As the owner of a construction company, you might be surprised to find out that your website is one of the most important tools you own. In today’s digital marketplace, having a website is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity. No big deal, anyone can have a website built, right? The key is to have a website that provides a great user experience while delivering information visitors will find valuable. Unfortunately, many construction company websites fall short, all making the same common mistakes. Here are some things you can do to make sure your construction website stands out among your competitors.
Make an Informative and Memorable Introduction
Don’t waste any time letting visitors know exactly who your company is and what you do. There is a myriad of different surveys and studies about how long you have once your site loads to capture a visitor’s attention, each with a different conclusion. The simple answer is “not very long”. On average, you have about 8 seconds to engage visitors to your site – make those seconds count.
Many construction companies have names that are generic and don’t really convey the services they offer. Your home page should immediately give visitors a clear and concise introduction to your company and its services. A clean, clutter-free design accompanied by your logo, a catchy tagline, custom job site photography, a listing of services and contact information should immediately be at their fingertips. Chances are you won’t land a construction job from a single visit to your website. However, an informative and memorable home page can get you shortlisted when visitors are trying to choose a service provider in your industry.
Keep Your Website Current
Old news and outdated content can leave visitors questioning your expertise on current innovations or trends in your industry. Keeping your website content current will help build your authority and instill confidence among your audience. It will also impact your search rankings. Search engines do updates regularly in an effort to list sites containing the newest and most relevant information. While your website may appear on page one of a Google search today, if you fail to regularly update it, you might see it slip to page two, then page three and so on until it is buried so deep that potential customers are unlikely to find you.
To keep your site up-to-date, it important to know how to create effective content, add that content to the site and make website edits. You can choose to do this in-house or have an outside agency do this for you. Either way, it is important to have a user-friendly content management system (CMS) in place and for those responsible for the updates to have access. This will make keeping your website current and performing well in search ranking a more efficient process.
Make Your Site User-Friendly
When visitors to your website have to struggle to find what they are looking for, many simply just give up and move on to a competitor’s site. A user-friendly site involves a couple of key components. First, it should be easy to navigate. Make sure your site menu is clear and concise, letting visitors know exactly where to find what the want, especially your contact information. There’s nothing more frustrating for a visitor who is interested in your company and services than having to search for your contact information.
Equally important, make sure your website is optimized for mobile. In 2018, over half of the worldwide website traffic took place on mobile devices. That’s a lot of potential business to be missing out on. With today’s busy lifestyles, people are searching the internet on the go. If your website doesn’t display or function properly on mobile, users will quickly move on to the next site that does.
Show Your Personality
Your website is your online voice. It should be unique to your company, reflecting your brand’s personality and culture. Too often, construction company websites simply provide a brief company history and a menu of their services. Potential customers are searching your site to help them decide if you’re the right construction company for their project.
Tell a story about your company through your branding and content that will resonate with visitors. Whether you have the ability to build your own site or you have a web design company build it for you, make sure it has a professional look and feel. If your website looks amateurish, users may mistake it as an example of the quality of your workmanship.
Skip the stock photography. Use high-quality photography of your job sites, projects in progress, and completed projects. Include a couple of candid shots such as a picture of the crew on a coffee break or discussing blueprints. Make your content professional, informative and conversational. Provide enough technical information to establish your authority, but not so much that you alienate the reader. The goal is to avoid being generic and to stand out among your competition.
Have a Clear Call-to-Action
Now that users have visited your website, what do you want them to do next? You don’t want them to leave without some sort of interaction. It crucial to have a clear call-to-action. For construction company websites, there are a number of different ways you can encourage visitors to take action.
As we mentioned before, you’re probably not going to land a construction job with a single website visit. You want to make contact with potential clients and explain why your company can deliver the finished project they are envisioning. A good call-to-action could be “Get an Estimate” or “Schedule an On-site Evaluation”. Clicking on one of these would take the visitor to a form where they could enter their contact information. A company representative would then reach out to them to set up the next steps.
Some visitors may not be ready to schedule an appointment. How do you get them to take action? Use a lead generator. Offer premium content such a downloadable ebook, a checklist or quiz they might find valuable. In order to get the download or find out their quiz results, they would need to provide their email.
You could later use that information reach out to them via email. For example:
“Hey, we saw you downloaded our ebook – What to Know When Putting an Addition on Your Home. We’d be happy to answer any questions you might have or arrange for an on-site estimate if you’re ready to get started. Use the form below to provide us with your phone number and the best time to contact you. A company representative will call you to set up an appointment.”
Optimize Your Website for SEO
According to Hubspot, 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results. Having a website won’t do much for your company if no one can find it. Optimizing your website for SEO is critical for increasing your ranking and have your website to show up on page one of a search.
When optimizing your website, there are key factors you need to focus on in addition to keeping your site current. Evaluating analytics is the best way to determine how your website is performing, what your audience is looking for and what your competitors are doing. This will show you what’s working and what’s not, essentially providing you with a road map for improvement.
Keyword research and the use of the correct keywords is another critical factor for SEO. Implementing these keywords throughout the website content in a natural and conversational way can have a significant impact on your ranking. Your domain authority also impacts SEO. Guest blogging is a great way to get quality backlinks and increase your authority. Optimizing your site is an ongoing process, and strategies must be adjusted over time to achieve the best results.
Ensure “Google My Business” Listing is Correct
Making sure your contact information is correct on your website will only help you connect with those users who visit your site directly. Many users will first be introduced to your company by Googling “construction companies near me”. If the NAP (name, address and phone number) information they find there differs from what they find when visiting your site or when they try to contact you, it could cause them to view your business as unreliable.
To make the most of your website, it’s important to make sure all your information is correct, not only on your “Google my Business” listing but across all other digital platforms as well. If your NAP information varies from one listing to the next, Google will deem it untrustworthy. This will cause your ranking to drop and making it all but impossible to be found via a Google search.
Professional Construction Company Websites
For many construction company owners, the task of optimizing and maintaining their website is well outside of their wheelhouse. Hiring a digital marketing company to handle it for you can be a wise investment. Creative Click Media offers complete digital marketing services for contractors and construction companies from website design to ongoing maintenance and SEO optimization. Contact us today so you can get back to doing what you do best!
