In today’s digital age, almost every business, whether B2B, B2C, nonprofit, local or global, needs an online presence to reach its customers. With Internet usage steadily increasing, a small business brand needs to be there when potential buyers come looking. Think of a website as a your electrician business’ virtual storefront.
An effective electrical contractor website is paramount to its small business brand’s success. The question is—what goes into an effective contractor’s website? How can you make your growing small business stand out online?
Let’s take a look at the four must-haves for every electrical contractor website:
A great website isn’t so great if no one visits it. That’s why Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must-have to any electrical contractor’s website. Start by building relevant inbound links to the website, signaling Google’s attention. A website will rank higher with links from quality websites, like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, BBB and Angie’s List, sending traffic back to it. Additionally, strategically place the most important keywords within the content elements of the website’s pages (headlines, body copy, URLs, etc.). Lastly, if you choose to move or remove a page on the website, make sure that a permanent (301) redirect is utilized, alerting search engines of where to send the page’s acquired SEO value to the new URL. These are fundamental steps for basic SEO, and electrical contractors in saturated markets will want to explore advanced SEO tactics to compete properly on the web .
Visual design is the first test of an electrician’s website credibility to web users. If consumers feel that your website is untrustworthy, unprofessional, unstable, outdated or not welcoming, visitors will likely abandon it and seek other sources for their information. Keep in mind that while your website may be more recent and better designed than the competition, consumers are being exposed to extraordinary design in all areas of the web, from their social media profiles to media outlets and consumer packaged goods’ websites. Your electrical contractor website will be expected to compete at this level. If it cannot, your site is no better than the competitions’.
Some important factors that can set your website design apart are typography, color scheme and visual media, like photos or animations and interactive elements. Consistency is key. Navigation should remain in the same location of the layout throughout the website. Last but not least, with users checking their smartphones 150 times a day, on average, a quality mobile experience isn’t preferred. It’s expected.
Content mapping is an element of web design that is often overlooked. Ironically, it is one of the most important. A small business should ensure that the goals of the website and what visitors can do on it are readily apparent to users upon arrival. Determine ahead of time what content is most appropriate for a visitor to receive at any given time on your contractor website. It is important to humanize your electrical contractor brand and write copy that solves your buyer’s pain points. Avoid corporate or industry-specific lingo, while remaining professional. Additionally, creating a blog for your electrical contractor’s website can give brands an outlet to continue to publish fresh content. Posting valuable blog content that solves a problem for your reader will establish your small business as an industry expert, building trust around your products or services.
Your electrical contractor website could have the best copywriting in the world and yet, without properly implemented calls-to-action, it may never generate results from your online efforts. The effect of a successful call-to-action is to drive a visitor to take a desired action. This can often be to fill out a contact form, share a blog post on social media or make a purchase in an ecommerce store. Keep it simple when crafting calls-to-action. Be clear about what is being offered. Provide value with what is offered. For example, in exchange for a user submitting his or her email address to a mailing list, he or she gains access to a free eBook or industry guide. Make calls-to-action clickable with links or buttons. Consider the colors of these calls-to-action, whether they are a button, link or image. Be sure that there is no mistake about where to click, making all calls-to-action bolder and bigger than the rest of the content on the page.
