How Flooring Contractors Can Improve their Web Presence

Professional Flooring Contractors Need to Be Online, too

As a flooring contractor in 2022, your web presence is more important than ever. Not only do you need a website to showcase your marvelous flooring installations and renovation work, but you also need to be sure that your website is optimized for search engines so potential customers can find you.

In this article, we'll provide digital marketing tips and talk about ways to improve your web presence so you can do the following:

• Showcase your work
• Get leads from the internet
• Post testimonials from your customers
• Connect with new customers and others in your community online
• Create appointments
• Inform and update your customers regarding business news
  
  

Getting your contractor website started and digital marketing for small business

There are a few ways in which a flooring contractor can get going on building a website for their business if one doesn’t already exist. Some flooring professionals may even build their own website. With platforms such as Squarespace, Wix, Bluehost, Weebly, and Wordpress, small business professionals can put together a website for themselves for little to no cost.

If you’ve never built a website before, this might sound somewhat intimidating. Fortunately, with many of these platforms, developer experience is not required. You can select an appropriate theme for your site, and in general, the development is already done. Tutorials are provided to help you put the necessary pieces together.

With that said, creating a website for your flooring business still takes time. As we know, flooring contractors who are highly skilled and do good work are usually quite busy!

Fortunately, there are marketing professionals and designers who specialize in building websites for small businesses in their communities. It may be worth it for you to reach out and make the connection with someone who can help you with building a professional website.

Digital marketing tips and web marketing tips for flooring contractors

1. Learn digital marketing best practices and ensure that the content on your website (images, text, videos, etc.,) is professional-looking, current and relevant to your business and to your customers.
   
   What does all this mean? It means that the pieces you put together for your site, i.e., whether they are images, text, video or something else –– need to be of a certain digital quality, optimized for the web and presented with a certain level of professionalism.
   
   In other words, consider the best ways to communicate with your customers and associates. How do you speak with them? How do you expect they will feel about your work examples? Find ways to keep it simple and authentic. Be true to yourself, as you are the brand.
   
   
2. Use high-quality digital images on your website and social media pages
   
   You want your audience, a.k.a. users –– to have the best possible experience when visiting your website. What does high quality mean, in terms of images used? Essentially, it means that no matter what type of device one is using, the image should look good to the user.
   
   As an example, if you wanted to print a 4”x 6” image at 300 DPI (dots per inch), the digital image would need to be 1200 x 1800 PPI (pixels per inch). A platform such as Squarespace automatically adjust images according to the user’s browser size, but some optimization of the image may still be necessary on the part of the administrator to achieve optimum success. According to Wix, their platform automatically optimizes images for best online quality and fast download (so long as your file is kept under 25 megabytes).
   
   Depending on how much time and money you have available to invest in enhancing your web presence, and whether you wish to do it yourself or hire someone, you will have plenty of choices. You may find that it’s easy to spend a lot of money in a small amount of time when it comes to marketing your business. We suggest doing your homework to determine which solutions are best for you.

3. Write interesting and engaging blog posts to get people's attention.
   
   You’re not much of a writer, you say? No problem! You can take short videos to showcase your work, or you can teach viewers simple, related things about what you do. You can even make how-to videos for your customers (or for other contractors). For example, you could do a video about how to do simple floor repairs; first, giving the option to do it yourself, and second, knowing when to call in a professional.
   
   You might ask, “Why would I want to make a video that teaches other wood floor craftsmen how to expertly repair wood floors?” Why, indeed? The idea, here, is not to give away all your closely held secrets, but to present yourself as the authority. When others can see your level of expertise, they will be more enticed to contact you directly.
   
   And really, it is good business to give away a gold nugget, here and there. (Remember; it took you years to get to the level you’re at! No one can take that away from you.)
   
   Maybe you prefer talking into a microphone over being on camera. Terrific! Have you thought about starting a podcast? There are all kinds of ways you can crush it.

4. Build a beautiful brand for your flooring business
   
   Really, this is an entire subject unto itself. When it comes to the term, “brand”, there are probably dozens of different definitions you will find. In some ways, it’s easier to say what a brand is not. A brand is not a logo, nor is it a tagline. It isn’t made up of the colors you choose to wear.
   
   A hopefully simple way to define the word, brand, is that it is a marriage between how the company sees itself and thinks about itself, and how the customers feel about the company. From how you interact with your customers to the level of service you provide at each touchpoint –– all these elements contribute to your brand’s development.

5. Use keywords and SEO techniques to improve your search engine ranking
   
   What are keywords? What are SEO techniques? Good questions! Keywords, or key words –– are words that are purposefully selected to help your website with search engine optimization (you guessed it –– SEO). If you’re not sure what search engine optimization is, here is a simple explanation. Google is a search engine. When you enter words to search for something on Google, Google then takes the words entered, and returns to you with the best possible results based on available data.

And actually, here is Google’s explanation of how Google works:

Indexing: Google analyzes the text, images, and video files on the page, and stores the information in the Google index, which is a large database. Serving search results: When a user searches on Google, Google returns information that's relevant to the user's query.

If we provide Google (or some other search engine) with an ideal search (using the most accurate and appropriate words), Google can use the information efficiently. Ideally, Google will come back with a proper answer. That said, here is a very simple example of how key words can be used to drive users to your website, and ultimately turn them into customers. For a brief example, let’s look at Zed and his flooring business.

Let’s say for the sake of this example that Zed created a website. On his website, he has one page that tell customers about the work he does. His first time around, he misses some important details.

First attempt:

Need new floors? Visit Zed’s Flooring.

… After a few days of having his new website up and running, Zed realizes that no one is coming to visit. So, he studies up and learns a few more techniques. He learns that words and pertinent photo images of the flooring work he does will help customers and friends find him online.

Not only that. He finds out about SEO and alt text and meta descriptions. He learns that he can add blog post articles to his site telling customers about his work, and that if each one is between 500 and 1000 words, it will help users that are seeking flooring contractors in his area to better find his site. Zed decides to create two posts every week and he decides to give his brand a refresh. Since he only does wood floors, he even changes the name of his company.

Second attempt:

So, your wood floors need a refresh.

Visit Zed’s Custom Wood Floors
888 Maple Tree Lane, Woodsville, NH 03785

What kinds of wood floor work we do:

Zed’s Custom Wood Floors can provide total renovation of your current flooring –– whether you need your floors removed, installed or refinished, Zed’s Custom Wood Floors of Woodsville, New Hampshire has you covered. We install all types of hard wood floors and wood floors such as pine. Though bamboo is technically a grass and not a wood, we also do bamboo floors.

Some of the types of wood floors we do:
[Insert stock images of nifty/pro-looking wood floor work samples]

• Oak
• Maple
• Cherry
• Walnut
• Ash
• Mahogany
• Bamboo (actually, it’s a grass)
• Cork
• Pine
• Cedar

Some of the wood floor styles we do:

• High sheen
• Low sheen to no sheen finish
• Matte finish
• Repurposed hard wood floors
• Parquet wood floors
• Herringbone wood floors
• Smoked wood floors
• Inlaid wood floors

Looking for other wood floor options? Let us know when you fill out our contact form …

(It looks like Zed is getting the idea!)

6. Participate in online discussions and forums related to your industry
   
   Talk about your business. Get a business page on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest. Maybe try running some Facebook ads. Start a YouTube channel. Or TikTok might be more your style. Try different things and see what works for you!

Ready to give your flooring business a big boost? Find out what it takes.

From promoting online consumer awareness and arranging networking opportunities to actual lead generation, Bona assists their BCCs in a range of significant areas. Come join the Bona family.

Become a Bona Certified Craftsman