Do I have to put my contractor license number on my website?

In several states, yes, because those states define a website as advertising. California requires the license number in all forms of advertising under Business and Professions Code section 7030.5. Nevada's NRS 624.720 says all advertising by a licensed contractor must include the company name and the license number, and its definition of advertising explicitly includes the Internet. Florida statute 489.119 requires the number in each offer of services, proposal, bid, contract or advertisement, regardless of medium. Arizona requires it too but lets you show a website address instead in broadcast, internet and billboard ads, as long as that site prominently displays your name and license number. Rules differ by state and sometimes by city or county, so check your own board. Where it is not required, it is still the single cheapest trust signal you can put on a site.

Where should the license number go on a contractor website?

Put it in the footer so it appears on every page, and repeat it near your contact details or quote form where a cautious homeowner is already looking. Write it as selectable text, not inside a logo image or a photo of your license card, because text in an image cannot be read by a search engine, an AI assistant, or anyone using a screen reader. Include the issuing state or board with the number so it can actually be looked up, and make sure the number matches your truck, your business cards and your Google Business Profile exactly.

Is it safe to publish my license number online?

Yes. A contractor license number is public record and every state board has a free lookup tool built around it, which is the whole point of publishing it. What you should not publish is the certificate of insurance itself, your insurance policy number, your EIN, or a scan of a license card that shows your home address. Send a certificate of insurance directly to the customer or the general contractor who asks for it, rather than posting the document on a public page.

What do I put on my website if my trade does not require a license?

Show whatever real credentials you do carry. General liability insurance and whether you are bonded, workers compensation if you have employees, your registered business name and the state you are registered in, manufacturer or equipment certifications, and any federal certification your work requires. Painters and remodelers working on homes built before 1978 need EPA firm certification under the Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, and the EPA gives certified firms the right to use its Lead-Safe Certified Firm logo. Name the specific thing you hold rather than writing the word professional.

RunCabin Blog · For new owners

Do I have to put my license number on my website?

August 9, 2026 · 7 min read

Usually yes, and in more states than owners expect it is not a preference, it is the law. The reason it catches people out is that the rule was written about advertising, and most owners do not think of their own website as an ad. Your state board does.

This one comes up at two moments. Either you just passed the exam, filed the LLC, and you are putting a site together for the first time. Or you have been running for years, the number is on the truck, and somebody mentioned offhand that it is supposed to be on the site too and now you are not sure whether you have been quietly out of compliance since 2019.

Here is what the rules actually say, where the number goes so it counts, the things you should never publish next to it, and what to show if your trade does not require a license at all.

Your website is advertising, legally speaking

The wording varies by state, but the pattern is consistent: the license number has to appear in your advertising, and advertising is defined broadly enough to include a website. Four examples worth reading in your own state's words rather than mine.

California. Business and Professions Code section 7030.5 requires a licensee to put the license number on construction contracts, subcontracts and calls for bid, and in all forms of advertising as prescribed by the registrar. There is no website carve-out.
Nevada. NRS 624.720 says all advertising by a licensed contractor must include the name of the contractor's company and the number of the contractor's license, and its definition of advertising names the Internet outright, alongside signs, vehicles, newspapers and directory listings.
Florida. Statute 489.119 requires the registration or certification number to appear in each offer of services, business proposal, bid, contract or advertisement, regardless of medium. That phrase is doing the work: email, social posts and websites are all covered.
Arizona. The Registrar of Contractors requires the number on published advertising, vehicle signage, letterhead and customer correspondence, with one useful accommodation: for broadcast, internet and billboard advertising you may list a website address instead of the number, provided that site prominently displays your name and license number. Note what that means in practice. The website is the place the exemption points to, so the number has to be on the site.

Not every state does this, and plenty of trades in plenty of states are licensed at the city or county level instead, with their own advertising language. So the honest instruction is: look up your own board's advertising rule before you launch, not after. It takes about ten minutes and boards publish it plainly, usually under a page called advertising requirements.

The penalties for getting it wrong are typically modest for a first offense, and that is rather the point. This is the cheapest compliance item you will ever handle. It is one line of text.

The better reason to do it anyway

Set the legal part aside for a second, because even in a state with no such rule, the number earns its place.

Every contractor site on earth says licensed and insured. It is two words anybody can type, including the person who is neither. A homeowner reading it knows that. What she cannot do is check it.

A license number is different, because it is checkable. Every state board runs a free public lookup built around exactly that number, and it returns the status, the classification, the issue date, whether the bond is in place, and often whether there is disciplinary history. Publishing the number is an open invitation to verify you, and the invitation itself is the signal. The people who cannot survive that check are precisely the ones who leave the number off.

This matters most when you have the least else to show. If you are new and have no reviews yet, the verifiable facts you control carry more weight, not less. A number a stranger can look up in twenty seconds does more work than another paragraph of adjectives.

Where to put it so it actually counts

In the footer, on every page. Not only the contact page. If a rule says your advertising must carry the number, and each page of your site is advertising, the footer is the one place that satisfies all of them at once. It is also where people have been trained to look.
Near your phone number and quote form. Repeat it where the decision happens. Someone hovering over the call button is exactly the person who wants the reassurance.
As selectable text, never as part of an image. If the number lives inside your logo graphic or a photo of your license card, it cannot be read by a search engine, by an AI assistant answering "is this company licensed", or by anyone using a screen reader. Some boards also want it legible and prominent, and buried in a JPEG is neither. This is the same reason assistants can only recommend what they can read.
With the issuing state or board attached. "License #1084172" tells nobody where to look it up. "CA CSLB License #1084172" does. If you are licensed in two states, list both.
Identically everywhere. Site, truck, business cards, estimates, Google Business Profile, invoices. Mismatched digits in one place look worse than a missing number, because now it reads like a typo or something worse.

One line in the footer covers it: Smith Plumbing LLC · CA CSLB License #1084172 · Licensed, bonded and insured · Serving Fresno and Clovis.

What not to publish

Owners sometimes overcorrect and put the whole file cabinet online. A few things should stay off the public site.

Your certificate of insurance. It carries your policy numbers and often your home address. Send it directly to the customer or general contractor who asks for it. On the website, the words are enough: carrier optional, coverage amount optional, document no.
A scan or photo of the license card itself. Same problem. It may show a home address, a signature, or a date of birth. The number in text is what people need.
Your EIN or any part of your Social Security number. Sole proprietors sometimes have these entangled. Neither belongs on a public page.
An expired number. Worse than no number, because a homeowner who looks it up finds "expired" and stops there. If a renewal is in progress, take the claim down until it clears.
Somebody else's license. If you work under another company's license, that is their number and their name, and putting it on your own site as though it is yours is a real problem in most states.
"Bonded" if you are not. A license bond is a specific thing you either hold or do not. So is workers compensation. Do not decorate.

What if my trade does not need a license?

Plenty do not, or not below a dollar threshold. House cleaners, most landscapers, mobile detailers, and handymen working under a state's small-job limit often have no license to display. That is fine, and the answer is not to fake credibility with vague words. Show what you genuinely carry:

General liability insurance, and whether you are bonded. For work inside somebody's home this is the thing they actually care about.
Workers compensation, if you have employees. Homeowners who have been burned once ask about this.
Your registered business name and state. "Registered in Ohio" plus a real business name beats an anonymous phone number.
Federal or manufacturer certifications your work requires. The big one for painters and remodelers: under the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, firms doing covered work in housing built before 1978 must hold EPA firm certification, and certified firms are given the right to advertise it and use the Lead-Safe Certified Firm logo. If you have it, say so, because a customer with an old house is asking anyway. If you do not and you work on pre-1978 homes, that is a compliance gap worth closing before it is a marketing one.
Trade-specific certifications such as manufacturer installer credentials, backflow certification, or an equipment certification that a competitor down the road does not hold.

Name the specific thing. "Insured and EPA Lead-Safe Certified" is worth ten uses of the word professional.

The renewal problem nobody plans for

Licenses expire. Insurance renews. Classifications get added when you expand into a new type of work. Every one of those changes a fact printed on your website, and a site with last cycle's expiration date on it is worse than a site that never mentioned one.

Two habits fix it. First, if you list an expiration date at all, put a reminder in your phone for two weeks before it. Second, keep the number and the credentials somewhere you can actually change in five minutes. This is the practical reason so many owners never update these details: on a lot of website plans, editing one line means emailing a designer and waiting, and it never seems urgent enough to bother.

It is also worth knowing that this cuts across your other channels. If you run Google's Local Services Ads, the Verified badge depends on your license and insurance staying current, and it pauses when either lapses. We covered how that works in whether you need a website for Local Services Ads. A lapsed renewal can silence your paid pipeline and quietly discredit your site in the same week.

Writing the line so it does not sound like everyone else

Most sites bury this in a bullet list of promises next to "free estimates" and "satisfaction guaranteed". Try it as a plain statement of fact instead, in the words you would use at a kitchen table:

"Licensed in Nevada since 2019, license #0087412, and you are welcome to look it up on the state board site before you call. We carry $1,000,000 general liability and workers comp on both employees."

That is not clever copywriting. It is just specific, and specific is what reads as true. There is more on the plain-language version of this in what to write on your website.

Where RunCabin fits

RunCabin builds and runs the site for $39.99/mo, flat: your own domain, professional email, hosting, and the whole thing written out as real text rather than trapped in graphics. Your license number goes in the footer of every page from day one, in the format your board expects, and your credentials sit where a homeowner is already looking.

When the license renews, the classification changes, or you finally get the EPA firm certification, you ask for the edit and it is done in moments. No ticket, no designer, no waiting until Thursday. That is the difference that decides whether these details stay accurate for years or quietly rot. No setup fee, no contract, no lead fees, and the site is yours.

See your site before you pay a cent

No sales call, no card. We build a real preview with your name, your trade, and your credentials so you can decide for yourself.

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