Having a home inspection business website is crucial in today’s marketplace. Clients will want to research your business online — including your services, costs, and reviews from previous customers. They’ll also want to check your credentials and licensing to ensure you’re an accredited home inspector.
To better differentiate your home inspection business from others, an effective website can help distinguish you from your competition while incentivizing potential clients to click on your link instead of another home inspection business website.
Your home inspection website design doesn’t need to be overly complicated. A few elements need to be well planned and executed, but maintenance is minimal once you get it set up. Be sure to keep it updated with all your services should you get more licensing or certifications, as well as price increases as you adjust the costs of your services according to inflation, local trends, and level of expertise.
This article will outline the critical considerations for your home inspection website design. You’ll also find some inspiring design tips and best practices to give you a clean, functional site. We’ll offer you specific steps to get started, instructions for website fluency, and helpful suggestions to keep you on the right track. The goal is to be the most successful home inspector in your region, using your home inspection website as an essential tool and platform to get you to the top of the market.
Why you need a home inspection website
Most consumers start looking online first when looking for a specific service. Usually, they’ll want to know what services you offer, how much they cost, and your level of expertise just by visiting your site. It also gives your home inspection business a sense of legitimacy.
Many small companies no longer have a storefront or offices that people can visit to ask questions or call for appointments. Now people check online; we’ve found that about 76% of consumers look for a service or product online first — significant enough for small business owners to take note.
A modern, functional website will give you a platform to run your business while providing crucial information to your potential customers. Small business owners without a website appear to have less legitimacy, as people cannot access important information about the service or product.
Leveraging online tools to advertise and grow your business will significantly impact revenue and growth. As a good website increases your exposure to people looking for a home inspector, it gives you an advantage over competitors with a generic or out-of-date website.
Having your website is also how you direct your advertising. You first control the content clients see rather than leaving it up to arbitrary business ads. This structure is a great way to expand and secure new clients because you can focus on your strengths and showcase your best work.
Post the types of homes you inspect, specialized services, qualifications, region, reviews from previous clients, and a cost breakdown on your website.
Suppose your home inspection franchise or small business has become relatively well-established. In that case, your customer reviews should begin accumulating, making them easier to access in online search tools like Google Reviews. People can leave first-hand reviews of your work there so that others looking for the same service can read about their experience. If they report a positive experience, they’ll hire you again.
An essential step in this is to add the extension Google My Business to the browser you direct your website on, and you’ll be able to keep track of all the searches and visits to your page.
Choose a simple domain name
Most potential clients will use their search engine rather than type out a domain name, even if they’re looking for a specific small business. It’s not always that straightforward, though. Search results will sometimes put other results above your page — especially if they have a similar name, have had a lot of traffic already, and pay for advertising on the search page.
To bypass the complicated process of making your business stand out with Search Engine Optimized keywords, choose a simple domain name that people can type into their browser. If your domain name is succinct, relevant, and easy to remember, it will come up easily whether the customer uses a search engine or types the domain name into the toolbar.
We recommend choosing something that has your service in the name and some characters specific to you — such as your initials or shorthand of your business name. For example, since you’re starting a home inspection franchise or business, putting “home inspector” in your domain name would be helpful because abbreviating that phrase would make it less likely to appear in the search results.
If your name is John Smith, you may make your business name “jshomeinspectors” — that way, it’s clear what service you offer while making it distinctive to you. People can easily find a domain like this, no matter how they look for it online. Keep your domain name on your business cards and social media to increase exposure.
Make it easy to understand the service you provide
One essential component is that your home inspection business or franchise website is easy to use and uncomplicated. The goal is to make your audience instantly understand what services you provide. A confusing website will turn off potential clients if it doesn’t provide the necessary information they need to make an informed decision.
A home inspector may offer the basic service of inspecting a home before a sale. In contrast, others will have more specific training and experience to differentiate them from other home inspectors in the market. Add any additional skills, training, or qualifications to your website. Also, include any experience doing a specific kind of inspection — like an industrial home inspection or inspecting soon-to-be condemned homes. Share relevant expertise like inspecting infrared thermography, mold and mildew testing, or inspecting a home for pests.
Once potential customers arrive on your website landing page, they should be able to easily access, read, and understand the information you provide and walk away with the specifics of your home inspection business. Then ultimately, they’ll call or email you to book an appointment.
You’re more likely to have a successful outcome if people can readily collect the information they need to choose the best home inspector to hire. If they have to click through many pages or read irrelevant information, and your site has outdated content or an old list of prices for your service, they’ll probably bring their business elsewhere.
If needed, outsource website development
It’s not always possible for the business owner to make a home inspection website design, as for some home inspectors, web design takes up too much time, requires too much patience, or requires skills they don’t have. Rather than trying to bite off more than you can chew, hire someone who can design your website. Technology is available to design a specific home inspector website, rather than having a generic website or relying on social media and word of mouth.
If you choose to attempt designing your home inspector website, there are a lot of resources to help you along the way — even if you’re a beginner. Web development for home inspectors is available through apps, software, and online programs that you can customize to your business. All this will help your business run smoothly, as potential clients will know what to expect before making an appointment.
Hiring a professional to create a web design for home inspectors can greatly impact your overall success. They’ll be able to design a beautiful and functional website for you while catering to your specific needs — including emphasizing your strengths and highlighting a variety of your experience. The cost to hire a professional web designer for home inspectors will vary — you can hire a student or someone with little experience to do a basic job, hire a well-recommended website designer from an agency, or search for an independent designer.
Decide how much you can include in your website design and marketing budget. Then you can call around for estimates and find a professional that will work within your price range.
Ask to see examples of their previous work, and if you see one that you like in particular, you can ask them to design your website similarly.
Design students and junior website designers are great options because they’re eager to gain more experience and are up-to-date on the latest tech trends. There may be more troubleshooting and editing with someone with less experience. However, if you find someone willing to work with you to achieve your vision, it will be much better than paying a lot of money for someone to do it their way without considering how you want your website to operate.
Choose a clean, fast, and simple design
For ambitious home inspection small business owners who wish to create their website but don’t have a lot of experience, try using a template built on a site like Wix or Squarespace. Once you choose what site to work from, you can browse their template options. Try looking in the templates section for home inspector websites and see if there are any you like — if so, choose that one and begin customizing the design. The drag-and-drop function on web development for home inspectors platforms allows you to customize a template with your business colors, address, contact information, services, costs, logo design, and other details that customers will want.
Choose a clean and simple design that allows you to add all these details without your site looking too busy. You’ll want your website up and running as soon as possible, so don’t waste time overcomplicating things.
To wrap it up
Whether you’re just starting or want to increase your client list, investing some time and money into building a personalized website will pay off. It’s a great way to establish your brand — especially if you keep your logo and color scheme consistent across your website, business cards, and social media platforms.
You can even print clothing with your branding and logo — your options for growth are unlimited, as there are so many apps and affiliate programs that you can add as extensions to your website to make merchandise and advertise your services. It’s also possible to track the traffic to your page through different analytics software, so you can monitor how well your site is doing and how to improve.
People who are starting their own home inspection business or franchise will significantly benefit from having a website, keeping it up-to-date, and making sure it’s clean, fast, and easy to use.