Before you begin the search for a web designer to create your house painting website, it is good to be well-prepared. Reading this article will help you navigate the process, helping you identify your requirements and gather the necessary materials to provide to your web designer. It’s a mistake to allow a web designer to construct your website without any input from you. Since they are not familiar with your business, it is imperative for you to oversee the website development process.
Why Build a House Painting Website?
A house painting website serves as a central hub for all of your online activities, marketing strategies, and a platform that attracts new customers and guides them towards hiring your services. An exceptional painting website that surpasses your competitors will greatly elevate your online performance.
What Platform Should I Use?
Your website will develop and progress over time, so it’s crucial to build it on a platform that allows for easy editing and expansion. From my personal experience, WordPress is undoubtedly the most suitable platform for this type of website and the easiest to use. While you may need to invest in a few plugins to enhance its functionality, the WordPress platform itself is free to use.
Website Hosting
In order to make your website accessible to the world, it is necessary to host it on a server. While some website designers may offer to handle the hosting for you, this can have negative consequences if you decide to switch designers in the future. It is important to ensure that you have full ownership rights to your website and all its assets before hiring a web designer to build it. Request a copy of your completed website from them, once completed. I strongly advise against entering into any monthly subscriptions for your house painting website, as you may come to regret it at a later date.
The most secure choice is to acquire your own hosting account, provide your web designer with their own login credentials, and have them build your website on your server. This allows you to control your website and its access. There are numerous options available for purchasing web hosting accounts. Personally, I use hostgator.com. They have proven to be user-friendly, reliable and offer competitive pricing.
Selecting the Right Domain Name for Your Website
A domain name serves as the location of your website, like google.com. It is crucial to carefully choose a domain name that incorporates the most significant keywords related to your business. For example, if you own a painting business, your domain may include painting, painters, house painters, or professional painters. Additionally, it is advisable to include part or all of your business name. These will play a vital role in ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) later on.
Once you have decided on a name, it is essential to check its availability. However, refrain from searching for availability until you are ready to purchase it. Even after purchasing a domain, you must pay a small annual fee to maintain ownership. Allowing your domain name to expire or giving someone else control of it can have a very negative impact on your entire painting business. Simply don’t do either.
ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF YOUR WEBSITE
Start creating an outline of what your house painting website will include. Understand that the design, structure, and content you choose should be a representation of your company and only incorporate what makes good sense for your business.
DESIGN
There are numerous options available when it comes to selecting the layout for your website. Adding and editing content on your website is relatively simple, but carefully consider the typography, colors, and layout, as these elements are more permanent and cannot be easily changed without a significant overhaul of your entire website.
My best advice is to explore different designs on the internet and identify features that you would like to incorporate into your own website design. Consider how your colors and logo will complement the overall design. While this task can be demanding, the effort invested will be well worthwhile in the long run.
Responsive Design
In today’s digital era, web designers are increasingly focusing on creating responsive designs that seamlessly adapt to different screen sizes. This fluidity is crucial, especially considering that more than 50% of searches are now conducted on mobile phones. It is essential for your design to appear visually appealing and functional even in a single-column layout on a mobile device. Certain design elements, such as a “call” button make a lot of sense on mobile, but not when displayed on a desktop computer. Therefore, it is important to carefully consider the layout you choose to ensure optimal user experience across various devices.
STRUCTURE
The structure of your website plays an important role in determining the quality of your website. While I am an individual who appreciates unconventional thinking, I advise you to create your website in a way that aligns with the expectations of your visitors. Put things where the average visitor will expect to find them. Furthermore, search engines frequently index web pages for their search engine results pages (SERP). Pages with a well-organized structure tend to achieve higher rankings.
User-Friendly Navigation
The navigation on your painting website should be easily visible and straightforward to navigate. Ensure that the text used for your navigation menu accurately describes the content or page that the viewer will access upon clicking. It can be highly frustrating for visitors if the navigation is not functioning properly or if they are unable to find what they are searching for. Additionally, well-organized navigation is beneficial to your painting website for search engine optimization.
Header and Footer
You will utilize the identical header and footer on nearly every webpage. Usually, this is designed as a single template that appears on every page, simplifying the process of making modifications across your entire website. The header will include your logo, phone number, navigation, and possibly a call-to-action. The footer will contain similar elements but often includes more extensive website navigation options including your contact information, google map and a menu for your local pages which will be explained later on.
Hero
A hero describes the primary section located below the header. It usually features a captivating image, a prominent H1 heading, and possibly a brief paragraph that reinforces the heading. Its purpose is to swiftly convey to the visitor what they can anticipate on the remaining parts of the page.
Headings (H1-H6)
Headings on web pages are assigned labels ranging from H1 to H6, with H1 usually reserved for the primary title or description of the page, indicating its utmost importance. On the other hand, H6 signifies the least significant heading. It is crucial to include headings in all sections of your web pages. Each heading should accurately describe the content that follows it. This practice holds great significance for both search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine results pages (SERP).
Images (alt tags)
When it comes to the structure of a website, it is crucial to include high-quality images with an alt tag for each image. An alt tag is text that describes the image. Search engines and other robots cannot interpret images, yet images can play a vital part in how viewers interpret a specific web page.
Links (inline and local)
Links are a crucial component of your website’s structure. They play a vital role in enhancing the overall visitor experience. By hyperlinking words, images, headings, and other elements to relevant content within your website, you greatly assist visitors in finding the specific information they seek. Use text decorations to make your links stand out. As your house painting website expands, hyperlinking becomes an excellent means of organizing its content effectively.
Decorating Styles
Maintain consistent styles for similar elements across your website. Ensure that the color of your links remains the same throughout your site. Utilize identical typography for headings with the same hierarchy. Use consistent typography for all paragraphs. By doing so, you enhance comprehension and facilitate easier absorption of your content by both visitors and search engines.
Keywords
Each webpage you create should be centered around a specific keyword or a group of keywords. The title of each webpage should contain the keyword, along with some of the headings. It is not required to have a separate webpage for each individual keyword; instead, you can combine similar keywords on a single webpage. The important thing is to ensure that your content remains relevant to the keyword(s) mentioned in the title. Furthermore, it is essential to provide valuable content rather than meaningless text. This strategy is highly advantageous for SEO and significantly improves the overall user experience for visitors to your website.
Calls-To-Action
Your website should have a subtle presence of calls-to-action. These can be in the form of links and buttons that prompt users to take action and convert them from mere visitors into potential leads. Examples of such actions could include making a phone call or filling out a form. It is important to strike a balance and not overwhelm the user with too many calls-to-action, but at the same time, they should be easily accessible when a customer reaches the point of being ready to take the next step.
Testimonials | Review
To enhance your website’s credibility, incorporate testimonials and reviews from satisfied customers. By featuring the feedback of past clients, you allow their words to speak for the quality of your painting services. Strategically placing these testimonials throughout your website will serve as a reinforcement of your positive reputation and help build trust with potential customers.
CONTENT
Content refers to the unique elements found on each webpage, including paragraphs, visuals, animations, graphics, videos, and an array of interactive features to captivate your visitors. Typically, this content is positioned between the header and footer on most pages, although certain promotional pages may not include a header and footer. It is crucial to consistently produce top-notch content for your website as your business expands, as this is key to achieving unrivaled success in your industry.
Website Pages
There exist various categories that your pages can be classified into, such as main menu, keyword or service pages, local pages, and promotional/landing pages. Each of these categories necessitates a slightly different approach.
Main Menu
The main menu consists of various pages that can be found in the main navigation of your website, including Home, Why Choose Us, Portfolio, Careers, About Us, Our Blog, and more. These pages serve as the building blocks of any website. Now, let’s delve a bit deeper into each of these pages.
Homepage
The main homepage of your house painting websites primary objective is to direct visitors to their intended destinations. The initial content section should provide some information about your company and highlight its strengths. The subsequent section should feature testimonials. Following that, there should be sections that steer visitors towards the important pages on your website, with accompanying links. The sections on this page should be concise and straightforward, enabling users to effortlessly navigate to various pages of your site.
Why Choose Us
Including a “Why Choose Us” page on your website is an excellent idea. Utilize this page to showcase the unique qualities that distinguish you from your competitors. From my personal experience, this page receives a significant amount of traffic on my website. As painters, we often face a negative reputation due to the unprofessional practices of others in our industry. This page serves as an effective way to communicate to potential customers that you operate differently and can be trusted.
Portfolio
Having a dedicated “Portfolio” page is an excellent method of displaying your work. It is important to consistently incorporate high-quality images of your projects into your portfolio. Additionally, consider including “before and after” photos to showcase the transformation of your work.
Our Team
Having an “Our Team” page on your website gives visitors the opportunity to see the people behind your brand. While it may not be essential, it is worth considering if you want to create a comprehensive website that leaves a lasting impression.
Careers
This page is highly effective in attracting prospective employees. Highlight the exceptional aspects of working for your company and list the advantages it offers. Additionally, I explain in another article how we utilized this web page in a broader recruiting campaign, titled “How to Find Good Workers for Your Painting Company and Keep Them”.
About Us
You have the option to utilize this page as a platform to share your personal narrative and the journey that led you to become the owner of a painting business. Although not essential, having this page contributes to a comprehensive website experience.
Our Blog
After achieving success and establishing a smoothly running business, you may find yourself with some spare time on your hands. Utilizing this time to write articles can be a fulfilling endeavor. Crafting engaging articles for your potential clients or to assist fellow painters can bring positive karma and greatly benefit your SEO efforts.
Keyword or Service Pages
It is possible to consolidate all of your services onto one webpage. However, it is more effective to have a separate page for each service in order to target specific keywords. This approach is beneficial for SEO purposes. For instance, you can pair keywords such as “house painters” and “residential painters” since they essentially refer to the same thing. To optimize your content for search engines, consider including services like house painting, residential painting, commercial painting, industrial painting, interior painting, exterior painting, deck staining, and more.
Local Service Pages
To enhance local visibility, it is crucial to have dedicated pages for each specific area or city where your business operates. For example, you can create a page titled “House Painters in Ann Arbor, MI” for that particular city. Each of these pages should contain sections highlighting the services you offer. For instance, you could have a section titled “The Significance of Exterior Painting in Ann Arbor, MI”. The main objective is to have pages that showcase your services in relation to a particular area or city.
To implement this effectively, we recommend adding a section called “Local Service Area” in the footer template of your website. In this section, you can write a brief paragraph explaining your business’s local presence and then list all the cities where you operate. To make it more user-friendly, consider linking the name of each area or city to its respective local service page. This will enable visitors to easily navigate and find the specific services they are looking for in their desired location.
Promotional Pages | Landing Pages
You may design separate pages specifically for promotions and advertising campaigns. These pages should not include your header, footer, or any links to your main website. These types of campaigns are often referred to as sales funnels, as they aim to guide potential customers towards a specific action, such as contacting you or completing a form.
Conclusion
We must acknowledge that a house painting website possesses immense power when fully utilized. As a business owner, it is crucial for you to grasp the significance of a website and how it can contribute to your future achievements. Familiarizing yourself with the fundamental aspects of a high-quality website will enable you to make informed decisions when selecting a web designer. It is vital that you take charge of the process rather than assuming a passive role. I extend my best wishes for a successful website design and for the prosperity of your painting business.