In today’s modern, tech-savvy world, searching the web is the first thing people do when they’re looking for a tradie.
Needless to say, if you don’t have an online presence, you’re essentially saying goodbye to countless potential leads and handing them to your competitors.
That’s why it’s essential for you have a tradie website!
However, websites can do much more than just raise your profile – when done properly, a tradie website can also help your business appear credible and trustworthy.
How can you make a website appear credible though? After all, you’re not there in person to assure potential clients.
Tradie reviews, testimonials and a portfolio of successful jobs are great tools, and go a long way towards establishing credibility. However, they aren’t the only tools in the toolbox!
Websites for tradies can also benefit from…
A Google My Business listing
Here’s an experiment: open up Google and type in “Briggs Electrical” (full disclosure: Sam and the team are some of our star clients).
You might notice that instead of being greeted with a “vanilla” search results page, you’ll instead be presented with box on the right side of the page.
This is what we in the business call “the knowledge box”, which becomes available after creating your Google My Business Listing.
Think of it as a Google profile for your business. With this listing, Google will throw up your:
- Contact details
- Website
- Location on a map
- Opening hours
- Photos
- Reviews
- Company information
What’s more, we’ve gotten so used to this feature that businesses that don’t have a listing are often looked at with suspicion compared to those that are!
To a potential client, this little box absolutely screams credibility. Now customers can see photos of successful jobs and your reviews, all from the search results page.
What’s more, we’ve gotten so used to this feature that businesses that don’t have a listing are often looked at with suspicion compared to those that are!
Don’t have a Google My Business Listing? Click here to apply for one!.
High-quality pictures of you and your team
The human brain is hard-wired to seek out faces – that’s why people keep seeing faces in coffee cups, houses and loaves of bread.
A side-effect of this biological programming is that we respond positively to seeing human faces. According to others in the marketing business, the difference can be by as much as a 17% increase in conversions.
Simply put, faces break the “trust barrier”. When we have a face to associate with something, we’re more likely to lend it credibility.
In our experience, this effect is even more pronounced if it’s a picture of you and your team!
Needless to say, if your tradie website is still using stock photos – or worse, lacks images altogether – you could be missing out on a lot of potential calls.
Another great idea is video. If a photo can help you overcome the trust barrier, video positively shatters it. In addition to a face, video allows visitors to get a feel for your personality and tone.
People are letting you into their home, after all – that personal connection and trust are crucial!
Tradie SEO strategies
We know what you’re thinking. There are a lot of websites out there for tradies. The likelihood that potential clients will click on your website over other competitors is low.
You’re right, of course – which is exactly why tradie SEO is so important!.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and it’s all about pushing your website to the top of Google’s search results.
In addition to bringing more visitors to your website (and therefore, bringing in more calls), tradie SEO also improves your credibility.
While people might not fully understand how Google operates behind the scenes, they do know that there are thousands of tradies out there. Therefore, any websites that manages to make it to the top are more credible in their eyes.
Websites need to be backed up by tradie SEO – if you’re interested in an SEO strategy for your business, get in touch with a tradie marketing agency in Melbourne!
Carefully-planned, quality website content
Good web content is a hard thing to get right – in addition to “selling” you and your service, the content on your website should also:
- Communicate your skills and competence
- Improve your SEO and get your site to rank
- Give your credibility a boost
This requires a careful, strategic approach to everything that goes on your site.
The layout, the written copy, the images, how everything’s structured… each element plays a role in establishing your credibility, and needs to be planned accordingly.
And we can’t forget the little things, either!
Typos. Blurry images. Confusing navigation bars. It’s easy for these little details to slip through the cracks. And unfortunately, each of these can negatively impact the user experience, and very subtly harm your overall credibility.
Make sure your site is full of quality content right off the bat by going to the pros. That means professional copywriters, web designers, photographers and graphic designers.
Hire an expert to ensure your tradie website is credible and trustworthy
Now that you know how websites can help build credibility for your business. Now there’s just one problem left.
Namely, the fact that you don’t have any experience with SEO, content creation, Google Business Listings or other digital marketing techniques.
That’s okay though – you’ve got us on your side!
At iformat, we specialise in creating websites for tradies. More than that however, we create comprehensive tradie marketing strategies that focus on boosting your credibility with the customers you want.
Our mission is to inspire confidence and trust in your tradie business. Once we get people onto your website, we use quality content, web design and a toolbox full of other digital marketing tactics, to encourage them to stay and call you!
A digital marketing agency like iformat can help you do more than just boost credibility. It can provide a number of important services to you including;
- Increase visibility
- Market you to the desired market
- Ensure customers know exactly what services you provide
If you want to get in contact with a reputable digital marketing company to discuss your options, you can call iformat on 1300 88 6450. Alternatively, you can get in contact with us through our website.
If you’re worried that iformat might not have what it takes to deliver for your business, check out the testimonials from other tradies.
