Simply having a website isn’t good enough anymore—but having the right website can make all the difference in the world when people are searching what you do.
A high quality, professional-looking website is:
- a first impression
- a lead generator
- a way to get paid faster
Let’s talk about what you need to have the most professional looking website as a roofing company or contractor.
What Makes a Website Professional?
Nowadays, anybody can create a website in a few clicks.
But, it’s pretty obvious when a site has been built by drag-and-drop editors and templates, unfortunately.
In addition, they don’t typically have the features of a truly professional website, like:
- fast loading
- no code bloat
- simple conversion
- clean visual aesthetics
- mobile/tablet responsiveness
- basic search engine optimization
And there’s really a lot more.
Everything from the implementation of the branding and colors, to the font used, and even what images are used, and how—it’s all part of a larger recipe of success.
A professional website should take all these aspects into consideration and properly introduce the user to your business with care—because you can only ever make one first impression.
If you don’t have a website or your current website doesn’t check all these boxes, you would probably be doing yourself (and your company) a great favor in investing in a better website.
Start With Great Hosting
This might sound silly, but many people shoot themselves in the foot before they even have a live website simply by buying cheap hosting.
Just know… you really get what you pay for.
You must understand this—you wouldn’t put on a brand new roof with bent, rusty nails. Don’t put up a brand new website on bad hosting.
We exclusively use WPEngine.
This is high quality hosting which is fast, secure, and ultra user-friendly.
You also get a free Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate from Let’s Encrypt to both authenticate and encrypt your website, and you get free daily back-ups, so you never have to worry about losing any progress, ever.
Their support team is award winning, and always standing by.
If you’re purchasing one of our websites, we include this at no extra charge for as long you’re partnered with us, because that’s how confident we are in utilizing their hosting for all our clients.
Get Your Visual Branding Right
Most don’t consider their visual branding as a part of their website, but it’s actually a crucial piece. If your branding isn’t clear and concise from the start, your website won’t ever have the look and feel of quality, authority, or trustworthiness.
The visual cues of your brand which should be included in your website are:
- your company’s name
- your company’s logo
- your company’s slogan
- your company’s symbols and/or icons
- your company’s colors
If you think about any major website you’ve ever been to, from Apple to Amazon, or Google and Facebook, you know right away when you’re there by the familiarity of the branding—especially the colors and logo.
If you want your roofing company to be memorable, you’ll want to get this right, too.
Using your existing name, logo and colors is likely not a problem (we can help you decide if you need a rebrand), but you don’t want to create confusion or overdo it, either.
The highest quality sites introduce visual branding elements throughout the site, and are constantly bringing them back at every user touch point in the process from beginning to end.
Your brand feel can be big and bold, helpful and resourceful, or even kind and subtle. It’s all about matching your service to your customer’s needs.
Talk to Your Users
Much like we’re speaking to you right now, talk to your customers, not at them.
Using conversational language which is clear from industry terms or lingo is a big step in building relationships with your future clients—nobody wants to feel like they’re just a number in a queue.
You’re going to want to clearly layout the services and benefits you provide in the most understandable language possible. Remember, not everyone knows roofing like you do.
You may want to:
- showcase the types of services you provide
- discuss the types of services you do NOT provide
- detail your process from quoting to completion
- explain the steps for completing insurance claims
Those are just a few suggestions, of course, but you want to make them feel comfortable every step of the way, and confident you know exactly what you’re talking about.
It’s not just the product you replace or install, but about the customer experience throughout the entire process.
Even when the job is complete, you’ll want to continue to engage your customers. This is how you can get testimonials, reviews, and even referrals.
If done properly, you should be able to automate the process of getting high quality testimonials from your most satisfied customers, gain new positive reviews to help your company grow trust in search engines, and, of course, receive trusted referrals from customers, the holy grail of lasting businesses.
The language you use on your site, in your company emails, and all around the web should match the level of communication you want your brand to convey.
Keep It Simple
At the end of the day, you still have to do all this but keep it simple!
Many people have one thing on their mind—getting a roof fixed or replaced.
They simply need to know you can help them, and it needs to be easy-as-pie for them to get in touch.
Think of these three steps when you’re building out your website and it’s content:
- Build Trust.
- Educate & Communicate Benefits.
- Make Connections.
If your website isn’t focusing on those three things, you might be trying to do too much.
And, remember—there are a TON of roofing companies around the country who are doing a phenomenal job. You don’t always have to recreate the wheel.
If you’re not sure if your current site does these things well (or you don’t have a website at all), we’re here to help—we make our living helping you make yours. Get in touch, and we’ll be glad to take a look.
Let Your Website Do The Work
If you’ve cultivated the attention of the search engines and your website is gaining traffic, you’re nearly there.
But, there’s even more your website can do for you and your business.
Your website can act as a first line of information, direction, and even sales.
By utilizing technology, you can not only attract users to your website, but pull them through it, and even directly into your customer relationship management (CRM) software.
Not only will you have more educated prospects, but a way to reach them internally.
From there, you can automate emails, texts, and maintain constant communication until you’ve helped the person get exactly what they need.
But—there’s even more.
Even after a new client has been made and their home or business has gotten the service it needs, your website can, once again, utilize technology to interact with your satisfied clients to garner positive reviews (which, in turn, helps you in the search engines).
Further, your website can be a great way to bring new clients via referrals. And we all know referrals are some of the best prospects a business can get.
The good news is, most, if not all, of this can be automated through your website and a few free (or very cheap) tools running in the background.
All of these benefits of your website come with little interaction from you and your employees, but create a great experience for your users and, ultimately, clients, from end-to-end.