Before you sign up with a website designer or a design firm, it’s a good idea to take a step back.
If you have an existing website for your construction business, and you’re planning to do a design refresh, or you want a new site altogether, you need to find a firm base from where to launch the project.
Get your thoughts in order and think like a potential customer or client who’s just logged into your website.
Where do they come from? What’s the first thing they see? Why did they ignore the call to action? How did they feel? When will they get in touch with you?
Top 4 Must-Have Construction Website Design Essentials
Take a look at some of the essentials that a great construction website design should have:
1. Tell a Story
Your website is a substitute for your storefront. It should tell your client/visitor exactly what they’ll get from you. Remember that this industry is a highly visual one and pictures are a must-have. Don’t just load up with photos of completed projects, remember to add works-in-progress, photos of your team, prestigious or pro bono work you’ve done, etc. Just ensure that the photos are high quality and optimized for different devices so that they don’t slow down the loading speeds. Include a project-based gallery too.
2. Simple Navigation
There’s nothing more annoying than complex navigation. If your visitors are confused about where to go next or to find the CTA and contact us buttons etc. they’re going to abandon the site pretty quick. A great UX, with a clear and seamless funnel through the site is memorable and user-friendly. This is achieved through the use of the latest tech.
3. Great Content
Apart from photos, add lots of visuals and videos. Supplement with high quality, fresh, unique, original, and trustworthy content. Load your site with e-books, explainers, industry news, authoritative opinion pieces, FAQs, details of projects you’ve completed, testimonials, blogs, an events calendar, etc.
4. Findable
No matter how great the design, unless clients can find you on the net, you’ll draw a blank. The basic reason why someone’s here is to know more about the range of services you provide. Ensure that these are described in a clear navigational path, with separate pages for each. If you’re a niche service provider such as high-end residential condo projects, ensure that your marketing message reaches the right target audience. In more diversified service providers, offer a clearly separated page for each, including add-on services such as roofing, repairs, landscaping, renovations, etc.
It’s a huge challenge to find the right website designer/ design company.
Ensure that you do your homework and research before you sign up with a designer. This will save you a lot of time and money in the long run. Badly designed websites can damage your brand and reputation and ultimately affect your revenues. They can also prevent your company from attracting and recruiting good talent.
9 Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Construction Website Designer
1. Focusing on Price
As with any hiring process, an inordinate focus on price can be counterproductive. If the website designer quotes a dream, rock-bottom price that could be a recipe for disaster. Cheap isn’t always best and a low price could mean that corners are being cut somewhere. You could be left without support, passwords, username, “can’t be reached” messages, etc when you face a crisis. The opposite problem could arise when you deal with a big-name designer who quotes a fancy price. They may use jargon and “webspeak” that give the impression that they’re the best. Today, with so many templates available and most sites constructed with CSS and HTML, there no big secret to website architecture.
Key Takeaway: Pricing is important but not the deciding factor.
2. Ignoring Support and Maintenance
However fabulous the design and amazing the performance, unless your website is maintained regularly, and supplemented with regular updates, you could face huge problems down the line. Your site needs regular security updates, plug-in license updates, email, and phone support. Phishing attacks, hackers, malware, errors, security breaches, etc could bring your site down. This could damage your brand and affect your revenues.
Key Takeaway: Big mistake to forget to protect your website and prevent malicious attacks.
3. Your Designer Not Familiar with Social Media/SEO
Construction companies often feel secure in knowing that a big chunk of their work comes from referrals. However, the marketing landscape has changed dramatically, with more than 3 billion social media users worldwide. Nearly 90% of millennials use social media and hold decision-making powers. Your website can use social media links to funnel conversations about the brand, share relevant news/views, etc. SEO helps to boost your search engine rankings and keep your website on top of the page. If your designer isn’t familiar with these aspects, you could lose opportunities and clients.
Key Takeaway: Your website designer should be able to help the site kickstart your media marketing campaign.
4. Not Doing Your Homework
If you haven’t put in enough research before hiring the website designer, you could end up wasting time, money, and effort. Hire a designer with experience in your industry and a proven track record of success.
Key Takeaway: The site must be built for your existing and potential clients, peers, vendors, to attract talent. It’s a mistake to hire a designer who has zero knowledge of your industry.
5. Designers Who Make Unrealistic Promises
Just building the site and doing the vanishing act is a risk you take when you hire a designer. That is only the first step, not an end-goal. Once the site is up and running, traffic must be channelized, you need reports and analytics, maintenance, and support. Check the fine print in your contract to ensure that you get a comprehensive service.
Key Takeaway: Don’t get a nasty surprise when you find that you have to pay extra for every added service.
6. Not Knowing Who’s In Charge
Check if your designer subcontracts work to freelancers and cheaper service providers. It’s a huge mistake not to know who’s in charge of content, visuals, etc. It could cause enormous connectivity and consistency problems.
Key Takeaway: Unless your designer has a clear overall big picture for your site, you could end up with a poorly-performing website.
7. The Designer’s Own Website is Bad
This is a classic mistake that many clients make! Your designer may have won awards, created world-class websites, and be a social media lion. But if their own website is badly designed, you could have problems.
Key Takeaway: Check feedback, reviews, and examples of your work in real-time before hiring the designer.
8. No Control Over Website Domain
This is a precious asset that you need full control over. If your designer doesn’t assure you about ownership concerns, you may encounter huge problems in case your relationship with the designer falls apart.
Key Takeaway: You could lose ownership of your website if you don’t get clarity on the control.
9. Not Insisting on a Firm Contract
This has to be one of the dumbest mistakes that a business owner could make. This ensures the proper separation of powers, tasks, and deliverables. Contracts protect your interests and the designers and prevent potential litigation.
Key Takeaway: Read through the contract and give it to one or two trustworthy people for a review. This can help you to iron out the concerns and ensure that it’s an equitable and professional document.
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