Marketing and branding

7 changes to make your construction website work for you

Crew members workin from laptop in workshop.

You’re busy. Like, really busy.

Day in and day out you’re managing a team, buttoning up projects onsite or even stepping in to do the nitty-gritty work yourself. Over the years, marketing hasn’t gotten as much attention as you know it deserves, but you’ve managed to build a solid customer base through word-of-mouth referrals. But why stop at solid?

Let your website do the marketing for you. Yep, you read that right. Maybe you have one already, maybe you don’t (and you really should get one), a good website is more than just an online presence. It’s an online personality. The strongest salesman you’ve got on staff. A reflection of who you are.

To help make sure you’re wowing on the web, we asked Buildertrend’s very own web services manager, Emily Johnson, what small changes can be made to have a big impact. Here are her top tips:

Emily Johnson headshot
Emily Johnson, Web Services Manager

1) Think about your mobile user first

“With an increase in smart phone web users, it’s important to make sure your website is designed with them in mind,” Johnson said.

Like an old dog who won’t learn a new trick, many companies are creating websites for only desktop. It’s time to step into the 21st century, though. Fun fact: Cellphones now outnumber the world’s population. That’s why it’s more important than ever to optimize your website for desktops and phones or tablets. Chances are you may be reading this right now from one of those devices.

2) Big doesn’t mean better with images

For your website, you likely want pictures you’re proud to display. No pixels, please!

Believe it or not, you can still have this when reducing an image’s file size for web resolution. It’s an easy fix, too. There’s a ton of free online compressors or you can get the job done in programs like Photoshop. Large images lead to slow load time, especially on a mobile site. And we already know how important our mobile users are. The right image size with the right keywords also improves SEO (more on that later).

3) Words have worth

Images are great. But you know what else is great? Words! Ah yes, those funny little things our English teachers were so keen on. Don’t let pictures do all the talking for you. If you can communicate something by just typing it out, then do that. Type it out. Big images cause slow load times and so can too many images. Boooo! Plus, this gives you a chance to use more keywords to make your page more readable to Google. Yay!

4) Think KISS, or Keep It Stupid Simple

Sorry, Gene Simmons. We’re not talking about your make-up loving rock band. But acronyms are cool too, right? The KISS principal we are referring to is all about those words again. Keep content short, simple and to the point. Chucky paragraphs and long text lines? Forget about it. The epidemic of reader fatigue is real. Together, we can put an end to it.

5) Make all the things easy to find

Website navigation should be like a map, not a maze. Easy to follow. Your top taps should include all the important pages on your site, but that’s it. Stop there. Don’t let it get too cluttered and confusing. Simply combine similar pages into a tab if needed. Seriously, it’s that easy.

6) Animations are awesome – when used sparingly

Images and text fading into screen. Buttons popping up in response to clicks. An entire page’s background shaking to and fro. Sounds cool! Well, it can be … in moderation. When it comes to website animation, you can have too much of a good thing.

“Users don’t want to work to find the content,” Johnson said. “You may lose them if it’s too time-consuming and tedious.”

The last thing you want is to send potential customers chasing after content that’s literally running away from them.

7) SEO is more than a fancy marketing term

Trust us, you want to be on Google’s good side. Search engine optimization is just the way. Here are some quick tips to up your SEO game:

  • Write with keywords, i.e., phrases customers are entering into search engines again and again and again
  • Only use one main headline per page; Include a keyword if you can and keep it relevant to what’s on the page
  • Use meta titles and descriptions to boost readability
  • Include keywords but write like a human; Google can tell if a bot did the job

Think building the best possible website comes second to building the best possible home?

Think again.

A well-made construction website can lead to more customers, increased brand awareness, bigger profits … and we’re just getting started.

Whether you’re new to the web or looking for an upgrade, our Pro Websites service can help. We’re here to make sure your dot com is the ?.

A complete guide for driving traffic to your construction website

About The Author

Sean Robinson

Sean Robinson Sean Robinson is a senior content marketing specialist at Buildertrend

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