Tradespeople are like freelancers. If your livelihood rests on a particular trade such as construction or repair, your income depends on your ability to secure projects monthly. As such, you must have good social skills, present your services clearly and convincingly, and always be on the lookout for new contacts.
Today, this is achieved through the Internet. If you already have a website up for your services, then this is the first step toward reaching more clients. Some tradespeople get their entire client base from inquiries through their website, or through referrals by clients they ‘met’ online.
Others, though, struggle to find new clients online. If you have a site but it is not pulling in the numbers, then there are some ways you can make it perform better.
1. Your branding must be distinct
People buy from places they remember. If your website is not bringing in the traffic, it may be because your business is not memorable. This may be difficult to accept, but the good thing is that it can be easily corrected.
A business with weak branding almost always needs to refine its messaging. You can do this by listing what you would want people to remember about your services. Do you strive to be known as a reliable service, a speedy one, or one that provides quality? You can offer all three, but for your brand to stick, it’s best to focus your message on one or two.
Write a sentence that describes specifically what you provide, and to whom. For example, if you are good at fitting bathrooms with new fixtures, you can write that you are a ‘reliable bathroom installation specialist serving homes in Bristol.’
If you have an idea of what your business is about, then you can move to other aspects of your online face, like the logo, website theme, pictures, and others. Consulting brand specialists for tradespeople websites will help you decide what look conveys your identity as a tradesperson.
2. You should post relevant and timely content
Valuable content helps “sell” you as a reliable tradesperson. An effective resource posted on your website will show visitors that you are knowledgeable and skilled, and it will convince them to get you when they need to have something repaired or constructed.
For example, if you’re a house painter, you might want to make articles about choosing the right colors for your walls, which materials are fit for which types of paint, or safety precautions one must take when painting homes.
It’s also necessary to put out content regularly and consistently. You cannot just upload over a couple of months and forget your website’s blog or resources centre. Google takes post frequency into consideration when ranking pages, so you should always come up with new articles.
3. Your site must be made for mobile
Nearly all people who surf the web today do so on their smartphones. For a lot of internet users, their phones are the primary way they get connected online. As a result, mobile readiness has become a measure for the reliability of websites. If your page cannot be read because it renders differently on a cellphone screen, people will not bother learning about your business.
Optimizing your website for mobile browsers will help make visitors stay longer on it. Aside from relevance, search engines also measure the amount of time spent on a website. The longer people stay, the more a page is perceived as helpful. This means higher rankings on Google, which can lead to greater exposure for your business.
Conclusion
Getting more people aware of your business can be daunting. Remember, though, that people easily recall something useful to them. As long as you provide information in a relevant, professional way, there are always visitors who are bound to take notice.
If you are a tradesperson looking to improve your presence online, get in touch with us at Shake and Speare today. We are a digital marketing agency in Bristol and we make websites for trades professionals. We also offer tradesperson-focused branding and SEO. Contact us today to learn more.
