Construction is a competitive field. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there will be a 4.4% employment growth for construction workers between 2022 and 2032. That means that in addition to the competition you already have, there will be over 60,000 more skilled tradespeople out there. They’ll be battling for the same projects you want.
To set yourself apart from the competition, you need a great construction website. Google is the first place people go to when they’re looking for construction companies. Then, they go back to Google to read reviews, and make their final decisions on what construction company to use.
You want to make sure your website is better than other construction websites. And to do that, you’ll need more than stock photos and generic writing.
You’ll need videos, custom photography that shows before and after shots of work you’ve done, and perhaps even 3D modeling.
These things are hard to do on your own, especially if you’re running a construction business full time. So many construction companies hire construction web design companies, like us at SEO Design Chicago, to build them an amazing website.
We’ve worked on dozens of websites for people in construction, including a cabinetry company that saw a 300% increase in website visitors after we redesigned their website.
Check out our reviews. We think we know what a good construction web design firm is because we have plenty of customers who have attested to that.
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How Many Web Design Companies Are There?
When you bid on a project for a client, you know they’re getting at least two other bids. You have a lot of competition. We have a lot of competition too. There are almost 200,000 web design companies in the United States.
And that makes sense. Every business needs a website. And every business should be doing other things to make their web presence stronger too. These things include making sure you’re listed in Google My Business, running some paid Google Ads, monitoring your online reviews and having business social media accounts. A good construction web design firm will do more than just create or redesign your site. They’ll do all of these other things too.
Now you can do all of this yourself. It’s easier than ever to create or change a website now that Shopify, Wix and WordPress offer pre-designed website templates. But to make those pre-designed templates look amazing, and to add neat features like a chat bot, 3D modeling, and more, you’ll probably need the help of a web design company. At SEO Design Chicago, we can handle just part of your online needs, or the whole list.
We hope you reach out to us, and to some other construction digital marketing agencies too. Here’s what you should ask all of us.
How Much Do You Know About SEO?
Web design isn’t just about color choices, fonts, and where you place images and videos. It’s also about search engine optimization (SEO).
This means doing nearly 200 things – ranging from including certain keywords to making sure websites load fast – to every web page that’s published. When a page is optimized for search engines, it ranks higher in search engine results pages (SERP). SERP are the multi-page results that appear after a person enters a search term into Google or Bing.
Those words are called “keywords.” Sometimes, keywords are single words, but more often than not, they are phrases. In the construction field, those phrases are often “contractors near me” or “construction company.”
Google doesn’t tell the public what the 200 factors that go into SEO are. But over the years, web specialists like us have learned what most of them are. Google executives have accidentally leaked some of those factors when talking to the public. And researchers from universities have figured some of them out. At SEO Design Chicago, we read articles, watch videos and listen to podcasts about SEO every morning when we have our coffee.
A good construction web design firm will tell you how they keep up with changing trends in SEO. If they don’t consider themselves lifelong learners, don’t use them.
We find keywords that people use when looking for construction firms through Google’s Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Tools and Ahrefs Keyword Explorer.
We then place these keywords into the exact places on a web page where Google likes to see them. These places include page titles (i.e. the words that appear in the tabs of web browsers), the top of every page, within the body of text on every page, and embedded into images (yes, you can embed words into images).
What are Some of the Basic Rules of Web Design?
Experts in web design tend to agree on some basic principles of what makes a website appealing to the average person.
One of these traits is that a company should limit themselves to three colors throughout a site.
Another is that people should use no more than 4 fonts.
You should never use italics, or fonts that’s hard to read.
The best fonts for web design are:
- Roboto
- Libre
- Arial
- Raleway
- Source Sans Pro
What’s missing from the list? Times New Roman. That was the font you were likely taught to use in school. But on websites, it is too hard to read.
Font choice matters a lot in a design because you don’t want to strain a users’ eyes. The best font size is at least 16.
And it’s always good to have as much contrast as possible between the color of a font, and the color of the page background. We use a white page background on our site, and a dark color font.
Again, the goal is to make it easy for people to read the words.
What Are the Things That Construction Companies Should Have on Their Websites?
Construction companies need to build trust with clients or potential clients.
So we recommend that you include a lot of before and after photos of your projects. We can even add a slider in between the before and after photos, so people can really see the transformation.
Here’s an example of that tool.
You should definitely make it easy for people to contact you by adding buttons that say things like “Get a free estimate” or “Book a consultation.”
You can install a chatbot that can answer common questions, like when you’re open, and take a person’s name and phone number.
You could include some 3D modeling as an advanced feature.
And we also recommend including a photo of the main people on your team. We even offer customized photography, so we can take the photos for you.
Studies show that people want to see the real people behind a company. This is especially important when people are planning on spending a large chunk of money on a construction project.
Some other features that can help a construction company include:
- Reviews and testimonials from previous clients
- Certifications and licenses
- Case studies of previous projects
What about Website Maintenance?
A good construction web design firm doesn’t just create a website for you and call it a day. We also provide ongoing support. We’ll add pages and sections to your site as your business grows. Did you get a rave review on Yelp or NextDoor? We’ll add it to your site.
We also make sure your site stays secure. Hackers are always figuring out new ways to cause trouble for companies. We’ll make sure your site is secure and encrypted. These are incredibly important features to have if you collect customer data and payment information.
Web design trends also change over time. What looks great now may look outdated in six years. So we’ll redesign your site as needed.
What Do You Charge?
Just like you want to provide reasonable estimates to your clients, we want to be clear about our pricing too. We can’t really name our specific price until we talk to you, but we’ll be clear about our fees.
The first step is to reach out to us.
We offer on page SEO audits of your current website for free, as any good construction web design firm does. Reach out to us to chat soon. We can make sure you make the best use of your time, energy, and dollars.
We’re a great construction web design firm. We’re experienced. We have rave reviews. We have top notch tech skills. We get what you need. We care. And we do it all for an affordable price.
Contact Us Today!