6 Things Every Home Contractor Website Needs
Let’s talk about websites!
There are six things that should be on your website if you are a local, small business.
1. Your phone number:
Make it very, very easy for people to contact you. And I’m not talking about having your phone number tucked away on the “contact us” page, or down in the footer. Make your phone number prominent, on every single page, in the top right-hand corner, where people can easily find it and call you.
2. Social media icons:
If you are active on social media, and I do recommend that you are, put the social media icons in which you’re active at the very top of your website. If you’re active on Facebook and Twitter, put a link to your Facebook page and Twitter account with the icons that go with each. If you need someone to help you do that, I’ve got a great web developer I can recommend to you.
Having those icons present subtly tells people that you are active on social media. A lot of times people will check you out on Facebook, Twitter, etc. as part of their decision-making process. That way they can see what you’re really all about, how transparent you are, etc. So make it very easy for people to find your social media accounts.
3. A way to capture email addresses:
You want some way to capture the email addresses of people who visit your site. Don’t just say “Hey, subscribe to my newsletter!” Instead, give them some really solid offer, some reason they should want to give you their email. This could be tips—if you’re a contractor, maybe you could offer to email them “Three Tips on How to Choose a Contractor.” Or, you could offer to send them a special discount through email.
Your website used to be like a brochure for people to check you out. Now you can have your website work for you to capture people’s information so you can follow up with them later, through blog or email campaigns. So make sure your website has this ability to capture people’s information so you can market to them later.
4. Make sure you have a blog:
A blog gives your customer another reason to come back to your website, and that’s exactly what you want to do—give people reasons to keep coming back! And you want them to have a reason to keep coming back without having to buy anything.
However, it’s better to not have a blog at all if you’re not going to keep up with it. When customers come to your site and see a blog that hasn’t been updated in years, they will think that you’re not very engaged with your customers. And if your website never changes, why would they bother to come back?
But when you update your blog often it has two benefits for you. The first is that if you update your blog consistently, Google likes that because you’re giving them something else to check out each month when they crawl your page. This will help your Google rankings.
The second benefit is that people will keep coming back! If you offer helpful information through your blog, people will keep coming back and eventually they will buy from you. This is a benefit to you but it also is a way to help you focus on helping your potential customers by giving them great content.
So make sure your blog is active. This is something that we can do for you if you need any help with blogging.
5. A call to action:
Don’t overlook the importance of having a very specific call to action on your website. If you look at our website, on the very first page it says: “We help local businesses gain more loyal customers. Learn more!” With that “Learn more” I’m guiding you to the page that I want business owners to go to. Whatever your business is, have some kind of a funnel to get them to a landing page, or some kind of page where they know that they’re about to do business with you.
For example, if you’re a lawn care company you might say “We help residential customers take care of their lawns. Get a quote!” And that will be a link that takes the customer to a page where they can fill out their information to get a quote from you. Whatever suits your business, put some kind of call to action that gets them to the pages that are the most beneficial for you and your business.
6. An “About Us” page:
Not a generic page with stock photos. I’m talking about hiring a professional writer to write an About Us page about you and your business, or you and your employees. And here’s the key: have real pictures of you and your staff, your employees. If it’s a family-owned business, have pictures of you and your family. Make sure that the photos are updated, and make sure that if you do have employees on the page you keep it updated and change it when you get new employees, or when someone leaves the company.
Remember, as consumers, we buy with our gut, not with our brain! When people feel that they have a connection with the people they’re about to do business with, that really helps. So make sure you have a great About Us page that includes real pictures and is professionally written.
So there’s a checklist for you to make sure that you have all the necessary things on your website! I hope this helps! Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments!