How to Build Winning Contractor and Construction Websites

Some industries, such as construction have typically gained business from word of mouth recommendations. However, in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace where customers are as likely to search using Google for their next local builder or construction company as ask a friend, having a unique and memorable construction website to market your services is essential.

I have put together a helpful guide to creating a professional construction website for your own business.

So why does a construction company need a website? As more potential customers turn to the internet in search of their next builder and services such as Check A Trade, My Builder and Trusted Trader becoming increasingly more expensive to use for marketing. Having your own contractor website is an affordable way to market your construction company. Whether you work with a web designer such as Sanders Design or create your own website, having an internet presence for your business is vital in getting trade in a world where customers search first on Google.

Construction company market research

So where do you start if you’re looking to build your construction website design? As a professional web designer, I typically start by looking at your marketplace. 

If you have an existing construction business, what type of clients do you serve? Are they commercial or residential? What is the location you wish to support?

Once you have a clearly defined understanding of your marketplace, you will need to consider what services you wish to offer. For example, a construction company I work with specialises in damp-proofing. This is a profitable sector which is so profitable that my client only wishes to serve this type of work and so marketing for other services would be a waste of resources.

Keywords and phases

Great, so now we have defined your customer base, and what services you will be marketing via your new construction company website. Your website will start to form some initial structure. 

This is now where you will need to find out what your customers are searching for to find your business. You can undertake keyword research by first writing down a random list of terms and phrases used in your construction sector. 

By having this list of random search phrases, and having established your customer avatar above, you can use online tools to start refining which keywords and phrases you need to optimise content for.

If you are working with a designer such as my self, I will help you through this entire process. However, if you are undertaking this build solo, there are several affordable tools which you can use to gain an insight into which terms you should be chasing with your new website project.

Recommended tools:

Google autocomplete – this is a feature which you will have most likely used without even realising. When you search in Google, you may have seen an autocomplete option. These suggestions are based on popular search phrases combined with your search history. Additional search ideas can also be gathering at the footer of your search results pages.

Google Adwords Keyword planner – this is a free service and intended for use with Google Adwords. This tool gives you a list of keywords/phrases based on your initial ideas. 

KeySearch.co – if you are looking to get more technical about your keyword research, KeySearch.co is an excellent service for those business owners looking to up their Search Engine Optimisation game while on a budget. You will find lots of resources on the KeySearch.co website on how to use this excellent tool.

So now you’ve hopefully obtained a list of keyword and phrase ideas to structure your construction website pages lets move on to the next stage.

Content architecture

Having a list of keywords and phrases will give you the initial blueprint. Before committing to your list of page headings, it would be a good idea to have all these terms in a spreadsheet so that you have grouped similar phrase and hopefully by using the above tools gathering search volume and competition scores.

If you haven’t gathered the data but just have keyphrases, you will be taking a slight gamble. While this isn’t a deal-breaker, having keywords selected by metrics will give you a competitive advantage.

With keywords grouped and sorted into logical pages, you should have a list of web pages needed for within your new website. 

You may be asking how many words will I need per page? This is a great question. Glad you asked :-). In general terms, popular SEO recommends are that you have at least 2000 words per page. However, there is a better way to give you some in-depth analysis on this question.

Please open a spreadsheet and list all the top ten web pages of each of your intended keyphrases. Then use a tool such as https://wordcounter.net/website-word-count to find the word count of each page. By adding all the word-counts together and dividing by ten, you will have a medium figure as to the length needed for each page. 

This technique is a basic form of content analysis; there are tools which make this process far more insightful and sophisticated. However, as a free alternative, this technique will help.

Content creation

Now that you have a list of pages, including key phrases to use and word length for each page, you will need to create the content.

If you have 10s or even 100s of pages which you feel could be created, start by focusing on those pages which add real value to your business. These are the pages which cover services that drive your income; there is no point spending hours writing content for pages which may seem popular for search but do not provide any “buyer intent” value. 

Refine your content into a handful of pages; the number isn’t significant, but the quality of your content is. It may amaze you, but having an outstanding single web page which covers a niche service in detail will deliver better results than six pages of poorly written miss-guided content.

How to build your construction company website

Working with a web design professional such as Sanders Design will remove the need to undertake a lot of work, such as the above previous keyword research steps as I would manage the entire project for you. However, if you are on a budget, I would recommend building your website using WordPress. 

If you have any technical computer skills, you will find using WordPress relatively straightforward. Building a simple website will require time and patience; however, it’s achievable for most. 

By using the WordPress platform, you will be ready to migrate your website content to a professional designer when your budget allows. This means that you will already be familiar with the website editor (having spent many hours building your website) and have content formatted in a suitable form ready for working with a professional WordPress web designer.

To inspire your web design creativity, I have put together a list of the top ten websites which deliver professional results for their construction business. Examples have been randomly selected based on their merits and will have been created by a web designer.

I hope you will find lots of great ideas on the following construction websites 😉

Best construction websites

MH Costa Construction Ltd – This website uses a brochure-style layout, meaning that there are great lifestyle images and attractive grids. The website looks relatively flat in terms of the structure with simple navigation and stunning galleries showing past projects. 

Lendlease – On entering this website, we can see that Lendlease are a big corporate company. This website oozes corporate scale with a distinguished professional brand and impressive images. No-one would mistake this website for a regional construction company; this shows how initial impressions can be formed within 0.5s of entering a website.

Kier Group – Another big corporate developer website, the design features an interesting structure with regional areas and lots of in-depth content. It’s great to see that Kier use their website presence to publish important information alongside typical marketing resources.

Redrow – A construction company, come real estate agent website; the Redrow website combines stunning property walkthroughs, development site maps and property information to produce a strong branded experience. This website has many complex features which will help potential buyers decide on their dream home.

Korteco – A company who use a “Build Smart” tagline has a website which impresses. The Korteco website has a dark industrial colour palette in keeping with the hard-edged engineering culture depicted throughout the Korteco brand. This website illustrates how effective, consistent branding can deliver an identity which makes a memorable impression.

House of Bohn – Radiating style from every pixel, the House of Bohn combines interior design with development services. Not a typical construction company, being featured on Netflix, but a fine example showing how construction website doesn’t all need to be hard-edges and technical. The House of Bohn site is stylish, classy and on point for its audience.  

Acclaim Contractors – While some construction companies may focus on interior style or engineering, others such as Acclaim Contractors focus on their architectural background. This website has an unusual layout which works perfectly with the photography and minimalist design ethos.

Fredman Design Group – A website with a high level of texture and organic design. The Fredman site uses stunning photography with texture backgrounds and painted typefaces. This design looks familiar and friendly rather than corporate. 

Robmills Architects – This website is unusual and combines moving images, video and stunning photography. Where some businesses focus on text content, the Robmills Architects website drives its message home with large full-page photos and an intro video. The Robmills website is quirky and exudes creativity.

McCarthy – The McCarthy website feels traditional in comparison to some of the others in this list but shows how straight-talking design can still impress and look stylish. When working in such industries as aviation and healthcare, having clarity and data in front of mind is critical. McCarthy has no time for distractions when building civil infrastructure, and this is seen throughout the website design style. 

Conclusion

When creating a website for your construction business, you need to first define your market. Find out who will be searching for your services and what keyphrases they use to find your business services. While looking at competitors may provide some insight into your marketplace, you need to deliver an online presence which doesn’t only replicate your competition but looks better to win new enquires.

Once you know your customer base, and what your customers are searching for, you will be better placed to create stunning images, amazing videos and importantly engaging text copy which will give you a competitive edge in Google.

A stunning website will not provide you enquires in its own right. While having a website is fundamental in building your online brand, you need to ensure that your business has a proactive marketing campaign which includes obtaining a Google My Business listing, customer reviews, and links in all the related industry directories. 

Creating a successful construction website for your business takes time. Being proactive on social media, reaching out to your audience and the constant refinement of web content are all essential parts of establishing a winning construction website which will operate as a giant magnet to generate trade enquires for your contractor business.

Whether you decide to work with a professional web designer or create your own construction website design, I hope the above guide will help your construction business thrive online.