A Bobcat and Excavation Website That Wins Bigger Jobs: An Australian Checklist

Excavation work gets bought in two very different ways. The small stuff, a bobcat to level a backyard or a trench for stormwater, is booked on price and who can come Tuesday. The bigger jobs are different: site cuts, pool digs, footings for a retaining wall, detailed earthworks on a new build. Those get handed out by builders and owner-builders who check you out properly before they ring, because a cheap dig that goes wrong is the most expensive line item on the whole job. Most earthmoving websites serve neither buyer. A slab of stock photos, a machine list with no measurements, and nothing that proves the operator has ever dug anything trickier than the demo image that came with the template. Here's what actually wins work, in rough order of what matters.

1. List your machines with their widths, not just their names

Behind almost every tight-access search is one question: will it fit? A homeowner planning a pool or a backyard dig has usually already stood at their side gate with a tape measure. So answer in numbers. A 1.7-tonne mini excavator that squeezes down to under a metre wide gets through most side gates; a 5-tonne machine doesn't, and needs the fence panel off or crane access. Put each machine on the page with its width, its weight, and the jobs it suits, and add the tipper if you run one, because "excavator plus tipper" is a package people specifically want quoted together. This one change does more for your enquiries than anything else on this list. A bare list that says "bobcat, excavator, tipper" forces people to ring and ask, and plenty won't. They'll ring the operator whose site already told them.

2. Talk to the builder and the homeowner separately

Your two customers want opposite things. The homeowner wants reassurance in plain words: what it costs, whether the machine fits, what happens to the dirt. The builder wants to know you'll turn up when the slab pour depends on it, that your paperwork is in order, and that you won't need babysitting. Give them each their own section. For homeowners, name the jobs: pool digs, site clean-ups, driveway strip-outs, trenching, levelling for lawns and sheds. For builders, say the quiet things out loud: certificate of currency emailed same day, white card, happy to price from plans, available for repeat detailed-earthworks work. Builders hand digs to the same two or three operators for years. The whole point of your website is to get onto that list, and one section written in their language is how you start. Our tradies website page covers how we structure this split on real builds.

3. Your job photos are the whole pitch, so use your own

Excavation is one of the few trades where the work photographs brilliantly. A machine on a ridiculous slope, a pool dig through a gap with 50mm to spare each side, a before-and-after of a scrubby block turned into a level pad. That's your sales copy. Use your own photos, captioned with the suburb and the problem: "1.7t through the side gate at Newton, pool dig, spoil out through the carport." Never pad the gallery with stock shots of machinery you don't own; builders can pick a stock photo instantly, and it reads as having something to hide. A 30-second phone video of a tricky dig is even better, and it costs nothing but remembering to film it. We've written up why this works so well for trades in before-and-after photos that win trades work, and excavation is the strongest case for it we know.

4. Name your suburbs and know your ground

"Excavation Adelaide" is a fight; "tight access excavation [your suburb]" is winnable. Name the areas you service instead of claiming the whole city. Then show you know what's under them, because ground is local knowledge and it's the most convincing expertise an earthmover can put on a page. Around Adelaide, where we're based, the plains run to reactive clay, plenty of beachside blocks in the south hit limestone before you're a metre down, and the foothills throw slopes and rock at you from Belair to Stirling. Meanwhile the growth fronts at Mount Barker and Angle Vale are wall-to-wall site cuts and detailed earthworks. One paragraph like that, written for your own patch, tells a reader you've had the bucket in their kind of dirt before. Pair it with a properly set-up Google Business Profile so you show up in the map pack for those suburb searches; here's our plain-English guide to Google Business Profile.

5. Trust: insurance, white card, and Before You Dig on every job

Earthmoving doesn't have a licence the way plumbing does, which makes the trust signals you can show matter more. Public liability insurance with the amount stated, because builders will ask for your certificate of currency before anything else. White card. Plant insurance on your own machines. Then the line I'd put on every excavation site in the country: "We lodge a Before You Dig Australia referral on every job." It's free, it's the difference between a professional and a cowboy with a machine, and homeowners who've heard the horror stories about struck services will notice it. While you're being honest, deal with spoil upfront too: cartage and dump fees are real costs that vary by load and by what's in the ground, so say you'll price them clearly in the quote rather than letting them surprise anyone later.

6. Wet hire or dry hire: say which, in plain words

Half the people searching "bobcat hire" don't know the industry terms, so spell them out in a line each. Wet hire: the machine comes with an operator, you point, we dig. Dry hire: you hire the machine and run it yourself. If you're an owner-operator who only does wet hire, saying so plainly filters out the dry-hire calls you were never going to take, and stops you losing the customers who assumed "hire" meant they'd be left alone with a machine they can't drive. It also matters for how you quote: hourly with a minimum, day rate, or fixed price from plans. You don't have to publish your rates, but naming how you charge makes the first phone call twice as useful for both sides.

7. Make quoting fast: ask for two photos and a width

The best enquiry form for an excavation business asks for almost nothing: name, suburb, what needs digging, and two photos, one of the job and one of the access. Add a box for gate width if they know it. With that you can quote most residential jobs from the ute, and customers notice the operator who came back with a straight answer in an hour while the others were still arranging site visits. Keep tap-to-call for the blokes who'd rather talk, and one honest line about your response time next to the form. We've covered what makes these prompts work in calls to action that actually work. And all of it only helps if the site loads fast on a phone at a dusty block with two bars of reception, which is a build-quality problem; here's why speed wins trades work.

What to fix this week

• Put every machine on the site with its width, weight and the jobs it suits.
• Write one section for homeowners and one for builders, in their own language.
• Swap stock machinery photos for your own, captioned with suburb and problem.
• Film 30 seconds of the next tricky-access dig on your phone.
• Name your actual service suburbs and a line about the ground in your patch.
• State your public liability cover, white card, and that you lodge a Before You Dig referral every job.
• Explain wet hire vs dry hire in one line each, and say which you offer.
• Cut your quote form to name, suburb, job, two photos, gate width.

The honest bottom line

An excavation business doesn't need a flash website. It needs a fast one that answers "will it fit" in numbers, shows holes you've dug yourself, speaks to builders and homeowners separately, and puts your insurance and Before You Dig habits where they can be seen. That's a one-page job for most owner-operators: $399 for a focused single page, $899 for a multi-page site with separate service and suburb pages, plus $30/month hosting with no lock-in contract. A single extra site cut pays for it several times over. If you're weighing up doing it yourself with a page builder first, read custom website vs template for tradespeople, then check the full pricing and website packages. The landscaping guide covers the same show-your-work fundamentals from the trade you probably work beside most weeks.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most important thing on an excavation or bobcat hire website?

Machine sizes and access widths, in real numbers. Behind almost every tight-access search is one question: will your machine fit through my gate or down my side path? List each machine with its width and weight, say what it suits, and you answer that question before the phone call. A vague machine list with no measurements makes people ring someone else to find out.

How much should an excavation website cost in Australia?

You do not need a big build. A focused one-page site with your machines, photos and a tap-to-call number starts at $399, a multi-page site with separate service and suburb pages is $899, plus $30/month hosting with no lock-in contract. One extra site cut or a day of wet hire usually covers the whole thing.

I get most of my work from builders. Do I still need a website?

Yes, but for a different reason than a homeowner-facing trade. Builders who get your name from another builder still look you up before they ring. A simple site that shows your machines, your insurance, and a handful of real jobs confirms you are an established operator worth adding to their list. It is a reference check you pass automatically, and it works on the supervisor googling from the ute as much as anyone.

Should I say whether I offer wet hire or dry hire on my website?

Say it plainly and early. Wet hire means the machine comes with you operating it; dry hire means the customer runs it themselves. People searching often do not know the terms, so spell both out in one line each and state which you offer. If you only do wet hire, saying so saves you the dry-hire calls you were never going to take, and vice versa.