10 Website Building Tips to Market Your Home Improvement Services
Building a successful home improvement business is not always as simple as offering high-quality products or services. Today, the home improvement industry is more competitive than ever. If you want to help your home improvement services or brand stand out, you will need to become familiar with digital marketing for service-based business entities. Digital marketing for service-based business brands can help you transform the way you present your home improvement services, both online and locally. Whether you intend to remain local and regional or if you have plans to expand your home improvement service offerings, you can do so with the right digital marketing for service-based business strategy in place.
1. Research Top-Performing Competitors
Even if you have years of experience in offering water mitigation services or mulch blowing services, you will need to take your time to get to know about top-performing competitors near you in your industry. When you want to learn more about digital marketing for service-based business, you will need to spend time on the websites of your local, regional, and even international competitors.
Use popular search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo to research local competitors in the same market and niche as you. When using the internet to browse for competitors, you can also do so with the use of your zip code and exact location. Using your zip code will help the search engine to pinpoint specific competitors that offer similar services in the same area as you.
When you are researching your top-performing competitors, pay close attention to the following:
- Website layout and theme: When visiting a website of your competitor, pay attention to the look, theme, and overall aesthetic of the website. Does the website include the logo and chosen color scheme of the business itself?
- Navigation: How accessible are the websites of your competitors? Can you easily navigate the websites to find information about the products or services you are interested in?
- Loading and response time: How quickly does the website you are visiting load? Whether you are on a website for construction dumpster rental service or you are shopping for clothing, response time can significantly impact the overall bounce rate of any website. The bounce rate of a website is the percentage of users who leave a website after visiting the landing page or any homepage they are directed to from another website.
2. Choose the Right Theme
Whether you are building a website for a home improvement company that offers metal roofing service solutions or a ready mix concrete delivery service, you will need to choose a layout and theme that is appropriate for your business. When building a website and establishing an online presence, you only have one opportunity to make a positive and lasting impression. The right website theme can demonstrate professionalism and legitimacy, especially when the look of your website aligns with your company’s logo and aesthetic.
If you are new to building websites or if you feel stuck in terms of inspiration, don’t fret. You can find plenty of inspiration by searching online communities and by comparing websites and directories dedicated to showcasing and selling web themes. Additionally, spending a bit of time browsing the websites of your competitors can provide the perfect spark of inspiration you’ve been looking for when it comes to your website.
3. Incorporate Responsive Design
Those who work in construction and many homeowners do not spend all of their time browsing the internet with the use of a traditional desktop or laptop computer. More people than ever browse for everything from traditional lifting concrete services to commercial roofing contractors with the use of their smartphones and tablets. If you want your website to stand out, ensure that it is built and developed with responsive design in mind.
If you are working with a professional web developer or designer, inform them that responsive design is a priority, especially for the target group you want to appeal to and reach. A professional developer will have no issue with ensuring that your website is responsive and works on numerous devices, operating systems, and platforms. The more universal your website appears, the easier it will be to maximize your online reach.
4. Consider a One-Page Design
One of the trendiest layouts used for many websites and retailers today includes one-page designs. A one-page scrolling website design provides you with the opportunity to share all of the services you offer regarding home improvement along with the details that pertain to your location and business name itself. Using a one-page design is ideal if you are targeting those who utilize mobile phones and tablets to find information as well as those who are not as familiar with browsing the web. If you want to boost the accessibility of your website, you can do so with the right modern one-page design.
With a one-page design, you are not limited in terms of design and showcasing your logo or the aesthetic you are going for with your business. You can integrate various design elements, colors, and layout choices that work as users scroll through your one-page design vertically. Choosing a vertical layout is not always the first option, but it can help your website to stand out if you are entering a market that is already saturated in your specific location.
5. Design Your Website With Your Visitor’s Experience in Mind
If you are serious about digital marketing for service-based business entities, you cannot underestimate the significance of good design. Great web design can make or break the way your website is viewed and interpreted, by visitors and even by prospective customers or clients. When you are brainstorming ideas for the design of your website or comparing layouts based on your competitors’ presence, consider how you want your visitors to feel when they see your website for the very first time.
When choosing colors for your website, spend time researching basic color psychology. While blue is known for friendly websites and brands, orange can invoke creativity and green can encourage spending money or giving back to the community. Understanding how your website feels for a visitor when they are visiting it for the first time is possible by hosting testing sessions and putting A/B tests to work for you.
6. Test Your Website Before Going Public
Anytime you are creating a website for any reason, including promoting home improvement services, it’s important to test the site before launching it to the public. Testing a website before allowing it to be shown to the public is not only a way to identify and pinpoint potential visual errors or problems, but it can also prevent potential security issues that need to be addressed as quickly as possible. Testing a website’s layout and functionality before allowing it to go live will also provide you with an opportunity to make a positive and lasting impression on even more people once the website is deemed ready.
Launch tests using A/B testing methods if you have multiple versions of your website to check before going live. This method is also recommended if you intend to launch your website on a mobile-exclusive platform.
7. Don’t Forget the Importance of SEO
SEO, also known as search engine optimization, is fundamental when building a website or promoting any brand or product online. Search engine optimization allows users to find a website or more information about a product or company that has been listed online. Brands that have been properly optimized for search engines are more likely to appear within the first pages of results when using top search engines. Some of the most popular search engines used to find home improvement services today include Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. If you are interested in promoting your website in a particular location, you can do so by focusing on building your website’s ranking within Google.
8. Use Some Key Tips for Implementing SEO
Even if your website is brand-new, it’s never too early to begin implementing SEO tactics that can help to grow your website in search engines and organically. When creating new pages or pieces of content for your website, choose a title that is relevant to the content as well as to your website’s name or purpose. Formatting your content can go a long way when it comes to SEO as well, especially if you are using an enhanced visual editor to build the pages or blogs for your website. Bolding, underlining, and even linking popular phrases and keywords that are most relevant to your home improvement industry can help you to appeal to a much wider audience while boosting your site’s SEO within search engines.
Consistency is also key when it comes to boosting the SEO of a website. A website that has been around for years but has only been updated one time is less likely to be discovered than a website that is 6 months only but is updated daily or even weekly. Consistent update plays a major role in catching the eye of virtual web crawlers that are directly connected to top search engines, making the crawling much more effective over time.
9. Join Online Marketing Communities
Those who are committed to succeeding when it comes to digital marketing for service-based business know the importance of networking. Networking is often key to putting any business on the map, even if you intend to build a local or regional business. Joining online marketing communities can help you to get to know more about others who are also involved in the home improvement industry that are also online and building websites of their own. Ask questions, provide your own input, and make connections with other business owners who may want to collaborate or partner up with you in the future. Becoming a part of online communities can also help you to establish your voice, especially if you join communities that are dedicated to the industry of home improvement.
10. Take Advantage of Social Media
While it’s important to take advantage of social media once you have established your website and online presence, it is also an integral part of digital marketing for service-based business. If you are serious about digital marketing for service-based business, creating a presence with the use of multiple social media platforms is the first step to take. Once you have a business name and you have registered your official website domain name, you can then begin setting up your social media pages. When choosing a name for your social media pages, be sure to stick to the official name of your business whenever possible. Avoid using odd or unique spellings and do not use hyphens if there is not a hyphen in the official name of your business. Streamlining how you present your business online will go a long way in establishing yourself as an authoritative source when it comes to home improvement.
You can also put social media to work for you by updating them consistently. After you have set up your social media pages, be sure to link them directly to your website. You can use your social media information sections to link users to your official website or to the eCommerce page that you are using to promote your home improvement services. Using social media to redirect your followers to your website is not only helpful in generating leads and potentially making sales, but it can also significantly boost your website’s SEO, or search engine optimization. If you are still focused on honing in on the SEO for your website, you can do so much easily with a proper social media marketing strategy in place. Using social media to promote and share your website’s content and articles you update can also help with boosting your search engine optimization, making your website much more visible to those in your local area online.
Whether your home improvement company offers window replacement services, roof coating services, or kitchen cabinetry services, understanding the importance of digital marketing for service-based business brands is essential for long-term success. When you understand the ins and outs of digital marketing for service-based business, you can create and execute a winning strategy that is sure to generate visitors, clicks, and ultimately, revenue for your home improvement services.
