What makes a good construction company website?

September 10, 2022

As a construction company, the focus is usually on getting projects done for customers in a efficient manner and relying on more traditional means of marketing to expand the business. Finding the right time and determination to pivot onto digital channels is the key for finding new opportunities in today's market. The best way forward is by building a website for your company. Here's what you need to know to build a great website for a construction business and what things to consider in the process.

A good construction company website is a helpful resource for clients in any step of the sales cycle. It will give all the necessary information, build trust and convert potential customers with awesome case studies, blog posts and video content.

The design process for construction company website

Usually the website building process starts with a discovery meeting, where the project's goals and the overall requirements are set. By trying to find the challenges of the end-customer we can find interesting angles for content and bring more value to the whole process. By the end of the meeting, we'll have better idea how the planned strategy can be of benefit.

Once we have deeper understanding of the whole, the design process can begin. Usually you'd pick some initial references, ideas or website templates that could fit your company. Quite often companies want a full rebrand at the same time, so that would be done as early as possible to make sure things are moving towards a common vision.

With some initial concepts approved, it is much more easier to move ahead to actual design for both desktop and responsive mobile pages.

Website navigation and layout

Modern websites usually follow pretty traditional layout, where each page consists of sections that help prospects to get more information to validate their purchase decision. Each page can be seen as sort of a mini-funnel, which leads up to a call to action at the bottom page or linking to other pages on the site.

Most sites have simple header and footer navigation for the user to be able find what they are looking for. In a one page website, instead of having multiple pages users can navigate to different sections on that page for specific information.

Must have pages on construction company website

To be able to the get most out of your online business, you need to cover the basics to inform your customers on what services there are available and how they are able to reach you. Here's the essential pages you should have and what they contain.

About page

The About -page should contain your company's mission statement and value proposition for the customer. It is also great chance to tell your company's story, if it happens to be noteworthy to the visitor.

By stating the company's values on the about page, you're clearly communicating whats important for you as a business and the workers inside the company. Displaying 2-4 core values works the best as more than that starts to feel less meaningful.

Services page

Service page can bring a lot of value to your customers, if they are unsure what your services cover and how those services can progress their project. Describing your services in detail makes you look like a expert worth hiring, so try to get this part right. Customers really like to understand what is happening at each stage of the project, so diplaying how your services is carried through and solves their problems is essential.

For SEO purposes it can be beneficial to create individual page for each service provided. You can even promote services for each individual region, to try to establish recognition and clientele in those specific locations. Done this way, well put together service page makes it more likely for customers to contact you on that specific issue.

Case studies

To add credibility towards your work, you can add case studies of previous projects and map out what was done and how it turned out. Great case studies can add a element of social proof and give more context of actual real-life successes. It's a bonus if the client is onboard with this and willing to share their point of view and what they valued in the construction process. The idea is to showcase your best achievements in the best possible light.

Case studies tend to follow certain format, where you'd first write short summary of the project, followed up by more insight on what was the problem and how the solution came to be. Lastly sharing the results of the project can make readers impressed and reach out to you as the expert on the subject.

Contact page and communication with client

Upon landing on the front-page of the website, it should be easy as possible for customers to find the companys contact info. Some companies add their phone numbers near the top near the navigation, which works but isn't the most elegant solution. Alternative way would be to direct leads to a contact page and fill out short form or find your contact details there. Giving customers options on which channels to reach out makes your service stand out and not feel old-fashioned.

Fast response times can make or break a start of promising new deal. So be sure to make communication with clients a top priority - no matter what the circumstances are in your business.

Aesthetics

In terms of aesthetics, the brand guidelines will make your overall website look uniform. Sticking to your brands visual identity as closely as possible will guarantee that colors match and your typography is easy to read. This way we can get fairly close to end result and trust the designer to bring it all together in a coherent way.

Choosing images for construction company website

Best option to get great images for your website is to hire a professional photographer to come over to the construction site. A single photo shoot can yield a nice set of web ready images to get you started.

If you want to save some money, you could just grab a pretty much any modern smartphone and take some authentic pictures yourself. Just make sure you have decent lighting, (especially indoors) and your good to go.

Show your construction process

As a high expertise service provider showing off your project workflow can be of great benefit. While written content can work, this type of content fits so much better on video! Construction as a business is highly action oriented, therefore filming your daily business activities and adding them to Youtube and onto your site creates more relatability.

With graphs and illustrations of the construction process you help to enlighten how each step of the project goes forward. This information gives customer clearer picture of the whole and prevents any confusion that might arise during construction phase.

Content strategy for construction company

Getting potential clients on your website is a problem for all businesses and construction isn't an exception. Luckily, choosing the best content strategy is a very practical process. By experimenting with each strategy with a patient mindset can start to yield results in the long run. Let's go through the best strategies for attracting new clients online.

Does a construction company need a blog?

Running a blog for a construction business can be challenging. To succeed you need to produce quite a bit of content to get results. Also targeting the right search quories for SEO purposes takes some effort and most likely you'd need someone to manage and write all the content. The good part about blogging is that one blog post can accrue quite a bit of traffic in the long run.

Writing 50 - 200+ quality blog posts on specific topics such as "What is the difference between general contractor vs subcontractor?" or "Does plumbing or electrical installation come first?" can with time start to rank on Google Search. With expert insight from the field you'll be sure to rank much higher than some of the more generic content. Focusing on these long tail querys is the best strategy for totally new blog, since more competitive keywords are very hard to rank for without necessary SEO domain authority.

On average, it takes approximately 6 - 12 months for a single blog post to start ranking higher in the search and begin bringing hundreds of readers every month. But once you produce enough content and the whole blog gets going, it can definitely start to bring traffic in the tens of thousands per month.

Producing video content for Youtube

Youtube can be great channel to create interest and following. The hardest part is to plan, produce and edit all the video material - and to keep it interesting for the viewers. Documenting the companies achievements and hardships on video can be really entertaining! You also can interview people inside the company to get alternative perspectives and ideas for new content topics.

Similar to blogging, Youtube videos can refer steady traffic to your website and generate some additional ad revenue with a larger audience.

Social media channels

Even though other social media channels can definitely work, for example Twitter and Instagram tend to suffer from oversaturation of content. Facebook Groups is a nice option, if you want to build or join a community of likeminded people and share your expertise with them. Experiment and evalutate each channel to figure out what works for your service.

It might be also worthwhile to test different social media channels with targeted paid advertising, for more immediate reach and lower cost per thousand views (CPM).

Setup analytics to increase sales

For a basic construction based business Google Analytics is often enough to cover most analytics needs. Analytics tools will help you measure how much traffic your site gets and from which country. With more detailed setup we can track conversion rates for each page so that you can keep improving the website overall to increase the amount leads you are getting. Those extra leads can lead to higher revenue, as your sales team has more changes for success.

Add more value than competition

To separate yourself from the competition, think about your service and its unique selling points. Is there some aspects of it that you'd be best at? Emphasize your strengths to stand out and build authority in those niches.

To maximixe your website's value you could build additional systems that support your business. Features like project cost calculator, client booking system or live chat can raise the overall value of your online service to a another level.

How much does a construction website cost?

The general cost structure of each project depends on the amount of features and added custom functionality. To help you out, I've assembled a table that gives estimation on what the cost can be for each website size.

Although some of these numbers can look pretty big, well executed website investment usually results in positive ROI and can snowball your online business to new heights. Just remember to keep your website well managed and up to date, as having someone else do that helps you focus on the core business.