Designing great tradespeople websites: the 6 things to know
A lot of factors go into designing great tradespeople websites. When we design websites for tradespeople, we aim for two things: for our client to be happy and for the users of the website to be happy.
The best web design isn’t just about attractive visuals – the website must function as a powerful business tool to persuade customers to get in touch.
6 top tips for trades to create a great website:
With a wealth of experience in website design for tradesmen, we know what works. If you are looking at designing yourself a new website, here are 6 pointers to be aware of when building a great tradespeople websites:
- The website should present an excellent user experience
- Being mobile-friendly is important
- Provide customer testimonials
- Make your calls to action bold
- Create separate pages for your different services
- Brand yourself well
It’s worth noting that this list isn’t a complete list. There are endless factors that create a great tradespeople website. In fact, they’re changing all the time and you should try to avoid seeing your website as being “done” once it is launched.
It should act as an evolving piece of kit in your marketing arsenal. If you ignore it, leave it as it is, it’ll soon be outdated, filled with old content and, potentially, begin to be detrimental for your business. People love to see fresh, updated content, even as simple as a photo from your recent job.
The website should present an excellent user experience
User experience is all about making your website as accessible as possible for your potential customer. A website that is difficult to use is detrimental to your business.
If a user cannot extract the information they need from your website, they will simply leave. If the website takes too long to load, they will leave.
Therefore, the best web design must prioritise the end-user.
It shouldn’t be hard work for your customers to explore your business’ website. We want to make your website work on your behalf and provide the best possible experience for your customers whilst they explore your business.
Great tradespeople websites should ensure their website follows a logical structure. Don’t deviate from the norm; follow patterns that customers are used to. This means your most important information should be at the top of your website: your company name, contact information, and menu bar if you have a multi-page site.
If your site consists of a single page, make sure that the text on it is easy to read. Make use of headings and paragraphs – no one is going to read through a website that is just one huge chunk of text. If you include hyperlinks in the text, make sure that they are a different colour, or they will be obsolete as your customers will not think to click on them.
Similarly, if your website has clickable buttons, make sure they are obviously clickable. It is also worth checking your website over for broken links; there’s nothing more unattractive than a 404 error.
Having an awareness of colour is also beneficial when it comes to website design. Understated is better than garish.
Being mobile-friendly is important
Mobile users account for around half of web traffic worldwide. Great website design means ensuring that your website is accessible across a range of devices. Fire up your website on your phone and see if it functions as it should. Does the website fit the screen? Can you use the contact form? Are you able to click the links? Google also has a useful tool you can use to check whether your website is mobile-friendly. This is massive when it comes to SEO (search engine optimisation) or getting your business to climb the ranks of the web and become one of the best sources of work.
Provide customer testimonials
The average consumer reads 10 reviews before feeling they are able to trust a business. Customer testimonials do wonders to add to your businesses credibility. Reading good reviews is comforting for customers and helps alleviate any uncertainty they might have surrounding purchasing your services. Potential customers like to know what they’re going to get and who better to tell them than other customers?
Additionally, reviews are an excellent feature on great websites because they give you the chance to demonstrate your customer service. Make sure to thank customers that leave you good reviews and handle the poor ones (should they occur!) professionally.
Make your calls to action bold
A call to action is an instruction that exists on your website telling your customer to do something. These include phrases like ‘Contact us now!’ or ‘Get a quote today!’. Compelling calls to action are a key part of great websites’ design because they persuade your potential customer to take an action that benefits you.
Take a step back and check across the website to see if your CTA’s stand out. Use big letters, bold colouring and persuasive language (just don’t go over the top with it!). For instance, you could include your phone number in a banner at the top of your websites, with the instruction to ‘call us’. It’s also important to make sure that your name, email and other items are clearly visible.
Create separate pages for your different services
Whilst the internet is seemingly infinite, you don’t want your websites to be. Don’t have your customer trawling through your website until they get bored and leave, or develop RSI from all the scrolling. Have a brief summary of the services you offer near the top of your homepage (remember, this is where you want the important information to be), then go in-depth about each service on its own separate page, providing examples of your work.
This is also in your best interest when it comes to search engine optimisation for your websites. If you put all of your services on one page, they will effectively fight amongst themselves when it comes to the keyword search engines rank you for, resulting in your website not ranking very high for any of them. If you go into detail about them on different pages, a search engine can then rank those pages for that term instead.
Brand yourself well
Branding design for tradesmen doesn’t have to be fancy – it should just be distinctive. If it’s not the right time for you to invest in a design agency whipping a logo, use a free platform like Canva to create something simple.
You can include simple details like your name, email and phone number, design it around the nature of your work and business, you could even include typical elements associated with tradesmen. Pick a colour theme and use this across your site. Your aim is to create a website that is memorable.
Now you know the basics of designing great tradespeople websites…
Hopefully, you now have a good foundation of what works best when it comes to web design for tradesmen. Websites are incredibly important business tools and we believe everyone should have one that works well for them and their business.
Of course, we can’t cover everything you need to know in one article, but if you have any questions when it comes to your new website, we’re always happy to answer questions about websites on our Twitter! Alternatively, to help you get started, we offer to build one-page websites for trades completely free.
