Contractor website in Québec: what it must do

A homeowner in Duvernay wants a new roof. He requests three quotes, then checks all three companies in the RBQ registry. Two have a site with no licence number; only one shows its jobs, its licence and its service area. That is the one he calls first, before comparing prices.

This guide is for renovation, roofing, landscaping, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling contractors in Greater Montréal. It covers what the site has to do, what the law requires you to display, how to avoid city pages that hurt search rankings, what 691 local listings analysed in June 2026 show, and what a site costs.

What a contractor site must do

Job	Feature	Why
Say what you do	One page per service, with photos of your jobs	"Renovation" means everything and nothing; "asphalt shingle roofing" gets searched.
Prove you exist	RBQ licence number, insurance, years in business	The homeowner checks before calling.
Show projects	Before-and-after photos, city, building type, duration	A stock photo proves nothing.
Define the area	Cities and neighbourhoods served, travel fees	A request from 80 km away wastes both sides' time.
Ask the right details	Project type, dimensions, timeline, photos	A quote starts with a good request.
Reassure about after	Warranty, timelines, permits, subcontractors	This is what separates two close prices.

Open your site and look for your licence number. If you cannot find it in ten seconds, an RBQ inspector cannot either, and neither can a client who checks.

The RBQ licence on the site

The Building Act requires a contractor to display its licence number on its website, its business social media and all advertising, including business cards. The number has ten digits and is written "Licence RBQ: XXXX-XXXX-XX".

Three details many sites get wrong:

• The RBQ logo is prohibited. The Québec government flag and the Régie's logo are reserved marks; displaying them on a company site is an offence.
• The exemption is narrow. Members of the Corporation des maîtres électriciens du Québec and the Corporation des maîtres mécaniciens en tuyauterie du Québec do not have to display the number because they carry their corporation's logo. Every other contractor does.
• The number has to check out. A client can search the licence holder registry and see whether the licence covers your category of work. A displayed number that does not match the right sub-category is worse than none.

The site can also explain what the licence covers and does not cover. That is a teaching opportunity almost no competitor takes.

One page per city, without empty pages

The temptation is to create "Renovation in Montréal", "Renovation in Laval", "Renovation in Longueuil" from the same text with the city name swapped. Google calls these doorway pages, and its spam documentation treats them as a problem (Google Search Central).

A page per city works when it contains something the others do not:

• projects actually completed in that city, with photos;
• the local rules that change the job (municipal permit, zoning, snow removal, access);
• lead times and travel fees from your shop;
• a client testimonial from that city, if you have one.

If you do not have that content, a single "Service area" page listing the cities is enough. It is more honest, and it often ranks better than ten thin pages.

What 691 local listings show

In June 2026 I pulled 691 Google Maps listings through the Places API for renovation, roofing, landscaping, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling contractors in Montréal, Laval, Longueuil, Brossard, Repentigny and Pointe-Claire, then analysed each site's homepage.

• 11% (75 listings) had no website, or only a social profile. That is the lowest rate of the six sectors: contractors understand they need an address.
• Of the 616 sites, 258 ran WordPress and 97 ran Wix, Squarespace or GoDaddy. That is the largest number of WordPress sites of the six sectors.
• The median mobile PageSpeed score was 62; 19% scored under 50.
• An analytics tag was present on 57% of sites.
• The median listing had 38 Google reviews.

So the problem is not the absence of a site, it is what is on it. A 2018 WordPress site with a "Contact us" form and four stock photos does not tell a homeowner whether you do shingle or membrane roofing, or whether you cover their neighbourhood.

The limits: the Places search returns what Google ranks, not every contractor in those cities. One PageSpeed run per site. A tag on the page does not prove it is configured. No business from the scan is named.

Client data

A quote request collects a name, an address, photos of the house and sometimes information about a dispute or an insurance claim. Law 25 applies: a notice at the point of collection, a privacy policy, limited access. Photos of a house can reveal much more than the address; they should not land in a shared mailbox.

The form should also ask for consent before photos are sent, and state how long they are kept. The detail is in the Law 25 guide.

French, finally: the site must offer a complete French version. That is the subject of the Law 96 guide.

What it costs

My prices are public on the pricing page, before tax:

• Landing site, CA$3,500: services, service area, RBQ licence, projects, quote request form, French and English.
• Custom site, CA$5,500: if you add pages per service or per city and your team edits them itself.
• Add-ons: extra page CA$250, blog CA$600, third language CA$800, migration CA$700.
• Care: CA$150 a month on the landing tier.

A contractor with four services and six cities does not need twenty-four pages. It needs four solid service pages and one honest service-area page. The CA$3,500 plan covers that. Extra pages make sense when you have projects and content specific to each city.

Market ranges are in the guide to website costs in Montréal.

Audit your current site

• The RBQ licence number is visible, in the XXXX-XXXX-XX format.
• No RBQ logo or government flag is used.
• The licence covers the work you advertise.
• Every service has its own page, with photos of your jobs.
• The cities served are named, with the limits.
• The form asks for project type, timeline and photos.
• A privacy notice precedes submission.
• The site exists in French.
• The homepage scores 50 or more on PageSpeed Insights, mobile.

If you want a second opinion on your site, book a 15-minute call. I will tell you what is design, what is RBQ compliance, and what can wait.

Sources

Pages read on 22 October 2026.

• Displaying your licence, Régie du bâtiment du Québec
• Licence holder registry, Régie du bâtiment du Québec
• Spam policies: doorway pages, Google Search Central
• Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (P-39.1), LégisQuébec
• Language of commerce and business: your rights, Office québécois de la langue française