When you need a roofer, a plumber or an electrician in Charlotte, you probably start on Google. You find a company with good reviews, and you tap their website. We wanted to know what happens next. So in October 2026 we checked every Charlotte contractor with at least five Google reviews in 11 trades. That’s 815 local businesses. We left out national chains and franchises.
Nearly 1 in 4 have no working website
185 of 815 contractors (23%) have no working website behind their Google listing.
- 129 have no website listed at all.
- 6 list a Facebook or directory page instead.
- 50 list a website that’s broken.
Of the 50 broken ones:
- 19 point to a web address that no longer exists.
- 16 load a “page not found” or a server error.
- 9 trigger a browser security warning (“Your connection is not private”).
- 4 send you to an online gambling site.
- 1 goes to a page selling the domain name.
- 1 won’t connect at all.
Electricians had it worst
Share of each trade with no working website behind its Google listing:
Four Google listings send customers to gambling sites
This one surprised us.
Four Charlotte contractors still list a web address they let expire. Someone else bought it. Today, a homeowner who taps “Website” on those Google listings lands on an online gambling site written in Indonesian or Thai.
The contractor probably has no idea. Their Google listing still shows the old address, their reviews still look great, and the link quietly sends people somewhere else.
If you’re a homeowner:if a contractor’s website looks nothing like a contractor, close it. Don’t enter your name, phone or address. Call the number on the Google listing instead.
If you’re a contractor: open your own Google listing today and tap your website link. It takes ten seconds.
Most sites are slow on a phone
We ran every working site through Google’s PageSpeed Insights test, on mobile, three times each.
- Only 6% (34 of 620) scored “good” (90 or higher out of 100).
- 30% (187 of 620) scored in Google’s “poor” range (below 50).
- On a typical site, the main content took 9.7 seconds to show up on a phone in Google’s test. 86%took longer than 4 seconds, which Google calls “poor.”
That matters. Google’s own research found that when a mobile page takes 3 seconds to load instead of 1, people are 32% more likely to leave.
1 in 10 only lets you call
Of the working sites we checked, 56 of 585 (10%) gave no way to ask for a quote or book online. No form, no booking button, no chat. Just a phone number.
That’s fine at 2 p.m. It’s a problem at 9 p.m., when a lot of homeowners are finally sitting down to deal with the leak.
1 in 7 haven’t touched their site in almost two years
The copyright year at the bottom of a website is a quick tell. 55 of 408 sites that show one (13%) still say 2024 or earlier. Some still say 2012.
Almost none show a license number
North Carolina licenses general contractors, electricians, plumbers, HVAC contractors and pest control companies. Only 24 of 308 sites in those trades (8%) show a license number anywhere we checked.
Plenty say “licensed and insured.” Few show the number. A license number lets you check for yourself in two minutes.
What to check before you hire
- Tap the website on their Google listing. It should load fast, look like a real contractor, and match the business name.
- Look for a license number. Then look it up with the state board for that trade.
- Check the copyright year. A site nobody has touched in years can mean nobody’s minding the details.
- See if you can reach them online. A form or booking button means you can ask at 9 p.m.
- Read the reviews, then call. The best sign is still a real person answering the phone.
What contractors should fix this week
- Tap your own website link on Google. If it’s broken, fix the link or renew the domain before someone else buys it.
- Put your license number on your site. It builds trust, and almost nobody else in Charlotte does it.
- Test your site on your phone. If it’s slow for you, it’s slow for your customers.
Or hand it to us. We build websites for Charlotte contractors that load fast on a phone, take requests at 9 p.m., and never quietly go dark. Get started
How we did it
- Who: every business in Charlotte, NC with 5 or more Google reviews, listed as roofing, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, general contractor, remodeling, landscaping, painting, tree service, pest control or fencing. National chains and franchises were removed, and businesses that shared one website were counted once. 815 businesses in all.
- When: October 28, 2026. Websites change. These numbers are a snapshot of that day.
- Broken sites: every broken site was checked twice before we counted it.
- Speed: Google PageSpeed Insights, mobile, the middle score of three runs per site.
- Online request: a contact or quote form, a booking or estimate tool, a booking button or a chat, on the homepage or the contact page.
- License number: a license number in the text of the homepage or the contact page, for the five licensed trades.
- We don’t name any business in this report. The point is the pattern, not any one company.