There’s a clear correlation between construction industry companies that have a great website, and those that don’t.
Simply doing a website isn’t enough anymore – as the hub of all your marketing efforts, your website should be your 24/7 online marketing tool and salesperson that generates leads and increases sales!
In construction, few things matter more than trust!
Having a properly designed website shows a prospect that you’re a professional, legitimate business they can feel confident doing business with.
Your competitors are also online.
They are spending the money needed to have a great online presence that sets them apart from their competition. Does your site stand up to the competition?
Win more business by following these website guidelines:
1. Your website is old or broken.
Don’t underestimate the importance of your website. It’s the most valuable piece of online real estate you will ever own!
The reality is that a construction firm of any type is also a WEB-BASED BUSINESS.
Whether they found you via Google search, construction news sources, referrals, or word-of-mouth, their first impression of you will be made online!
Once on your site, a potential customer will instinctively make a judgment that establishes confidence in your ability to serve their needs, or you can almost guarantee they will be moving on.
Prospects should never see
- A site that hasn’t been redesigned in years
- Broken links
- A site that isn’t mobile-responsive and more
All of this reflects poorly on your business.
The Fix:
Invest in a professional website done by a firm who knows the construction industry. After all, it is your 24/7/365 salesperson. When done right it will be worth every dollar spent and will continually help your business grow!
The first touch point most prospects have is with your website. It should be mobile-responsive, user-friendly, professionally designed, load fast and easily provide what your prospects are looking for.
There should be no mistakes – this includes design elements, grammar, broken links, security, and more.
2. You are only showcasing your qualifications.
One of the biggest mistakes in construction is when companies only show that they are qualified. What’s wrong with that?
By saying that you are just “competent and qualified” narrows down the prospective buyer’s decision to you and around 725,000 other construction companies in the US (according to the statistics on Census.gov). Those are very steep odds to compete against!
The Fix:
As a construction industry company you must differentiate yourself from your competitors. You need to clearly explain on your website why you are the one and only choice for that buyer and project.
You want your leads to look at your website and think, “Wow, this company gets our needs! They are clearly the best choice for us.”
3. Your website has outdated information.
- Is the copyright at the bottom of your website from 2015?
- Is your last blog post more than a year old?
- Have you not added a new project to your site for a couple of years?
If so, your prospects may assume that if you haven’t updated your website, your business isn’t active anymore, or that you just don’t care about your online presence, or them!
The Fix:
When all information is up to date your prospects will see that your business is alive and well.
Just as important – make sure your web firm is proactively updating software and plugins – not doing so can have an adverse effect on your site’s performance and security!
We’ve seen it too often:
- A contact form or links stopped working
- The site doesn’t display properly on a mobile device
- Plugins and security features haven’t been updated
- The site got hacked, without the company ever knowing.
Hire a firm that offers managed hosting – you will never have to worry about your website again! A web firm partner will also advise on adding new projects and content.
4. You don’t have a comprehensive project gallery on your website.
The project is complete, and your client is happy with the outcome. Don’t keep it to yourself – share your success!
If you aren’t sharing your work, then how will a prospect feel confident in what you do?
The Fix:
The construction industry specializes in visual transformations!
When it makes sense, showcase before and after photos of your projects. This is a smart way to show prospects what you’re capable of.
Don’t forget to include a description of the project. Explaining each project helps your prospects learn more about your expertise, and is great for SEO!
Also, add a testimonial from the customer (just ask – they should be happy to give you one.)
5. You don’t know who your target market is.
Not sure who your customer is? You should – this is the center of your marketing strategy for messaging, plus where and how to market your business online.
The Fix:
Start with who your past and current customers are. This is a good indicator of who your future customers are going to be.
Once you have this information you can align your website and messaging around them, without wasting time and money on the wrong prospects!.
6. Your website has the wrong messaging, or no messaging at all!
Your business solves a problem and creates value for your target audience.
But without the right messaging and page content, first-time visitors don’t know enough about your business, and are quick to judge.
The average visitor will stay on your site for less than 15 seconds! This is a very small window for you to convince them that your product/service meets their needs.
It’s a common mistake to believe your visitors see your business the way you do and already know the benefits of your product/service. Educating them quickly is dependent upon your website messaging!
The Fix:
It’s important to quickly communicate the value your business creates for your target market.
Keep marketing messages easy to read while highlighting the benefits your company brings to the project.
Tell your target audience what makes you unique and why they should do business with you.
Write page content that includes the right keywords and phrases so your site ranks on Google. The right content also helps prospects choose your company to do business with, and not your competition.
7. Your website is not optimized for Google searches.
Was your site designed without any optimization – never to get found by potential customers?
Site optimization helps your website become more discoverable and is critical to your online success.
On the surface, the goal of site optimization is to improve your website’s rankings in search results, because not many people look past page one on Google!
But beyond that, the purpose of achieving high rankings is to also attract more traffic and ideally, to convert that traffic into leads and customers.
The Fix:
When prospects search Google for keywords related to your business (for example “Denver electrician”) they’ll have a better chance of discovering your site and becoming a customer when your site is optimized.
Hire a web firm that knows how to do keyword research, create custom Title Tags, Meta Descriptions and Alt Tags, include Internal and External Links, and more. Your site should also load fast and have no technical errors!
Any firm worth-their-salt knows how to do all this, and should offer it as part of their website design package, because without it your online presence will suffer
Not sure what is right and what is wrong with your website and the best way to fix it?
Get in touch, we can provide you a free site analysis and suggestions on improvements to help it become a lead-generating machine!
