In a digital age, having an effective website for your business is key to maintaining a positive flow of work, with home inspection websites being no different. A website is often not enough, however: the site needs to be pleasing to the eye, well-organized, and functional when converting web searchers into clients.
In this article, you’ll learn the basics of home inspection website design and how to effectively market your website on the internet.
Home inspection website development
Part of building a successful website involves embracing some essential truths about the nature of the site, how you can expect your potential clients to relate to it, and how it represents your business.
Here are the top five essential truths:
- Your website is about your prospects, not about you. There is a huge temptation to use wording like “my/our clients” or “I/us.” This kind of phrasing subconsciously puts you and your business on a pedestal when your clients are the ones who should be on that pedestal. To that end, you should use phrasing like “you/your,” and so on.
- A website isn’t a glorified brochure. Brochures tend to have a reputation as propaganda for a business. Brochures are typically designed for marketing a business without offering any real information outside the contact details. Potential customers come to your website with a goal, not simply to look through the various pages. They want certain information and come to your webpage to find it.
- Speed and ease of use are key. Most website visitors like to see and navigate through web content quickly, so graphics and videos that either take time to load or watch will end up resulting in a loss of interest. This loss of interest will result in you losing potential customers.
- A pretty homepage is only a first impression. A website isn’t like a magazine. That is, the home page – the internet version of a front cover – doesn’t serve to grab attention. It simply helps the customer to form their first impression. The links and the information attached to them will lead a web user to become a customer.
- A home inspection website has one goal. The goal of your website is to encourage site visitors to hire you. Even the articles or blog posts on your website, though they seem to function mainly as information sources, are designed to get potential customers to your site.
Ultimately, website development means crafting a site that is pleasing to the eye, fully functional, and successfully converting from site user to customer.
What does a home inspection website need?
Some websites are designed to be like digital libraries, where a person can browse through articles, blog posts, photos, videos, and so on to learn something. Websites that are part of home inspection company website development are built for e-commerce purposes and thus have a certain set of criteria they need to meet to perform their function properly. They may still be sources of information, but that is secondary to the main point of converting web searchers to customers.
So, what does a home inspection company’s website design need? Here’s a quick look at the five top things you should include:
- Up-to-date contact information — everywhere. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s often overlooked. You can have a dedicated contact page on your main menu, but you must also scatter that info throughout the website. You can do this by including the information on each page or article, but you can also simply provide links to your contact page by hyperlinking phrases like “call us now” or “email us.” The point is to make it so your potential customers don’t have to work to contact you.
- A blog. All web marketing thrives on quality content. If you are considering creating an online marketing campaign, establishing a blog on your website is a solid place to start. Blog content is not only a source of information but can also be an effective way to drive customers from search engine listings to your website. A blog also helps you establish your company as experts in your field by offering a platform to share knowledge.
- Testimonials. Sharing testimonials from your existing customers helps to establish your reputation since these testimonials will speak volumes about your quality of work and customer service.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If a customer doesn’t already know the name of your business, how do they find your website? Simple: they find it through effective SEO. Incorporating relevant, high-ranking keywords and phrases in your content boosts your site’s ranking in web search listings.
- Social media. A lot of stock is put into a company’s internet presence. Establishing a quality website is one thing, but having a presence on popular social media platforms – including posting regularly – gives your business a unique opportunity for community interaction and another way to establish your expertise and drive customers to your site.
Marketing your home inspection website
Unfortunately, it’s not enough to simply create a website for your company, though that is definitely the first step to securing a solid online presence. The next thing you need to do is market your website so that it can start generating business for you. After all, if people don’t know about the website, all you’re doing is basically inception website development. That is, what you are creating is only a starting point.
So, to get yourself beyond the inception website development phase, you need to implement a marketing campaign.
Below, you’ll find a few ways you can market your website.
Optimization
Putting a ton of effort into making a beautiful home inspection website won’t mean much if nobody sees it. Search engines hit upon keywords found on your website. You can optimize your website by researching high-ranking keywords related to your business subject matter and incorporating them into your content. Websites with better optimization will rank higher in search engine listings.
Social media
Using popular social media platforms is a great way to get your business out where the digital community can see it. Creating relevant social media posts and replying when people comment engages the community and generates interest. Social media also allows you a prime opportunity to create content that helps distinguish your business as subject experts.
Generating reviews
While researching home inspectors, there’s a good chance your potential customers are looking for and reading reviews about your business. If you have existing customers, encourage them to leave reviews on your home inspection website and whatever web-based business listings you use. This is a form of word-of-mouth advertising for the digital community.
Linking to your blog
The blog is already a fabulous way to establish your business as an expert in your field, especially if your SEO is driving customers to your website well. You can pair your blog with your social media platforms to ramp up your customer conversion, either by manually copying and pasting the link to each post on your social media or setting up your blog to automatically post a link to social media when new content is created. Another way to link to your blog is by putting social media buttons on your blog. This way, people who read the posts can click on these buttons and thus put the link to your blog post on their own social media platforms. You can also scatter links to your other blog posts, thus prompting the reader to click on them and move deeper into your website.
Mobile-friendly website
A substantial amount of internet browsing and searching is done on cell phones and tablets. Mobile-friendly websites are easy to view and navigate on mobile devices, meaning that a person accessing your website using one of these devices will be able to read and interact with the site more easily. Websites not configured to be mobile-friendly stand to lose a lot of potential customers, considering that 51.6% of internet users access the internet from their phones.
Conclusion
Having a website in the digital age is necessary, as the internet offers people a way to conduct research, find contact details, read and evaluate reviews, learn about a business, and ultimately decide to hire or buy. While you could rely on online business listings as a kind of phone book, these listings don’t do enough to market your business. A well-put-together website offers a chance to establish yourself as an expert in your field and drive potential customers to book an appointment with you. Creating and marketing a business website is vital to achieving a sustainable stream of customers.