Your website is your storefront for the entire world. While many businesses stick to social media to promote their services, they could be doing so much more with their own website.
This series will show how easy it is to create your own website tailored to your business, whether you’re a hairdresser, a restaurant, a consulting firm, a photographer, or anything. With our recommendations, you can have your own website up and running quickly, easily, and ready to get customers in.
Today, we’re focusing on making a site for plumbers, electricians, gas fitters, solar panel installers, handy person, and anyone else who works to make a house perfect.
Getting started
Before you get started making your website, figure out what you want to put on there. Do you want to show off finished projects? Give people tips on easy home maintenance? Offer matching products to go with your work?
It might be tempting to only put your name and telephone number on a single page, but think about your audience and what they’re searching for. Are they looking for a particular type of work to be done? Do they know what the technical jargon is, or are they just typing “add extra socket”? Adding more content to your website doesn’t just show off your expertise, it also provides an anchor for search engines, giving you those important results.
Start out by listing the content you want on each page, focusing on what you want to promote, and then write it out. Make sure to include the general location you’re working, so you can get good local search results as well. And once you know what will go on your website, you can then buy a web hosting package and get started.
We recommend buying a basic hosting package, either our Essential hosting package or our Basic Managed WordPress package. Both of them will give you the space and performance you need without costing too much. If you choose Essential, you’ll need to install WordPress on your package, and if you choose Basic, WordPress will be installed automatically.
Making Everything Look Fantastic
Obviously, your website needs to look as good as your finished work, and a good theme should be one of the first things you look at once WordPress is installed. There are a huge range of themes out there, but here are three that’ll work great for your business.
Fixup
Clean, organised, and easy for customers to go through, Fixup is designed for plumbers but would work well for any trade. The free version comes with two templates and a 3-5 photo sliding widget, and the pro version is $29, which comes with more widgets, more templates, and more customisation.
VW Handyman
Responsive and customisable, VW Handyman is a nice and organised theme that would work perfectly for any trade. The free version comes with a nice home page and a few additional templates, and the pro version is $59 and comes with plenty of widgets, customisation, and templates.
Perfect Electrician
With fantastic little icons and a responsive template, Perfect Electrician is great for all sparkies out there. Easy to set up and get going, the free version comes with convenient menus, page templates, and a lovely responsive design. The pro version adds even more customisation and features, and is only $39.
Getting In Touch
If you want your customers to easily get in touch with you, a good contact form makes it easy for them to ask for quotes and explain their problems while also giving you control over when you’re reachable. No need to worry about 3am phone calls about dripping taps with these plug-ins.
Forminator
With Forminator, you can create contact forms, calculators, add Stripe to your site for easy payment processing, and even more. The free version gives you the ability to create forms, whereas the paid version adds in payment processing and more features, and starts at $7.50 a month.
Contact Form 7
Built for simplicity, Contact Form 7 is a free form builder that’ll give you an easy-to-use contact form in a matter of minutes. Plus, its basic form doesn’t write any user data to the database, use cookies, or send data to any servers. To use it, you’ll need to be willing to work with code, but only a bit, and there’s a detailed FAQ to help you.
WPForms
WPForms is a drag-and-drop form builder with a huge range of features built-in. Create contact forms, payment forms, surveys, booking forms, and more with this powerhouse of a plugin. The Basic version is $79 for a year, and includes all the form templates and unlimited messages. You can then upgrade as needed for more features, such as newsletter integration, multiple websites, and more.
Showing Off Your Reviews
Existing customer reviews are a great way to pull new customers in. Many review sites, like Trustpilot and Google Reviews, have their own scripts you can paste into your site and they will often have detailed instructions on how to do that. However, if you want to cut down on the download times and the additional scripts on your site, plugins are a great way to bring in the reviews without the hassle.
WP Social Ninja
Integrate your customer reviews with your social media posts with this all-in-one plugin. The free version lets you blend your Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook feeds with Google Place reviews, perfect for any business that has an in-house showroom. If you upgrade to the pro version, which is $79 for one year for $198 for a lifetime licence, you can add Yelp, Trustpilot, Tripadvisor, and Facebook reviews to your feed, as well as letting your customers message on you on WhatsApp and Telegram.
Social Reviews & Recommendations
Facebook is great for customer reviews, especially if you’re focusing on local clientele. With this plugin, you can pull reviews from your Facebook page into your website, making it easy for your customers to see how people feel about your business, as well as getting more customers to your Facebook page.
Reviews and Rating — Google My Business
If you have a Google Business account, you can pull in your reviews into your site with this plugin. You just need a Google API Key and a Place ID, with plenty of documentation to help you through the setup process. The range of display options also makes it great for showing off your reviews.
Integrating Social Media
Local word of mouth is a great way to get customers, and being active on social media can help immensely with that, whether it’s the neighbourhood Facebook group or showing off your skills on Instagram. Integrating your social media feeds into your website makes it easy for existing and potential customers to share your work with everyone they know.
Spotlight
Instagram is a great way to show off your talents, but it’s also a locked-in system, making it really difficult for anyone without an Instagram account to see your skills. Spotlight lets you put your Instagram feed on your WordPress site, giving you an easy way to show off the work you’ve done while also gaining new followers. The essential version is $39 annually and lets you add unlimited Instagram accounts and feeds to your website.
Smash Balloon Plugins
Smash Balloon provides individual plugins for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, giving you an easy way to integrate specific social media accounts. Each plugin costs $49 annually, giving you a smooth integration from your feed to your website.
Feed Them Social
If you don’t mind a bit of technical work and want to show off all your social media feeds on your site, Feed Them Social lets you add your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube feeds to your site. And if you purchase the Combined Streams version, you can join them all together in one big feed. The premium version is $50 annually, but the free version does come with plenty of features.
So there are some options for your website. Whether you’re an electrician, plumber, gas fitter, solar panel installer, or general handy person, having a well-built website is a fantastic way to gain new customers, show off your work, and get your name out there.
If you ever have any questions about how a website can help your business, get in touch with us! We’re happy to help!.
