7 Tips for a More Effective Contractor Website
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Content Team,
HALSTEAD.
Websites are where your best customers go to learn more about your design/build firm. Will they be impressed by what they see? Your website is critical to driving business today an here, we dive into a few key tips for creating a better website experience, for you and for your customers.
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For Pool Builders, Landscapers, and Outdoor Living Pros, the Buying Process has Changed.
Over the last decade, we’ve seen remarkable changes in how people buy and sell—across all industries. Buyers now own the market in many industries. How they search for services and learn about companies has turned upside down. Sellers are now competing more aggressively.
For kitchen and bath remodelers, outdoor living and landscape industry professionals, and luxury pool builders, these changes have led to a kind of rebirth. A need for emphasis on higher quality, new ways for lead generation, and more ways to stand apart from the competition. Attracting the target buyer is harder than ever in the incredibly segmented media landscape.
Why? Your buyers spend several weeks researching online—to learn what they want, who you are, what value you can bring to them, and what people think about you. Your prospects care about the end results as much as they care about the process. They look to make sure their experience with you will be pleasant and professional. Connections matter. And gone are the days of asking your neighbors for the landscaper’s info. People want more than one person’s opinion and they’re willing to invest time to find this info out. Oh, and they most likely go to Facebook Groups before their neighbor these days. (Side note - Facebook Groups are gold referral sources if you can get them!)
Sellers in the construction industry are often too slowly adapting to this buyers’ world, and unfortunately, loosing business as a result. Successful design/build companies are able to attract people to call them, close jobs that they want to build, and price them to make margins that are sustainable and lucrative. If this isn’t you, then it’s time to turn to your website.
Over 80% of buyers begin their search online (according to a GE Capital Retail Bank study)—because they know that every company is on there—and it’s true. Most, if not all, of your competitors are online. But what sets you apart? What makes searchers click on your site and then return? What makes them call YOU?
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You’re Missing Opportunities If This Is Something You’ve Said:
“I don’t need anything more from my site—I just use it to send people there to look at my work.”
“I don’t get leads from my website right now.”
“I did worse this year than the previous.”
“I get all my leads from Home Advisor and Angie’s List.”
“My season isn’t booked up, but I just did a direct mail campaign and ran a print ad.”
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Tip #1 for Better Contractor Websites: Looks Do Matter.
Looks may not be the most important factor in a website overall and oftentimes folks put too much emphasis on how a site looks instead of how it works, but it does play an important role in making a good first impression.
An in-depth study from the Stanford University and Consumer Web Watch, “How Do People Evaluate a Website’s Credibility? Results from a Large Study,” found that a website’s design was more important than credibility indicators such as having a privacy policy, awards, or certifications.
Tips for a great website design:
Proper use of colors: Use the right colors for your audience and to draw attention to select elements. Don’t try to make everything jump out. The result will be just the opposite—nothing will stand out. Dial-in on 2 main colors with a possible third lightly used color, ensuring they are aligned to your brand to create a strong visual.
Animations, gadgets, and media: Avoid anything unnecessary. Using Flash animations because they look cool is the wrong strategy. In most cases it’s best not to use animated background or background music. Only use media and animations to help support content and information.
Layout: Create a clear navigation structure and organize page elements in a grid fashion (as opposed to randomly scattered). Also, don’t be afraid of white space, and avoid clutter!
Typography: Use fonts, font sizes, and font colors that are easy to read. For easier page scanning, use bullet lists, section headers, and short paragraphs. If your site is English language-based, make sure information flows from left to right and top to bottom.
While design is important, don’t forget that offering great content is what your visitors are ultimately after. A well-designed website might convince visitors to take a closer look, but they won’t look twice if the content isn’t useful and well organized. After all, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
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Tip #2 for Better Contractor Websites: Blog, Blog, and Blog
Blogging is without a doubt one of the most important and most effective ways to drive traffic to your site. How much of it? More blogs result in more traffic and more opportunities for leads. So, if you want more leads, then you need more blogs!
Here are some reasons why you really need a blog:
It creates fresh content and more pages of content, which is great for contractor SEO.
It helps establish you as an industry authority and thought leader—great way to get yourself to stand apart.
It helps drive more traffic and leads back to your website.
It’s a great channel to converse and engage with your audience and customers—connections sell!
It’s a great way to get valuable inbound links!
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Tip #3 for Better Contractor Websites: Content for Everyone
Buyers come in different stages. The companies that connect with the prospect earliest has the highest chance of getting the lead and winning the job. A website only full of information about your products and services will not bring in anywhere near enough leads. You need to provide content to all three stages so that when these prospects search online, your blog articles come up to help solve a variety of needs that your company can eventually solve.
1. Early
The searcher has realized and expressed a potential problem or opportunity. An example of a problem your target client may have and search if you’re a home remodeler:
“My kids always want to hang out at their friends house, how can I help reverse that?”
Example content: Blog article about keeping teenagers entertained with a game room.
2. Middle
The searcher has defined their problem or opportunity. If you’re still the home remodeler in this example, the search now is:
“I want to create a game room, how and where in my home is best to do this?”
Example content: Blog article about comparing additions and remodels for the perfect game room.
3. Ready
The searcher has defined their solution strategy, method, and approach. Again, if you’re a home remodeler, here is your target client solution search example:
“I need to choose a remodeling company.”
Example content: Page about why you’re different than others.
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Tip #4 for Better Contractor Websites: Quality Over Quantity
Everyone knows having a lot of content is a good thing, but in the days where search engines are getting smarter and buyers are becoming more selective, quality content is truly king.
Quality content is a definite must-have for any website. This includes:
Offer unique content. People love this and so do search engines.
Write for humans, not search engines. People don’t read like robots.
Write for humans, not search engines. People don’t read like robots.
Do your research when paying for content that is written by third-party services. Some work well, others do not.
Keep content fresh. Having news that’s 2-years-old still sitting on your homepage will probably give your visitors a bad feeling.
Know your audience. Providing content that is specific to your buyers makes it more relevant for them, and in turn, higher quality.
Include evidence when needed. If stating facts, numbers, awards, testimonials and etc., try to back it up with a source and give credit when credit is due.
Know your subject well. You probably don’t want an auto mechanic writing about brain surgery. Accurate content equals quality.
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Tip #5 for Better Contractor Websites: Calls to Action
Calls-to-action are the secret sauce to persuading visitors to share their info. It’s a confirmation that these strangers are interested in what they’re seeing and want to learn more. Calls-to-action button can be placed anywhere and everywhere on your site—every page!
The most common call-to-action button we see on websites is “Contact Us.” Sure, you want all your prospects to talk to sales (or you), but not everyone is ready. As you know, buyers are more likely to do their own research before even engaging with a sales rep. And, every prospect is at a different stage of exploration. Some may need more education than others. That’s why it’s important to develop different call-to-action buttons for different buying stages.
Easy alternative to “contact us”:
Download for a free guide in exchange for contact info.
Discount guide in exchange for contact info.
Download for a free checklist guide in exchange for contact info.
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Tip #6 for Better Contractor Websites: Using the Right Images and Videos.
Images and videos can be a powerful element to any website, but you need to use them wisely. The best images are high quality, professional photography of your project work. Nothing sells more like your previous work and nothing prevents you getting more work like horrible photography. Put the iPhone down (save those images for Facebook posts) and call a professional photographer and videographer.
A note about stock images … they are seen everywhere because they are easily accessible and inexpensive. But are they good to use? Marketing Experiments performed a test comparing the use of stock photography verses real imagery on a website and each of their effects on lead generation. What they found was that photos of real people outperformed the stock photos by 95%. Why? Because stock images tend to be irrelevant. Resist the temptation to use photos of fake smiling people!
As a result, take care to place meaningful images on your site. Every image is transmitting a subconscious message to your prospects and sometimes the result is different from what might expect.
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Tip #7 for Better Contractor Websites: A Mobile-First Website is Critical for Contractors.
This one feels a bit of a no-brainer to mention, but since it’s still a problem for some websites, it needs to be here. Make sure that anyone visiting your website can view it no matter what browser or application they are using. Years ago, it was said that in order to gain significant traffic, your site needs to be compatible with all devices. Today, your website needs to focus on mobile, first. This is especially true since Google will not display your website on mobile devices unless its mobile-optimized—even if its super search engine optimized! With over 50% of searches coming from prospects on mobile devices, and the large majority of FIRST visits to your site coming from mobile, we have officially passed “mobile-optimized” to a world of “mobile-first”.
