At my company, we build our clients’ contractor websites with long, scrolling homepages. Someone recently wondered if that was a bit cumbersome.
In this article, I would like to address this issue and talk about why I believe that a scrolling homepage is the best way to build your website right now.
In the past, it was smart to design your websites with a slide-show on the home page. If people wanted to learn more, they could click deeper to follow their interest level on to different pages. With the evolution of the faster mobile internet, the new generation of internet users prefers simple, quick and easy websites.
Because of this shift in preference, there are two reasons I believe scrolling, flat-designed home pages are best for your contracting websites.
- It’s Simple and Easy
- It Increases SEO
Read on to learn how and why we make our contracting websites the way we do.
1. It’s Simple and Easy
As a time-sensitive generation, your potential clients want to find the exact information they need as soon as they click on your website. When you have your most important business information on your homepage it makes it easy.
We usually design contractor websites with a basic company description at the top of the web page, followed by the location—usually with a big, gorgeous picture behind it. Next, there are two clickable buttons; one is “Get Started,” and the other is “Explore Gallery.” Those buttons will take people deeper into the website if they’d like.
However, if they keep on scrolling the next section is “About Us;” this section tells the client about the company. Keep scrolling and they’ll find out what the company does and what services they provide as a contractor. Finally, we’ll re-emphasize the location and the service area it operates in.
Each of these sections has a ‘call to action,’ so at any point while someone is scrolling and learning more, they can click to act. Usually those calls to action are ‘Let’s Get Started!” or “Contact Us Today” which will lead them to the contact page where they can get started working with the company.
It’s so important to have a quick loading website so people can find the information they’re looking for as soon as possible. Google likes fast websites. As internet-users today, we like fast websites. We don’t like coming to a website and needing to dig around. I know that when I go to a website looking for something specific, and I must go poking around in the back recesses of the website find the basic info, I get frustrated.
When building a contractor website, we want to avoid frustration for the potential clients when they visit. We want to give them what they are looking for—information on who the company is, what they do, some of their best work, a few featured testimonials—all things designed to build trust in their minds, leading them to eventually make a business connection.
All of this is on one scrolling page. It’s simple, fast, and easy to use.
2. Increases SEO
The second reason I like a scrolling home page is because of the opportunity to create lots of content on the home page. Google search engines love content, so the more we can write about the company, including keywords for the services they provide, the more opportunity there will be for them to rank higher in the search engines.
Granted, if we had only one picture at the top and then a document of just text below, it would be really long and hard for people to read. When we break it up into sections with a picture followed by a section of text—picture, text, picture, text, etc—it’s a much more pleasant way to load a lot of content onto the homepage of the website. This homepage content will help you increase your website’s SEO and aid it in ranking better in the search engines.
Summary
A fast and easy-to-navigate website that lets Google access all the homepage content—that is why I recommend going with a flat design where most information is stored on the homepage in a scrolling fashion.
Now, of course, websites should go deeper. Each website needs to have a page with a gallery of featured photos. Each website should also have a page for reviews to help with your online reputation, a ‘Meet the Owner’ page, and, of course, a Contact page. There’s definitely the need for potential clients to be able to click on through for more information, but for the simple homepage, I truly recommend the scrolling, flat design.
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Thank you for joining me today. If you have any further questions or comments, please join the conversation in the comments below.
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