• Dec 29, 2023

Tradie Website Mistakes

Most tradies are aware of a call to action (where you try to get the visitor to take action ie call or submit details). However some calls to action are akin to saying 'hi buy my electrical services' to someone you first meet on the street.

Would you knock on someones door you do not know and ask them to use you as their electrician, plumber or painter?

We need to be more subtle. Consider the 'conversation' you are having with the visitor to your website.

You may need to demonstrate your competence and then suggest they contact you in a format that suits them eg SMS, email or phone.

As a tradie people accept you may not be instantly available 24/7 on the phone. Appearing too available may suggest you are not in demand.

Here are some good suggestions of what to avoid when organising a website.

1  If you are not a web expert don't buy a website purely on the basis you could edit it.

Some tradies insist on being able to change their website themselves. The outcome is often a website so dumbed down to basic features it either screams a call to action without an adequate intro or lacks the finese to make an impression.

Or you purchase a website and then try to market or SEO it afterwards.

You could have had the SEO marketing built into it to start with.

2  Poor verification of your services.

You have attracted some attention, now the potential buyer just needs to verify you or your business.

Make it easy - give a few real testimonials and ensure there are independent methods available. Preferably in the main menu. Google reviews are often used by people to verify a business.

3  Website does not work well on a mobile phone

A responsive website is one that adjusts seamlessly to the device screen size.

Systems like Bootstrap are style rule frameworks that can do this with no change in content-:

Large Screen

Mobile Phone

4  Text without visual cues

 

'Don't make me read wide lines of text'

5  Too many 'experts' spoil the website

You hire an adwords expert, an email setup expert, an email marketing expert, a logo designer, an SEO and have a seperate web host on a platform none of these people setup originally. They all sound like experts but have different opinions. It's a recipe for disaster (or just a lot of unnecessary expense).

There is a classic formula for lines of communication which simply shows an exponential growth in commumication as soon as the numbers needing to communicate increase past 2.

If you can find a web developer who does all of the above or most of the above at a reasonable cost you are better off.

The same goes with 'fancy systems' that do not integrate. You get an SMS for an appointment which you have already cancelled because the fancy booking system didn't talk to the fancy SMS system.

6  Don't over market

One company sent me numerous spam emails before they had even organised a booking.

Feedback on Feedback seems the marketing norm.

Cookie cutter enormous email marketing messages often do not get read.

Summary - Do This

 

• A Attract attention
• V Verify yourself
• C Call to Action
• F Follow-up in a timely manner

 An Example of Good Design

Hire Me

Hire me if you are concerned you are wasting money on unnecessary marketing or your platform is not gaining you enough marketing power for your trade.

Our websites are built with SEO in mind from the get go - not as an after thought. We are also exceptional email marketers.