Roofer Website Design: Guide To Online Success
When designed well, a website can be an incredible asset for a roofing business. Along with boosting your ranking in search engines, good design practices can convince website visitors to become your customers.
A well-designed roofing site provides a smooth and easy user experience. It convinces potential customers that you’re trustworthy. And it communicates the value you offer, the qualities that make you a uniquely wonderful choice for roofing services.
In this article we will go over the key elements that make up a good roofing website design. If you’re looking for some design examples check out this article featuring the top roofing websites and what makes them great.
Ease of Use
When website visitors experience frustration and confusion, they’re much less likely to contact you. What are some of the critical elements that contribute to a good experience with your site?
Page Load Speed
The slower it takes for your site to load, the more likely it is that visitors will hit the back button and head for your competitors. Your target is to get each page to load in less than three seconds. Make the load times as quick as you possibly can.
The following are some examples for how to reduce each page’s load time:
- Optimize your images and videos, particularly their size and format. You can also rely on lazy loading, which loads images only when necessary and not when they’re on a part of the page that isn’t being viewed.
- Combine website files, remove unnecessary code from them, and have them load asynchronously.
- Reduce the number of scripts that run whenever a page gets loaded. For example, if you have numerous plugins, they may be slowing you down. Set limits on the number of plugins you use, and check how they impact your site.
- Work with your web host to ensure a better site performance. Your host may not be providing you with sufficient resources for optimal page loading.
- Use a CDN and website caching.
Responsive Design
Your site has to look good and perform well on every device, including smartphones and tablets. With responsive design, your website automatically adapts to each screen size.
Make sure to test the performance of your site on different devices. For example, can smartphone users still read the content and easily click on links or buttons? Is your site still loading quickly, and are the images resizing properly?
Clarity and Navigation
Whether they arrive at a specific landing page or your site’s main page, visitors need to quickly know what to do next. They need to know where to look and what to click on.
Keep the site design clean and intuitive
Sites cluttered with text, images, and graphics can overwhelm visitors. When they land on a particular page, the design should immediately direct their attention to important areas, such as a display of your contact information or an announcement of a special deal.
The layout of the site should give it a flow that keeps visitors moving to the information they need and the areas you want them to interact with, such as a form that enables them to request an estimate.
Regarding the site’s organization, a navigation bar is one element that can point visitors to where they should go. Just make sure your navigation bar isn’t cluttered with too many options or with excessively long, nested drop-down lists.
Make your roofer website easy to skim
Generally, people don’t read roofing websites. They skim or scan, and they only occasionally settle in for a closer reading. Your site needs to work well for visitors who scroll quickly and who merely glance at something to decide whether it’s relevant to them.
Let’s say you have a landing page for a particular kind of roofing service. One area of the page can highlight your qualifications. Another can provide a summary of how a project will typically unfold. Each area should stand out and deliver a message that doesn’t require close reading. If visitors want additional details, it should be easy for them to know where to look or click for more information.
When it comes to text, headers and lists are among the basic elements that facilitate skimming. For example, a short, prominent summary of your strengths and the value you offer will give readers a clear idea about your company. If they choose to, they can then read about a particular service or product in more depth. You can hide the bulk of the text and allow them to reveal it only if they want.
Always make it easy for visitors to contact you
Regardless of what page they’ve landed on, site visitors should be able to quickly spot your contact information and understand how to reach out to you. Provide them with a specific call-to-action message that will let them know what to do.
Evaluate the readability of your site
There are multiple ways in which your site may not be optimized for visitors:
- The colors or color contrasts are jarring.
- The fonts generate confusion.
- Headers and other lines of text are poorly worded and unclear.
- The photos lack a professional quality.
- Your site doesn’t have accessibility features for people with visual impairment.
Build trust with website visitors
Hiring a roofing contractor is an act of trust. People need to know that you’ll treat their home or business with care. In multiple ways, your website should strengthen the impression of your trustworthiness and credibility.
Security
Even if you aren’t processing payments through your site, you still need to provide a secure experience for visitors. This is especially true if they’re filling out a form with their contact information. To inspire trust, protect the activities on your site with standard encryption protocols.
Testimonials and Reviews
Online reviews play a critical role in convincing potential customers to trust you. People tend to perceive reviews and testimonials as more authentic than paid advertising.
There are multiple ways to include customer feedback on your site, such as the following:
- Create a page dedicated to testimonials if you have a lot of them.
- Display positive customer comments throughout your site, including on your contact page.
- When positive reviews focus on a specific service you offer, present those reviews on the relevant landing page. For example, if you have a page for roof repairs, you can highlight the comments of customers who called you for emergency repairs and were happy with the results.
- If you have a high average rating on Yelp, Facebook, and similar sites, showcase those numbers.
Experience and Qualifications
Your website needs to emphasize that you have the right skills and experience for the projects you’re carrying out.
The following are some of the ways you can reassure customers that you’re fully qualified to work on their home or business:
- Highlight that you’re licensed and insured.
- Mention your years of experience in the industry.
- Display certifications. These include certificates proving that you have the ability to work with certain roofing products and technologies.
- Point out awards or honors you’ve received, including excellence in customer service.
Create Value
What makes your roofing company unique? After engaging with your site, potential customers should understand what sets you apart from your competitors.
Some or all of the following may apply to your business:
- You specialize in certain types of roofing, such as environmentally friendly technologies.
- You keep updating your techniques and knowledge.
- You don’t settle for the minimum required by local building codes. Your standards are at a higher level, and you deliver powerful, durable work.
- You offer consistently amazing customer service, including quick response times.
- Your warranties give impressive coverage.
- You have a track record of succeeding at challenging projects.
- You offer flexible scheduling and fair pricing, and your work produces lasting benefits.
- In every aspect of your work, you show consistent integrity.
How can you demonstrate your valuable qualities?
Along with the suggestions made earlier about trustworthiness and credibility, consider the following web content:
- In prominent text, present your company’s core values and unique skills. Set up a concise, sharp contrast with competitors. What do you do that’s different and better?
- Display photos of the before and the after stages of a project. Pick photos that show a striking transformation. These images can appear on landing pages for specific services and on a portfolio page. Here’s an example from one roofing company in Texas.
- Present a short video demonstrating a technique you’ve mastered or showing the progression of a project.
- In the form of a compelling story or case study, describe a particular project you undertook and how it significantly helped a customer.
You should also identify your customers’ needs and convey the specific benefits you deliver, such as:
- Improved curb appeal and higher market value.
- The money they save when you perform preventative maintenance and timely repairs.
- Savings on energy costs.
- The way your roofs enhance protection for homes or businesses.
- For commercial properties, a stronger attractiveness to customers and commercial tenants.
Position yourself as an authority in roofing work. Compared to other companies, you have a more cost-effective process, a better understanding of how to perform the work, and a level of excellence that’s unmatched. Your site has to project that sense of confidence, competence, and care.
What does this roofer's website do well?
Thoughtful Placement of Important Information
Critical content appears towards the top of each page. This content includes the company’s phone number and a call-to-action message prompting you to get an estimate. The CTA reappears at other points on each page, giving you multiple opportunities to see it and act on it. An unobtrusive chatbot provides additional engagement.
Reminders of Credibility and Authority
On every page, you see something about the company’s excellent reputation, including awards, endorsements from manufacturers, and highlights of their customer reviews.
Brief, Impactful Text and High-Quality Images
You aren’t hit with large chunks of text. When you scan each page, you see short paragraphs and lists. Whether it’s conveying a powerful statistic or delivering a guarantee of unparalleled quality, each bit of text communicates something important. Further details remain hidden unless you want to click to learn more.
The content is oriented to you and your needs. It addresses specific questions you may have and problems you’re possibly experiencing. It gives you reassurance about quality, trustworthiness, and meaningful value for your money.
As for visuals, their photos are clear and sharp. The page loading is reasonable, and you don’t get bombarded with an excessive number of images. One flaw is that their portfolio page is somewhat tricky to navigate, because it isn’t immediately clear that clicking on some of the images will open a new page. However, you still get the choice of whether to view more images.
How should you design your roofer website?
All of the suggestions discussed here give you an excellent starting point for how to design your roofer website. However, you’ll still need to tailor it to your brand and regularly test its performance. For example, if you change the format and wording of your contact form, will it produce better results? Testing different features is critical.
To continue improving conversion rates and other performance metrics, you should tweak your site and only initiate major changes when necessary. Fortunately, you don’t have to do any of these things on your own. We can help you design your roofing site, strengthen it, and make it a powerful marketing tool.
Aaron R. - CEO
Entrepreneur with 20 years experience launching and managing successful web design and marketing companies. As seen in New York Times, Inc.com, Smashing Magazine, Home Advisor and other various mainstream media.
Passionate about #seo #marketing #webdesign #socialmedia #blogging #family #texasbbq