Guide to building a construction website
Your website should be the center of your marketing as it’s the only marketing tool that works 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
With more and easier ways available for building a construction website, there’s no reason your business has to be without this essential marketing tool.
A website that conveys a professional image will result in an increase in the number of projects you are invited to bid and may even help you win bids. There is no question that customers now use the web to search for and evaluate contractors. One study found 97 percent of consumers go online to research products and services locally.
Your construction website should be the center of your marketing as it’s the only marketing tool that works 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The problem for most contractors is finding the time and money to create a website. And building a construction website can seem daunting. It doesn’t have to be. This guide will help you through the process.
First a word about terminology: Don’t let words overwhelm you. If the words used in this guide are confusing or completely unknown, a quick Google search for the word will give you an easy-to-understand definition. Soon you’ll know the terminology as well as you know the names of every tool you own.
Step 1 – Building a constructin website
The first step in building a construction website is securing a domain name and host. A domain name is nothing more than your address on the web. It tells people where to find you. The host is where your website files will reside online.
Choose a domain name carefully. Ideally, it should include a keyword for your business. A domain of www.harrisremodeling.com is better than www.harriscompany.com because the keyword remodeling is included.
Choose domain names that are easy to spell and don’t include numbers or hyphens, as well as a name that won’t get you in legal trouble by being too similar to another website. Beware of low-ball pricing, as it could mean you can’t ever move your site to another hosting service nor have ads on your site. Read the fine print to be sure you own the domain name. The average cost for a domain name is $8 to $10 per year.
There are many options for hosting. The lowest cost options are shared hosting sites, such as godaddy.com. Managed hosting for WordPress is another popular option, and while higher in price, these sites offer greater security and automatic updates for WordPress. WP Engine and Kinsta fall into this category. Variables that affect the price include the size of the site, number of email accounts needed and security features.
In years past, building a website required understanding HTML or CSS, but today, content management systems make it easy for those with no coding knowledge to build and update their website.
Step 2 – Choose a platform
In years past, building a construction website required understanding HTML or CSS, but today, content management systems make it easy for those with no coding knowledge to build and update their website.
WordPress, the most popular and user-friendly system, is used by 26.2 percent of all sites on the Internet. As an open-source system, the power of WordPress comes from the many themes and plugins that provide endless design options and powerful functionality.
For an alternative one-stop shop approach, you can also use a web-based program, such as Weebly, Wix or Duda, that charges fees starting at $4 to $8 per month. The downside of most of these sites is they cannot be moved to another hosting service, should you want to part ways.
If you use WordPress for your site, you’ll need to first install the WordPress program. With most hosting services installing WordPress is a simple one-click installation process.
Step 3 – Theme selection
The theme you select dictates the design of your site – fonts, colors and page layouts. Before selecting a theme, think about your content and what you want the site to look like. There are thousands of paid and free themes available for WordPress sites.
A responsive design is a must, because many people search from mobile phones and tablets. Before selecting a theme, review the ratings and check to see if the developer updates them. Ask yourself: Can you can get support if you need it? Does the theme offer a variety of page templates that suit your content? Can the theme be customized to match your brand?
Once a theme is selected, it’s a simple matter to install and then activate the theme. Changing the theme, won’t affect the content.
Step 4 – Content planning
Before you start constructing pages and building a website, create a simple sitemap on paper. A sitemap is basically a flow chart of how visitors will navigate the site.
The home page is the most important page on your site and you have just seconds to make a good first impression. Home page content should include a headline and subhead that offer a clear value proposition and leave no doubt as to what services you provide.
Include different calls to action based on where buyers are in the process of purchasing. Most visitors are not ready to buy or even request a quote. They’re browsing for information. Options might: be request a quote, download our free remodeling guide, or browse our projects gallery.
Capturing emails can further help you market to website visitors. Include recognitions such as an Angie’s List Super Service Award or logos from professional associations to convey credibility.
Don’t be afraid to add personality to your site. Studies show the second most visited page on any website is the ‘About us’ page. Consumers want to know about the people they will work with. Videos can be another great way to demonstrate the passion you have for your work.
Good photos of your projects are a must. These reflect the size, scope, style and quality of previous work, and can be important to customers. Organize them in a way that makes it easy for website visitors to search. Including information on the location of the project can also help your search engine rankings.
Testimonials and reviews can tell a powerful story. Be sure to include them on your site and update them frequently. Including licenses and insurance certificates on your site can cut down on your having to send them to prospective clients.
A blog is a great way to keep your construction website current and provide valuable content to visitors that will help them with planning and organizing the project, selecting products and more. Unlike pages, which are static, blog posts are presented chronologically with the latest post first. Websites that are updated frequently enjoy higher rankings with search engines.
Step 5 – Create pages, posts and more
Creating a page is as easy as copying text from a word document on your computer and pasting it into the site and then adding photos to fit the layout. Photos need to be uploaded to the construction website and inserted by using the ‘add media’ command. If you want a page to be part of the navigation, add it to the menu bar.
Step 6 – Plugins add functionality
Thousands of web developers have created more than 43,000 free plugins to work with WordPress. You can use plugins to create contact forms, place social media feeds on your site, catch spam or make your site faster. Like themes, you should check out plugins carefully before adding them to your site. Too many plugins increases the probability of conflicts with the software.
Keep it secure
If there is one downside to WordPress and other open source systems when building a construction website, it’s security. Failure to keep your site up to date with the latest version of WordPress or running on old plugins leaves the site vulnerable to hackers. The best defense is a good offense, so ask your hosting company about backups of your site, updates to WordPress and any extra security measures they recommend.
How long will it take? If your copy and pictures are organized and ready to go, it’s possible to get a website of five to seven pages up and running in several hours. If you get stuck adding new material is easy.
−By Joanne Costin
