in their range before spending a phone call have already gone somewhere else, and they were often the easier job.

You also pay for the silence in your own hours. Every call that ends with a number the caller was never going to accept is ten minutes you do not get back.

The reasons owners keep prices off, and which of them hold up

Four reasons come up, and they are not equally good.

Competitors will undercut me. They can already find out what you charge by asking you for a quote. Publishing a number does not tell them anything a phone call would not.

Every job is different. Often true, and it is an argument against a fixed price list, not against saying anything at all. It costs money to send a van out; you can say what a visit involves without pretending each job is identical.

Prices change. They do, which argues for a number you can hold for a year rather than for silence.

Somebody will think I am expensive. Somebody will. They were going to think it on the phone instead, after you had both spent ten minutes getting there.

The one good reason to leave prices off is that you do not yet know what your own numbers are. That is worth fixing before it is worth publishing.

Three honest ways to put a number on the page

You do not have to publish a full list, and any of these three is better than nothing.

A price list. Works when you sell repeatable things: a service, a wash, a cut, a check, a service call. Say what is included and what is not.

A starting figure or a range. Works for most trades. From means the cheapest version you have actually done, not a number chosen to look good. If your typical job lands in a band, say the band.

How you charge, without a figure. Works for anything genuinely bespoke. Say whether you charge by the hour or by the job, whether the first visit costs anything, what a service call covers, when you need a deposit, and how you take payment. That is money information and a reader treats it as such, even without a total.

Write the number you would say on the phone

Whichever you choose, the test is the same. If a stranger called you now and asked, what would come out of your mouth? Write that.

Not the aspirational number, and not the one you only charge when the customer seems relaxed about it. A published figure you flinch at is a figure you will abandon on the first call, and then your page is lying on your behalf.

What to write when the job has no price

Some work cannot be priced from a website and pretending otherwise helps nobody. What you can always publish is the shape of the money.

Say what makes a job cost more, in the customer's terms: access, the age of the system, whether it is a repair or a replacement, two stories instead of one. Somebody reading that can place themselves in the cheap half or the dear half without calling you, which is most of what they wanted a number for. It also answers the same question your phone keeps answering, which is why the price question belongs on the FAQ page as well.

A stale price is worse than no price

A number you published two years ago and never touched is a promise a stranger will hold you to, and the conversation where you explain it has gone up starts you off in a hole.

Put the prices in one place so there is one thing to change. Schedule a reminder for the day you change your rates, and change the page the same week. A price that has drifted is the same failure as opening hours that are wrong, and it costs you the same way: the customer arrives believing something you no longer offer.

Before you publish a number, check these

• It is the number you would say out loud on the phone today
• You have written what it includes, in the customer's words
• You have written what it does not include
• Anything variable is named plainly: access, age, height, distance
• The date or the year is on the page, or the number is one you can hold
• Travel outside your usual area is covered, or clearly excluded
• Deposits and payment methods are stated
• One page holds the money, and everything else links to it
• Somebody outside your trade has read it and can repeat it back

What this site does about it

Carverpoint publishes its own. A build is $1,450, once, and the site is yours. Website Care is $149 a month and is optional. Reviews is $149, Social is $349, Care and Reviews together is $199, and everything is $499 a month.

That is not offered as proof of anything, and a website is easier to price than a leaking roof. But the rule holds either way: if a price is on the page, the person on the phone is not hearing it for the first time, and the call starts somewhere better. What the number should cover, whoever writes it, is set out here.

Questions people ask

Will competitors undercut me if I publish my prices?

They can find your prices whenever they want by asking for a quote, and most of them already have. The bigger risk is the customer who never called you because they could not tell whether you were in their range.

What if every job really is different?

Then publish how you charge instead of what you charge. A service call fee, an hourly rate, whether the first look costs anything, and what pushes a job up. That is enough for somebody to decide whether to call.

Should I say from, or give a range?

A range is stronger if you can defend both ends. From is fine as long as the low number is a job you have actually done at that price, rather than a hypothetical one nobody has ever bought.

How often should I update the prices on my site?

Whenever you change them, in the same week. If that is hard to remember, put the year next to the numbers so anybody reading knows how old they are.

Do I have to publish my hourly rate?

No. Some trades are compared on hourly rate in a way that flatters the wrong people. If that is yours, price by the job instead and say so.

Does a price on the page mean fewer calls?

It probably means different calls, and nobody can honestly tell you the size of the change in advance. What you can say for certain is that the caller who does call already knows roughly what they are walking into.