Are you another marketing agency?

No. We're operators who got tired of watching contractors pay $65/lead to Angi while their LSA dispute queue sat untouched. We audit 27 specific things on your local presence and fix them. If you want generic 'SEO growth,' we're not it.

What's actually different about your SEO vs. every other agency?

We name the moves. Most agencies say 'we'll do your local SEO.' We tell you which Q&A questions to seed on your GMB profile, how to dispute up to 25% of your LSA leads back from Google, why your one-page website is killing your 'near me' rank, and which 9 schema types your competitors are missing. If we can't be specific, we shouldn't be paid.

What's the typical audit score before you start?

35–55 out of 100. The gap is almost always the same: no GMB Q&A seeded, no service-area page architecture, no LSA dispute hygiene, no review velocity engine, no schema beyond what Yoast auto-generates. We close that gap inside 10 days.

What does "five per city" actually mean?

TradeCraft Builds accepts a maximum of five contractors per trade in each metropolitan area — five plumbers, five HVAC contractors, five electricians, and so on. Once the fifth slot in a trade fills, we stop selling that trade in that city to new contractors. As long as the existing five members stay active, no new direct competitor can buy in. If a member cancels, the slot reopens to the waitlist.

Who builds the website?

The senior team at Fifty & Five — the same agency that has built 222+ brands across hospitality, consumer, and B2B since 2008. Adjacent-category brand work (Appliance Parts Pros, UTI Transportation, Enterprise Holdings, the myQ launch at Chamberlain) informs how we approach trades; the trades practice itself is purpose-built for home services. AI accelerates production; senior strategists and creatives lead every build.

Is this AI-generated or human-built?

Both, by design. Brand judgment, copy direction, creative review, and customer relationships stay with the senior team that has built 222+ brands across hospitality, consumer, and B2B over eighteen years. AI handles the throughput — site production from intake, schema and AEO entity work, directory submissions across 40+ platforms, review automation, and monthly performance reports. The operating model is what makes a ten-day sprint at this price point possible without compromising on craft.

What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?

Answer Engine Optimization is the discipline of structuring a brand so that AI assistants — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude — cite it when answering buyer questions. When a homeowner asks "who is the best plumber in Orlando?", the AI returns a short list of named businesses. AEO engineers your presence to be one of them.

How long does the build take?

Ten calendar days from the moment intake is completed. If the site is not live within ten days, the build fee is refunded in full.

What happens if I cancel?

The website is yours regardless; the build fee is one-time and the site never goes away. Care plans are month to month and cancel anytime. If a care plan is cancelled, the exclusive city slot opens to the next contractor on the waitlist for that trade, and we migrate the site to hosting of your choice.

Is the build fee refundable?

Yes, under the delivery guarantee. If we do not deliver the live site within ten days of completed intake, the $1,199 build fee is refunded in full.

How is this different from Angi, Thumbtack, or HomeAdvisor?

Lead marketplaces sell the same lead to three to five contractors at once; close rates run below 15%. TradeCraft Builds builds a property the contractor owns — domain, site, reviews — where leads arrive uncontested. Close rates typically run 40–60%.

What is included in the social media add-on?

For $499/month, the Fifty & Five social team produces and publishes twelve posts per month across Facebook, Instagram, and Google Business Profile. Captions written in the contractor's voice, approved monthly in five minutes. A separate Google Ads management add-on is also available at $399/month plus your ad spend.

Where is TradeCraft Builds based?

TradeCraft Builds is headquartered in Orlando, Florida, and operated by 5ifty & 5ive LLC. The parent agency Fifty & Five has operated out of Orlando since 2008.

Who owns TradeCraft Builds?

TradeCraft Builds is a product of 5ifty & 5ive LLC, founded by Lucas Vandenberg, who also founded the parent agency Fifty & Five in 2008.

What does TradeCraft Builds cost?

The website build is a one-time fee of $1,199, delivered in a 10-day sprint with a money-back guarantee; the contractor owns the site outright. Two optional care plans at $249 per month each: Google Business Profile Management (posts, review responses, ranking upkeep) and the Website Care Plan (hosting, edits, security, SEO and AEO upkeep). Both care plans together are $498 per month. Optional add-ons: Social Media ($499/month) and Google Ads management ($399/month plus your ad spend).

How does TradeCraft Builds compare to Scorpion or Hibu?

Scorpion and Hibu are large enterprise-scale agencies. They will sell to you and to the competitor across town. TradeCraft Builds is a productized, sprint-delivered offering with territory exclusivity (five contractors per trade per city) and Answer Engine Optimization as the lead discipline.

How does TradeCraft Builds compare to Angi or Thumbtack?

Angi and Thumbtack are lead marketplaces that sell the same inquiry to three to five contractors simultaneously, with close rates below 15%. TradeCraft Builds builds a digital presence the contractor owns; leads arrive uncontested and close at 40-60%.

Do I own my website at the end?

Everything. You own the brand, the copy, the domain, the website itself, and all customer data and leads. The build fee is one-time. With the Website Care Plan we host and maintain it for you; if you cancel, we migrate the site to hosting of your choice.

What if my city is not on the current list?

Twelve metropolitan areas are open at launch. Additional cities roll out across 2026. If your market is not yet open, reach out and we will prioritize it in the next launch wave.

Do you serve trades outside the five listed?

The current focus is plumbing, HVAC, handyman, electrical, and general contracting. Adjacent trades like roofing, painting, landscaping, and pool service are on the 2026 roadmap.

VOL. I • TRADECRAFT BUILDS • EST. ORLANDO 2008 • FIVE PER TRADE • TRADE JOURNAL • 222+ BRANDS • SENIOR-LED

Home/Trades/General Contracting/Houston

General Contracting · Gulf Coast

General Contracting marketing in Houston.

Done-for-you websites, local SEO, and AI-search visibility for residential general contractors serving Houston and the surrounding Gulf Coast. Built by the senior team at Fifty & Five, on the 10-day sprint.

4of 5 open

The Houston General Contracting Market

Why general contracting in Houston, right now.

The fourth largest U.S. city, with a diverse residential base from urban Houston to large master-planned communities. Sustained population growth and post-storm rebuild cycles support deep trade demand.

For general contractors specifically: General contracting is the highest-ticket residential trade, with multi-stakeholder decisions (often homeowner + spouse + sometimes architect), longer consideration windows, and a sales cycle measured in weeks not hours. Portfolio depth, trust signals, and named past clients are the entire conversion. The wrong site disqualifies a GC before the first call.

Climate & seasonal drivers in Houston: Heavy year-round HVAC demand, frequent flood and storm events driving emergency response and rebuild work across plumbing, electrical, and general contracting.

What We’d Build for a General Contracting in Houston

How we structure this combination.

We build a portfolio-heavy site architecture — every project gets its own case study page with budget transparency where appropriate, neighborhood references, and named-client testimonials. AEO entity work positions you in the consideration set for "best general contractor in [neighborhood]" queries. License, insurance, and bond status are prominent.

In Houston specifically, we layer the general contracting site over neighborhood-level local SEO across the markets you actually serve. Every neighborhood gets a dedicated landing page, structured with local references, climate-appropriate service framing, and trust signals (license, insurance, BBB) surfaced consistently. AEO entity engineering targets the general contracting-in-houston query class so that ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews cite your business by name when a homeowner asks for the best general contractor in Houston.

Coverage in Houston

Houston neighborhoods we structure for.

Your general contracting site is built with a dedicated landing page for each of the 8 neighborhoods below, plus the broader Houston metro page. Each page is optimized for the search patterns homeowners in that neighborhood actually use.

River OaksThe HeightsMemorialBellaireSugar LandThe WoodlandsKatyPearland

FAQ

General Contracting in Houston — common questions.

Honestly. We work with what you have — if the portfolio is six projects, we present six projects with depth, not pad with stock imagery. We brief photographers locally if you want to add more, and the senior team writes the project case studies from your notes.

Where you are comfortable with it, yes. Budget transparency on past projects is the single highest-converting trust signal we see for GCs, because it pre-qualifies the homeowner and disqualifies the curious ones who waste your time.

More important than for any other trade. A named, dated, neighborhood-specific testimonial from a past client closes business that no amount of marketing copy can. We build the workflow to collect them automatically after every project completes.

Houston contractors who are not visible in local search and AI search at the moment of a storm event lose the entire post-event work cycle to competitors who are. Pre-built infrastructure — site, schema, review density, AEO citation — must be in place before the event, not built in response to it.

When a homeowner asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews "who is the best [trade] in [city]?", the AI returns a short list of named businesses. That list is engineered, not random — it is built from structured data, citations, named-entity signals, and review density. TradeCraft Builds engineers your business to be one of the few named businesses in that list. Most contractors in this market are not in those answers today.

Adjacent markets and trades.

Other cities serving general contracting

Other trades open in Houston

Reserve your Houston general contracting slot.

4 of 5 general contractors slots remain in Houston. Once the fifth fills, the trade closes to new contractors in this market for as long as the existing slots stay active.

Reserve General Contracting in Houston Houston brief →